You Won't Believe What I Did This Summer!!!

By Dhruv Narayanan

At the very beginning of this summer, I was given a chance to go to a HOBY leadership camp. For those of you that don't know, Hugh O'Brian Youth leadership seminars occur all over the country, and are available for high school sophomores to apply and attend, representing their high school. The camp consisted of many speakers, activities, and a community service project to help the ambassadors (that's what they called us) learn how to be better leaders in our communities. This camp was eventful, exciting, and helped me make a whole bunch of new friends. I strongly encourage you to apply and attend this wonderful opportunity, as I believe this is a life-changing experience. The only problem was the camp started on the day of the AP World History exam, an exam I was taking, so that day was just a little stressful...

Life changing experiences set aside, this summer I was given the amazing opportunity to go with my family to India to visit my relatives. It was absolutely amazing! Reunions with families half-way across the globe are usually pretty exciting, but the sight-seeing made it even more memorable. I went to Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of India where the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, and Arabian Sea all meet. It was amazing! I encourage each and every one of you to go to India, stand in the throngs of millions of people, and just.... enjoy the culture. Stand there with your head in the warm breeze and let it all soak in. Just don't stand out there too long and get sunburned.

Besides that relatively long excursion, I also got a chance to drive from upstate New York all the way back home in Texas with my Dad. I personally love to drive – I relish every opportunity to get behind the steering wheel, turn the key in the ignition (or hit the start button – soooo much more 21^st century), and feel the power of a ferocious V8 growling under the hood (or in my case, more of a purr from a economic V4 of a Civic...). Either way, driving is just my thing. We covered the 1500+ miles in 3 days (so about 500 miles a day) with lots of stops for sight-seeing. I didn't even know a corvette museum existed in Bowling Green, KY until we saw a sign pointing at it. Nor did I have any idea how beautiful I-65 would be with its rolling green hills and mountains through Kentucky and Tennessee. Road trips really open your eyes to the subtle beauty of America. Yes, they also end up making sure you play every song on your iPod twice, but music aside, I learned so much from just driving on highways, stopping at local landmarks and taking a second to let the history (and the view) sink in. You guys should definitely go for a relatively long road-trip, if given the chance.

This summer also inaugurated my junior year of high school and made me start seriously thinking about future plans. Fellow juniors, and even freshmen/sophomores, if you haven't started yet, I highly encourage you to do so! I know, like some of you guys here, that I want to major in Engineering. More specifically, Mechanical Engineering. I have seriously started looking at colleges both in Texas, as well as from California to Florida to Oregon to Massachusetts. Unfortunately, I have no real idea of where I want to go – my only criteria on collegeboard.org is whether or not the school offers Mechanical Engineering and has an orchestra (haha). I'm still working on that...

All in all, I had a very eventful summer, full of exciting, new adventures around almost every corner. Now, junior year is here, and I'm T-Minus 70 weeks (of school) and counting till graduation! One last thing, my fellow INSPIRE-ees: Did anyone else have as awesome of a summer as me? Tell us about it!

Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire12

The Unconference

By Jonathan Hernandez, 10th grade

After one of the weakest winter New Jersey has seen in a few years, it was time to open that shell and break a new dawn of beginnings, because 2012 had the best everything; best things that came out, best experience, and not to mention the best summer.

This summer was a great summer for many INSPIRE students from all areas. There were tons of activities on INSPIRE, the VSE’s, and most of all, the Unconference; all to make this year a bit brighter. It was on the top of the list, the Unconference. Two months before, I got that letter during my class saying I am on the list. I literally jumped out of my chair with excitement and was so excited, I went into the bathroom to call my parents that I was going. Thankfully, it was a sub and not the actual teacher. It was a great honor to be able to attend the Unconference and was a great way to connect to other INSPIRE students from across the country, including Puerto Rico (which is a short distance from the Dominican Republic; part of my nationality).

It was exciting to see people that we have known for online, but there was the 1 hour of terror (like curiosity’s 7 minutes) most of us encountered when we were at KSC. There were a ton of people eating breakfast at the hotel, but nobody would know who was going where. I kind of understood because since most of us didn’t even know who we look liked. So when we entered into one of the buildings, Mr. Gerard greeted us with excitement, got our name tags, and sat down. This is where that hour started, and it was quiet. Many of us just sat and stayed quiet since we were just too afraid to say a word. While the Curiosity landing simulation was playing on the flat screen nearby, it was a few of us that just sat; so I looked at my phone and said “when was this terror going to stop?” At that moment, Steve Chance, the project manager of INSPIRE, and Mr. Gerard came to the front introduced themselves to us.


So now that the terror was over, we separated into teams and never saw the other group until, pretty much the last day. We did some amazing activities including one with LEGO MINDSTORM kits (oh, the middle school memories!) which was my favorite. In addition, we toured the famous rocket garden, saw (not one, but) two space shuttle, Atlantis and Endeavour, which we went under, and saw a helicopter randomly land in front of us with near precision 100 feet away while we say the star fighters.

Although it was fun and awesomeness, we did learn about some interesting things by learning about the RBSP Mission and Nicola Fox, a scientist involved in the Mission from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Also, we had our own student panel where we discussed our thoughts about making INSPIRE better. While doing that, we not only got that 1 hour of terror taken away, but got to meet a ton of people I did not know of at all. It was a blast to see many people I knew and many I did not. Uncon was probably best experience I’ve had and a way to but the icing on the cake for a summer well spent on.

Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire12

For All You NASA History Buffs

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By Cecilia Stoner

I’m a big Apollo-era fan. I have been since the day I was born. Ok... so maybe not that long. But my interest in NASA does extend way back to when I first watched Apollo 13 in fifth grade. Before then I didn’t know NASA existed, or anything much about the moon landings except for the fact that Neil Armstrong, not Lance, was the first man to walk there. I began researching and reading up on this agency that sends people blasting into space, and by ninth grade, I knew my NASA history front and back. Ask any of my friends – I am the most NASA-obsessed person to ever walked the planet. Why? I suppose space exploration just holds so much excitement and adventure to me. The idea of walking on the moon or doing experiments in microgravity while looking down on earth from above is thrilling. I simply can’t imagine anything more exciting. I’m always looking for someone to share my excitement for NASA and space exploration with, and few people have that. INSPIRE has given me a chance to develop that knowledge further, and I’m so happy to be a part of this community. But before I get too cheesy on y’all about just how much I love INSPIRE and NASA and STEM, I thought I’d share a couple of my sources of inspiration for those of you curious about learning more.

___ Carrying the Fire. This is an autobiography written by Michael Collins, the third and typically-overlooked astronaut aboard the Apollo 11 mission. He was actually turned down as an astronaut applicant 2 times before he was finally accepted, and he went on to be a reliable crew member and wonderful author. The book really puts you in the shoes of an astronaut, it’s great!

___ Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Holst wrote this orchestral suite to describe the planets, not just in terms of data and pictures, but through music. The segment on Jupiter is my personal favorite.

___ BBC’s From the Earth to the Moon Series. Starting with Alan Shepard’s flight and culminating with Apollo 17, the series depicts the processes and missions of NASA in its early days with the fledgling space program. I found the series not only informative (it’s where I got a bunch of my space knowledge!) but interesting as well. Each episode features either a specific mission, program, or event. I’d have to say my favorite is “Spider” where the story follows Tom Kelly and the development of the Lunar Module. :)

__ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. While it’s not as thrilling or active as the NASA facilities and centers, the museum hosts the Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane as well as the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia.

___ The Alan Bean Gallery (http://www.alanbean.com/index.cfm). Alan Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 12 and an astronaut aboard Skylab III. Now he is a painter, and much of his work is space-themed. I thought it was particularly interesting that he textures his paintings with footprints from the Apollo spacesuits and different tools from the lunar missions. Check out the link to see!

___ NASA Centers! Lastly, try checking out any of the 10 NASA centers around the country. I’ve made it to 3 so far (Kennedy, Langley, and Stennis) and they all have been amazing sources of knowledge and activity in the NASA world.  
Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire12 

LiveChat Round-Up 10/18/12

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Eduation Specialist, KSC, FL

Despite some technical difficulties, we had a great chat last night with returning guest Dr. Aprille Ericsson from Goddard Space Flight Center. 60 OLC members tuned in to hear "Dr. Doctor" (a nickname she picked up having a PhD and an honorary doctorate) talk about "Women in NASA" and specifically her story of becoming a 'rocket scientist'.

We started late as Dr. Aprille had some difficulties connecting to the Collaborate room, and then could not get her microphone to work. I found however by placing my iPhone near MY computer mic I could broadcast her voice and we were able to proceed. In a small way we were modeling one of the themes of Dr. Aprille's talk: Keep moving forward and persevere through the difficulties. And that we did. I hope her presentation was inspiring to young women and men alike. Please view the archive of the chat if you were unable to join us live.

Next week, we hear from NASA EDGE co-host Blair Allen as he talk to us about putting together the NASA EDGE program and other media as we continue our look "Behind the Scenes at NASA". See you then!