By Robin Tyler
Students in Problems You Have Never Solved Before are used to solving the challenges Mrs. Poteet and I give them, but Tuesday the campers got a unique opportunity to learn about the past problem solvers that have worked in our country’s space program during a field trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The trip began with a very early start for our campers, along with those from STEAM Labs and Astronomy, but that was soon forgotten once the campers were surrounded by actual spacecraft, space simulations, and a full model of the international space station. Students even got to watch an Imax movie on all of the problems that engineers are trying to solve in developing a spacecraft for Mars, including the idea to make an inflatable living area that can be inflated once the crew reaches space!
The problem solvers continued to learn about rockets Thursday as they improved their balloon rocket designs and finally perfect their compressed air rockets to reach the longest flight times.
