Volunteering
Finished! Ariel (extreme right), Andrew, Steve and one other volunteer (shown here) spent several hours Thursday stuffing 1000 goody bags for the invited fifth graders to the X-Prize education day at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo on Friday. We ran out of boxes to put them in, and this picture shows the overflow. Not the most interesting or fun job, but someone had to do it, and our work was appreciated.
Ar and Andrew demo the rover
Ariel and Andrew clowning around with the Lunar Rover mockup at the Living and Working in Space exhibit on Education Day, shortly before the Kids arrive in force. Upon arriving in the morning before the kids, we were told that this exhibit might need volunteers. So, we reported here, where shortly after this picture was taken Ariel and Andrew were drafted into showing the fifth graders this rover and a "UFO". I never did figure out what the heck that UFO was all about...
Living and working in space
The back of Steve Welch looking on as the ISS workstation mockup is demonstrated by the Living and Working in Space curator or whatever he was, on the X-Prize education day (1000 5th graders!). I am standing next to the WCS (Waste Control Station?), aka the Space Shuttle toilet, not visible here. I was drafted into demonstrating the WCS moments after this picture was taken. I spent the whole day demo'ing the toilet to fifth graders--just about the perfect target audience for this particular exhibit! It was fun, and I'm now an expert on the WCS, if you ever run across a fifth grader that wants to know how people go to the bathroom in space. They don't call me Mr. Know-it-all for nothing!
CanadianArrow and Steve
Sunday was the X Prize X Cup event at the Las Cruces International Airport. That's me (Steve Welch) at the base of the Canadian Arrow. If this X-Cup entry looks familiar to you, it is because it is a clone of the WWII German V2 Rocket, used for terror bombing of London. After the war, the entire V2 factory and unused inventory was captured along with Werner von Braun and some of his engineers and subsequently used as the seed from which the US Space program grew.
Ariel and mouthbreather
Ariel takes a picture of the Canadian Arrow, while a mouthbreather looks on. All the captured V2's were fired off and so there are none left for museums. So, the Canadians have agreed to convert this X-Cup rocket into a more authentic V2 replica and donate it to the White Sands Missle Range for their museum. (White Sands gave copies of the V2 plans to the Canadian group, and this is their way of thanking them.)
Steve Ariel and SpaceShipOne
Steve and Ariel pose in front of SpaceShipOne, Burt Rutan's X-Cup winning entry, soon to be installed in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. Note Ariel's Press badge! Thanks, Barb! We had a great time!