THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407180051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
A day after the world paused to watch comet chunks pummel Jupiter, Michaela Parker found herself on Sunday occupied with more Earth-bound matters at Norfolk's Waterside.
Strapped into a rotating chair at the United States Space Camp Expo, the 10-year-old Suffolk girl swung and twirled in a machine designed to demonstrate Newton's third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
When Parker pushed in one direction, she ended up moving in another. Up and down, backward and forward, Parker giggled while an assembled audience laughed and, hopefully, learned a little.
Learning is the basic mission of Space Camp Expo, the traveling version of the Huntsville, Ala.-based camp that since 1982 has taught an estimated 120,000 children and young adults how math and science are applied to technology.
But for now, Parker was enjoying the ride.
Holding her chair was a three-legged machine that rested on a smooth platform. A fan injected air into the machine's legs and out the bottom so that they rode on a thin cushion of air. This gave Parker a sense of what it would be like in a weightless environment where gravity dampens the effects of Newton's third law.
Mostly, though, it was a lot of fun.
``I want to go into space,'' she said, moments after the ride ended. ``I want to go 'cause it would be fun.''
The good times aside, Brad Brown, a Space Camp guide, said the program is beginning to show results. Surveys show children who attended the Alabama camp are more interested in higher math and science in high school. And youths leave camp with a better understanding of what math and science are about outside the classroom.
``Space Camp Expo appeals to all kinds of people,'' said Brown, 21, who is studying to become a civil engineer at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. ``People down in Huntsville, where we have a national museum of rockets, are used to this sort of thing. But most people don't get to see things that have actually gone up in space.''
The five-day expo in Norfolk continues through Wednesday - the 25th anniversary of the first human moonwalk. Children will have a chance to climb into an F-4 Phantom II cockpit simulator, as well as view scale models of a space shuttle, a lunar landing craft and the Hubble space telescope.
Artifacts from space programs of the United States and former Soviet Union will also be on display, including flight suits worn by astronauts, freeze-dried food commonly eaten in space and a rocket motor that was used during the Apollo missions to maneuver the command module on its trip to the moon. The motor, cut open to show its inner workings, is made of a range of metals and exotic epoxies each labeled to show visitors that there is life after chemistry class after all.
Space Camp is part of the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission. The camp and the expo are sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. While Space Camp relies on cooperation from the civilian space agency, it is not a government agency, and the camp is not free.
Several programs at the Huntsville camp are available for children in grades four through 12. There are five youth programs and six others designed for parents and their children. Child programs cost between $475, in the off season of February through May, and $600, in the high season of June and August.
The three-day parent-child excursion costs $250, while longer adult-oriented programs cost $500 to $750, the company said.
Space Camp has yet to produce an astronaut because it only began in 1982, Brown said. At best, any aspiring astronaut who has attended the camp would be completing studies at the master's level, he said.
But at least one of Space Camp Expo's customers began thinking about the future after his short ride on the one-sixth gravity chair, a display that lets its riders walk upside down.
Jason Smithwick, a rising Great Bridge Middle School South student, already had been selected to take part in the Chesapeake school's Center for Sciences and Technology, a two-week summer program that admits only 50 students.
Smithwick said he was pretty good in math but really liked science and the thought of it made him contemplate being an astronaut.
``I'd like to be in space and just look around,'' the shy 13-year-old said. ``Maybe I could learn to repair satellites.' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff photos [Color]
Charles Thiry, 3 months old, gets an aerial view of the United
States Space Camp Expo at Town Point Park in Norfolk on Sunday as
his dad, John Thiry of Virginia Beach, playfully lifts him up.
Jason Smithwick, 13, of Chesapeake, gets the feeling of
weightlessness in the Space Station Mobility Trainer.
PHOTOS BY BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Courtney Thiry, 6, mugs for the camera while she tries on a
spacesuit Sunday at the Space Camp Expo in Town Point Park.
Judy Zeigler, of Virginia Beach, takes a turn on the Multi-Axis
Simulator.
THE EVENT
Space Camp Expo continues through Wednesday at Town Point Park in
Norfolk. The expo will be opne 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free.
by CNB