Recent evidence, at least, would seem to suggest that space camp – that all-American rite of passage for generations of young math wizards, #science geeks and wannabe astronauts – ought to have disappeared into a black hole by now.
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More than a thousand children are expected to participate and will gather at the US Space, Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Good news for the youngsters aspiring to be an astronaut, NASA has an innovative space camp this summer and the best candidate may join US space missions, including Mars expedition. They will be educated on the qualifications of becoming an astronaut as well as the various activities that spacemen are involved, such as planning and executing a space mission.
Camp KSC chief educator Kerri Lubeski, clarifies that the trip will not fly out to the outer space this summer, although it could be possible for the upcoming summer seasons later on, when the participants have acquired degrees in science as well as their interests when it comes to space technology and exploration, which will be fueled through the summer camp. The children will be getting the required knowledge by gaining a hands-on experience of launching and making rockets that are made out of PVC pipes and paper tubes. The class in mid-July consisted of 170 individuals, from 7 to 16 years old.
“Each activity is planned to bring out team-building and problem-solving skills among children”, said NASA in a statement.
Besides preparing kids to become astronauts and space engineers someday, the NASA summer camp also wants students to be excited in subjects that they may not be interested right now such as engineering, science, technology and math. “It is about allowing their natural curiosity to run its course and sowing the seeds that might eventually lead them into space”. More than half of the group were girls.
That would be in the 2030s when NASA aims to deploy the Space Launch System – the largest rocket to be built – to the Red Planet. The plan is to have a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.
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Lubeski said that they are trying to focus on the current activities of NASA, which includes the New Horizons and Pluto, Mars and going beyond the orbit of Earth. Its first unmanned test flight is planned to take place on November in 2018.
