Ashlyn Demmerle of Moncks Corner recently attended Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp, Space Camp Robotics, Aviation Challenge, U.S. Cyber Camp and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Official Visitor Center.
The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), while training students and with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and problem solving.
This program is specifically designed for trainees who have a passion for space exploration. Ashlyn spent the week training with a team that flew a simulated space mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the Moon or Mars.
The crew participated in experiments and successfully completed an extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk. Demmerle and crew returned to earth in time to graduate with honors.
Space Camp operates year-round in Huntsville, Alabama, and uses astronaut training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects. Students sleep in quarters designed to resemble the ISS and train in simulators like those used by NASA.
More than 900,000 trainees have graduated from a Space Camp program since its inception in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1982, including European Space Agency astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Dr. Kate Rubins, Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Christina Koch, who is serving onboard the International Space Station.
Children and teachers from all 50 states and almost 150 international locations have attended a Space Camp program.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is home to Space Camp and Aviation Challenge, the Apollo 16 capsule, the National Historic Landmark Saturn V rocket and world-class traveling exhibits.
USSRC is the Official Visitor Center for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and a showcase for national defense technologies developed at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal.
