Space academy a blast for teen 'There was a lot of mission training,' Zelie youth says of week in Alabama
ZELIENOPLE — NASA might be planning for a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, but a Butler County teen completed a simulated trip to the Red Planet earlier this summer before returning to his home in Zelienople.
Nicholas Bowers, 15, recently attended the Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, the home of Space Camp and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Official Visitor Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), while training students with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and problem solving.
Space Camp operates year-round in Huntsville and uses astronaut training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects. Students sleep in quarters designed to resemble the International Space Station and train in simulators like those used by NASA.
“There was a lot of mission training, either in the shuttle, on the International Space Station or in Mission Control,” Nick said.
Nick, the son of Jeff and Christine Bowers, spent June 9 through June 14 training with a team that flew a simulated space mission to the International Space Station, the moon or Mars.The crew participated in experiments and successfully completed an extravehicular activity, or spacewalk.“They had a mock-up of Mission Control and a mock-up of the inside of the International Space Station as well as the cockpit of the Challenger,” Nicholas' father, Jeff Bowers said. “They do try to make it realistic. They have TV monitors that show the sky, space, the moon, sun and the Earth in the cockpit windows.”Nicholas said some of the training exercises included constructing a heat shield.“We also had to make a rover that could move and pick up rocks,” he said.“They do a physical simulation of weightlessness in a three-story-tall swimming pool in scuba gear to simulate moving around in space,” he said.Nicholas said the simulated mission included a trip to Mars in an Orion capsule, NASA's new exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations in deep space, including an asteroid and Mars.“You get a checklist, and if you miss something it will come up later in the mission,” Nick said. “They will try to help you fix the error, but they will also turn off the air, so that it is life threatening.“All the missions have errors. There's so much stuff to do” to keep the simulated Mars trip on track, said Nick.The Advanced Space Academy even has a simulated Mars at the end of the Orion's voyage.“They have a mock-up area of Mars in a warehouse,” Nick said. “It has a habitat and is lit with red light and you have to wear a spacesuit. Well,
it's shoulder pads and a helmet that connects to the body part of the jumpsuit you are already wearing.”Nick and the rest of his crew returned to Earth in time to graduate with honors.Academy participants earn one credit hour of freshman-level general science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in this college-accredited program.More than 850,000 trainees have graduated from a Space Camp program since its inception in 1982, including European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Kate Rubins, Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Christina Koch, who is serving onboard the International Space Station.Bower said this was Nick's third time at Space Camp. He has attended Space Academy in 2016 and 2017, but it was Nick's first Advanced Space Academy for high school-aged students.The experience might help the incoming sophomore at Seneca Valley High School decide on a future career.“I have a hobby in astronomy,” said Nick. “I like to go out when it's clear at night and look at the moon and other objects in the sky.”He has a Gskyer telescope. But right now, he has more down-to-Earth concerns, like football practice.“I play defensive end and left tackle. I've been doing that since second or third grade,” he said. “Full practice starts in two weeks. Right now, I'm focused on getting onto the JV squad. “
