Since 1982, over 1 million participants have graduated from this program. What is this program? Space Camp! It is a camp for kids from all over the world, at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Kids nine and over participate in different camps and learn about space exploration, aviation, cyber security and robotics. Do you want your kids to join all of these alumni and begin a path to a space career? I went to the camp twice, once in 2023 and this summer.
Here are the three reasons why you should send your kids to this amazing program. They will make friends from all over the world, participate in a bunch of astronaut activities that will foster teamwork and learn about planets and moons that could have supported life or could be supporting life right now.
First, participants can make friendships with people from all over the world. I made friends with people from Pennsylvania and all the way to California! I saw kids from Canada, Argentina, Australia, etc. For kids my age, there are not many opportunities to meet people from other places. One way we became friends was through dorms. Four to eight kids are put in each dorm and have to stay together all week. I made friends with all of the people in my dorm because we spent so much time together and even had meals together. It was exciting to meet new people and make new friendships.
Another reason is kids build teamwork and social skills in group activities. One example of this was when we did missions. In one of the missions, my job was flight director, so I had to direct everyone in mission control, and the other jobs like EVA (Extravehicular Activity), crew and scientists, all had to work together with mission control to achieve a goal. There were other activities we had to do in groups like building rockets and building structures underwater. All of these activities promoted teamwork with our peers.
Some may argue that it is a waste of money. Yes, it is expensive but kids can learn things at Space Camp that they probably won’t learn in school. We learned about different planets and moons that could have supported life in the past or could be supporting life as we speak. One moon we learned about, Europa, has a thick icy crust but is known to have a global saltwater ocean that could have life.
Another example is Mars. Mars has many characteristics that suggest it may have supported life long ago. Mars could have had lakes and oceans just like Earth. Unfortunately, if Mars did have any inhabitants, they all died because Mars no longer has an atmosphere. Scientists believe that Mars’s atmosphere exploded causing everything in it to disperse into the endless abyss of space.
Also, in the Space and Rocket center museum, the Apollo capsule that went to the moon is on display for anyone to see, along with the moon rocks it brought back. In addition, we went on different machines to imagine what it feels like to be on a spaceship or on the moon in less gravity. One of the machines we went on simulated what it would be like to be on the moon. It was called the one-sixth chair because the moon has one sixth of the Earth’s gravity. The other was a multi-axis trainer. It simulated spinning in a zero-gravity environment on a spaceship. Moreover, we went on a ride called g-force in the amusement park. It simulated three times earth’s gravity, to give a feel of the launch of a spacecraft. This is a little bit of what we learned at space camp but there is lots more.
Overall, there are a lot of fun activities along with great opportunities to learn about space. Maybe one day you will send your kids to the camp. Attending Space Camp was an incredible experience; I’m confident your children will enjoy it just as much as I did.
Ishetha Kanuri is a student who lives in Glastonbury