Space and Science

BREAKFAST WITH AN ASTRONAUT: We were up extra bright and early today, all excited about what our morning held in store. The very first thing to do on our 'to do' list was heading to Pacific Science Center for a sneak preview of the new "Destination Station" exhibit. That's the prize we won for finding a toy astronaut hidden at a Seattle landmark last week, in a contest NASA held in order to spread the word about the exhibit's arrival in the Emerald City. Here's said toy, with a freshly minted astronaut autograph on it. :)

Before we left home, I had two local news stations on the TVs, hoping to see a live spot from the exhibit, so we'd know which astronaut we'd get to meet. And sure enough, one of the stations did a live broadcast from the event with NASA astronaut Drew Fuestel.  

We were to the center by 7:45 and were greeted by a person from the PR firm which facilitated the contest. She shepherded us into the display via doors we've never seen before. It was dark as space inside. Soon, we arrived at the exhibit.

We were told the astronaut was busy giving media interviews at the moment, so that gave us some time to check out the displays and chat with some of the media in attendance.

It was an intimate gathering for sure. There were only two other contest winners on hand - a family of three, and a woman and her friend. A little after 8 a.m. we were told astronaut Feustel, a geophysicist and seismologist by training, was ready to visit with us. It was great - darn near a private audience, really, and we got to ask him all sorts of questions, about everything from astronaut musicians to space sleep and dreams to mission durations and more.

He loved CJ's Atlantis shirt, since that shuttle was his very first ride to the ISS (mission STS-125). In addition to signing the astronaut that was our ticket to meeting him, he signed the space friends poster we often pack around. He was interested in it and its story, and told the kids to take good care of it.

As an added bonus, we also got to meet Josh Byerly, one of the voices of NASA. He introduced himself to us right away this morning, and his voice was oh-so-familiar! We hear him all the time on NASA TV, as the 'live from Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston' guy! And when he saw CJ's STS-132 shirt, he said, "I worked that landing!' We most certainly heard him doing the play-by-play of that shuttle mission's conclusion.  Not too long ago, he was over in Kazakhstan, being the voice of NASA for the launch of Expedition 34. "It's a whole different world there," he shared. He was very interested in the space friends poster we have, as well, and was happy to pose for a photo.

What an awesome morning!!!

If you want a glimpse, here's KING 5 TV's report from this morning:
http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/New-NASA-Exhibit-Lands-in-Seattle-210844311.html

SUPER SATURDAY: This weekend was also chock full o' science-y fun, as it was the Seattle Science Festival Expo.

We arrived at Seattle Center right when it opened, 10 a.m. Since this is the event's second year, we had a lot better idea of how to approach it this go round. We started at the indoor portion of the event, in the Fisher Pavilion, which was crowded by the time we got there last year.

Right off the bat, the kids hunkered down at the DigiPen booth to try some of the institutes's student created games.

After we pried them away from there, we headed to the Boeing booth, where we watched a CNC machine carving out a design into a composite block. And then the kids had a chance to see some green screen magic at work.

Actually, in this instance, it wasn't truly a green screen. The Boeing photographer had an awesome attachment for his camera that looked like a halo of green LED lights that allowed for this photo magic to work. ...

Coincidentally, at the (Microsoft) booth next door there was, in fact a green screen.

Eight cameras were overhead, and thanks to them and some software, CJ and Annabelle were rendered in 3D. These photos don't do the effects justice. They pretty much looked like characters in "The Polar Express." They also really liked that they could control the cameras' angles with a XBox controller.

At another Microsoft booth, the kids got to 'experience' 3D. By wearing special goggles and touching a special screen, they could actually feel the weight and contour of the 'objects' before them. Wild.

At the American Chemical Society Puget Sound Section booth, the kids got to be in the middle of a GIANT bubble. 

 They thought that was pretty cool. So did we!

I have to admit, though, I felt sorry for the people working the booth. My goodness, they must have done 10,000 squats by the time the day was over.

At the American Society of Mechanical Engineers - Western Washington Section booth, the kids were given a square of foil with which to build a boat. They were supposed to build the strongest boat they could - one that would hold lots of pennies while floating.

Here's Annabelle's craft ...

just before it met its watery grave.

Her boat held 53 pennies, in case you were wondering. It was an easy, excellent engineering experiment.

At the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics booth, the kids got to do some rocket launching toward a target.

The kids mugged for the camera at the Washington Informal Science Education Consortium booth. 

 As a reward, they each got a good ol' fashioned Polaroid picture of themselves!

 They thought it was so cool watching their ghostly images appear!

There's so much more to tell and share, and it will make its way out onto these 'pages' over the next few days, weeks and months. But I can't end without sharing that on the way into the event, we had a near brush with mayor Mike McGinn on his bicycle, near Mercer Street. He beat us to the venue, BTW.