Shuttle Camp students land at Holloman

  • Published
  • By Arlan Ponder
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  The shuttle might not have landed at Holloman, but a few future astronauts stopped by for a visit.

Students taking part in the New Mexico Museum of Space History's Shuttle Camp visited Holloman July 19 to take in the sites and sounds of a military base.

The tour began with a stop at Heritage Park before heading to the Solar Observatory where the attendees learned about the sun's affects on space exploration.

"The sun always has some activity that can cause problems on space missions," said Tech. Sgt. Vincent Jones, Detachment 4, Air Force Weather Agency. "So we have to monitor the sun from both space and on the ground."

Sergeant Jones also told the students about the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, which are caused by solar waves moving over the top of the Earth. Many students appeared confused at this phenomenon until Capt. Victor Marichal, commander,
Det. 4, AFWA, mentioned an animated cartoon titled, "Brother Bear." The lights serve as a focal point throughout the movie, which debuted in 2003.

"Are there lights on the South Pole?" questioned Chris Ogle, 12, of Farmington, NM.

Sergeant Jones said he wasn't sure, but it was a good question he had never been asked before. He had never heard of anyone saying whether there were lights at the South Pole.

Mr. John Pietrzak, Det. 4, AFWA, talked to the students about the telescope used at the Solar Observatory. The students asked a few questions about the telescope that was built in 1978. However, once Mr. Pietrzak turned on the lights in the room that houses the computer that drives the telescope, the questions and comments began flowing.

"That's a big computer," said one student. "How much memory does it have?"

All the students were amazed to find the computer that tracked the sun's daily activity was working using 512 kilobytes of memory.

"I can get two gigs in a card like this," Erick Guerin, 11, of Carlsbad, NM, said, while holding up his hand to form a small square.

Mr. John Stewart, Shuttle Camp instructor, said he was amazed at what little technology it took to operate the computers in the "early days" of space exploration.

"Isn't it amazing to think that this technology continues to work effectively," he said. "I'm just as blown away as the kids are."

One student quizzed Sergeant Jones about the existence of a "Planet X" outside our solar system. When Mr. Pietrzak said there was a Planet X, Sergeant Jones said he was impressed at the amount of knowledge the students had on the solar system and space.

Shuttle Camp is designed to inspire young people to transform imagination into reality and provide students the opportunity to experience "hands-on" aspects of living and working in space.