Rocket City USA

Huntsville, 02/04/08

We wake up at 7 o' clock in the morning. We are still a little bit sleepy. But we hurry up because this time we want a good breakfast. So, at 8 am we are ready to eat. Not everybody, but almost! After our big breakfast with waffles, Bagels, cornflakes and toasts, we go in our room to relax and wear our Moonbuggy Outfits. Then I call the Centre of Technology to make an appointment for visiting this High school of Huntsville with the whole team.

Right: Eddy Turner welcomes the Team Germany.

At 10 o' clock we start. The Team is very excited. 15 minutes later we arrive at the school. The director welcomes us and guides us through the school. After a little introduction, in which he tells us about their different projects. They build among other things a hovercraft and an assembly for an exercise device for the NASA. Then we start the tour. Our first stop is the Moonbuggy-construction-hall. There we can see their old Moonbuggys and their new one, with which they ride a short line to test it and to show us how the newest Moonbuggy works. The press was also there. The „Channel 19“ films the two teams and the Huntsville-Buggy in action. The second stop is the best one: the kitchen. There we see some students who cook and one of them give us an appetizer which is very delicious. Only for the kitchen they have a room with many computers. The school doesn't have any computer room, but they have almost in every room a few computers. Afterwards we come to the cosmetic saloon. The students learn already in the high school how to cut hair, make manicure, pedicure and so on.

Below: The Team Germany is fascinated from the technical equipment in the school.

Eddie Turner, the director, proposes to have some snacks. So we get popcorn and lemonade. After the snack, he shows us an other room with computers where a teacher explains us how to work with Plato, a learning software. The last classroom is room with the latest technology. They have desks with adaptors for the laptops of the students. Above all there is W-LAN, Bluetooth and a big flat screen. Finally, the director shows us the hovercraft and the 3-D-printer of the school. Our team is very fascinated and impressed of the high-tech-niveau of the school. We get also a T-Shirt from the Moonbuggy Team.

A quarter to one, we are in the Space&Rocket Center of Huntsville. First, we walk around the route of the Moonbuggy Race. Then we go in the G-Forceacillerater. Inside, while it is turning around, we can't move any part of our body. After that we go inside and visit the exhibition. Among other things we test the shuttle simulator and sit in an Apollo capsule. Afterwards we are in the museum of space history and watch a film. The Team goes in the very big hall and look the very large Apollo-Rocket. Finally we write a log file on the route of the race.