My involvement started back in December 2012. I was fresh from the excitement of the summer Olympics and Paralympics, which had the whole nation excited, energised and enthused; so was I, having volunteered in both games. An email from our science advisory teacher offered this Mission X –Train Like an Astronaut meeting, up at the Houses of Parliament. I must say, initially I thought “wow, I get to go inside The Houses of Parliament, worth a day out for that alone”.
Anyway, I turned up to be met by Heather McCrae from Venture Thinking, who was organising the event alongside other agencies. We were taken on a guided tour and then sat down for the nitty gritty of the day: what was Mission X, and how could we participate?
Essentially, Mission X – Train Like an Astronaut are a series of lessons that help you train and understand the skills required by an astronaut. It is an international programme; registration starts in the Autumn term and the programme runs from January to March each year. I was shocked to see that there was a huge PE element and a small science element.
Life is what you make it, and the experience was whatever I made it too. I came back and went on the webpage to download the lesson plans. They focus on agility, core strength, stamina and dexterity. I made up four folders for each head of year and we got started. No sooner had we started, I received an email from Heather to offer ten pupils the chance to visit the Royal Aeronautical Society and meet astronaut Tim Peake.
Well we fell off our seats in excitement. The pupils were so excited and it was hard to just pick 10! The staff came back, beaming and just so enthused and inspired. This was before Tim Peake was announced as the next British astronaut to go out to the International Space Station. When that news broke, the teachers were just so tickled that they had met him.
The mission activities continued at school, with weekly update being added online. The website allowed for blog, video and photo uploads as well as point uploads. This is where a picture emerged. We were in fact the leading school in the country! Obviously I made it my point to check the weekly updates and ensure we were adding on our points. It was all very nerve-wracking. Eventually we came third, beaten by two secondary schools no less!
During those few months, Heather would email me more treats: a trip to Farnborough to the Qinetic centrifuge arm facility, a trip to Glasgow university, to the University of Cambridge and to the European Space centre. We couldn’t get everywhere, and SATs were bearing down on me, so we did what we could manage. It was a very successful first run at the Mission X programme. We would definitely enrol again.
Come December 2013, my colleague was at the Houses of Parliament; she was duly impressed and came back a fountain of knowledge and energy. She was ready! Heather again emailed. This time it was a late evening event, at the Canadian embassy to meet Commander Chris Hadfield, finding a teacher who would give up her evening was not hard as we are that kind of staff. My colleague and the pupils met the Canadian ambassador and Commander Hadfield.
Who else should roll in, but Prof Stephen Hawkings! What else is there to say. Just amazing.
Once in a lifetime opportunities from Heather and the Mission X programme. If that wasn’t enough, the embassy was so enamoured of our pupils they invited our school back to meet one of the ‘Walking with the Wounded’ soldiers in Feb 2014, during the half term holiday!
The Mission X work led to me ‘Borrowing the Moon’, from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). I booked the moon rocks to arrive in March 2014 to coincide with Space week. The security around them was so tight, someone came to check on our facilities and protocols for looking after them. Gosh, it set the scene for their arrival. Maximum security, a huge case which was double, triple locked and then we had to keep them in a double locked room, which only two people could access. The headteacher told me “This is on your head”. No pressure!
They ended up being well worth it. The moon rocks created such a buzz around the school, staff and pupils. Yes we could hold them, and yes they were real. Really amazing and literally out of this world.
As part of our Mission X work, pupils have been keeping log books. They have been entering data from their physical activities, trying to improve their times and scores on activities. They have also been researching their own areas of interest. We tweeted some of their work to Tim Peake, and he retweeted it! One of the drawings produced a three way dialogue between Tim Peake, Richard Garriott and NASA. It was incredible to think that they were commenting on our pupils’ work, sitting in New York, Star City and at NASA.
How to follow that? Well I can! We did! We followed by taking up the offer of sending some pupils to the European Space Centre, near Brussels. We were told that we were one of the leading schools as we were invited to send a delegation again. This year, I felt I had the time and capacity to look into how to facilitate this. Visas and travel arrangements were all considered, and eventually we sent 7 pupils. They had the best time, a very fortunate bunch. As well as meeting a Belgian astronaut Frank de Winne,and sitting on a zero gravity chair and various simulators, they had a live link up with the International Space Station. They are suitably enthused and ready for my space adventures, desperate to go back next year!
So we come to the present day. Finally it is my turn; I am venturing out to meet Tim Peake. After all the work and all the organising this year, I am taking 32 pupils to meet him - rather excited to say the least!
With Space travel something that was a crazy proposition when I was a child, for our pupils and our own children, it may well be commonplace in fifty years’ time. They are suitably enthused about the prospect and are raring to go. Mission X has been fantastic and we are all set to sign up again in Autumn 2014.
Have you gotten involved with any space-based activities? Let us know in the comments.
