Exploring Space Camp
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 7, 2018 5:50 AM
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The Multi-Axis Trainer turns Cameron Gall upside down during a training session at Space Camp.
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Cameron Gall poses at his Rosewood home in the jumpsuit he got while attending Space Camp in July at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
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Cameron Gall works through a scenario at Space Camp in which oxygen is transferred from a space capsule into a habitat on Mars.
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Cameron Gall attended the weeklong Space Camp in July at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
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Cameron Gall, left, and his brothers Christian and Chance pose in front of a space shuttle at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
When it comes to space travel, it is all about the food -- and not of the astronaut variety -- for 11-year-old Cameron Gall.
"Every meal, they had a different country," Cameron said of his week at Space Camp based at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama.
The meals featured food from Turkey, Russia, England, China and the U.S.
Cameron, the son of Jason and Stephanie Gall of the Rosewood community, said Chinese food is a favorite because he always eats it at home.
However, one kind of food he didn't get to sample was the kind astronauts eat while in space.
But they sold it in the gift shop, his mom said.
While at Space Camp in July, campers were able to train like an astronaut on the one-sixth Gravity Chair.
The chair uses springs to help simulate the moon's gravitational pull, which is one-sixth that of earth's, hence its name.
"We sat in this chair and we could jump," Cameron said. "You were strapped down super tight in the seat. It was super uncomfortable."
He also got to train on the Multi-Axis Trainer in which he was strapped into a seat and spun around, backward, forward and upside down.
"It was fun," Cameron said. "We spun so fast that we started to lift up."
No one got sick, but one kid passed gas and that made everybody sick, he said.
"It was horrible," he said. "There also was this space shot that shot you up a little bit and then you went down slowly. It shot you back up and you went down slowly."
It was fun, said Cameron, a rising seventh-grader at Rosewood Middle School. He said he would like to attend Space Camp again.
He learned about the camp from his mother.
"My brother did it when he was 9," she said. "And I am a sixth-grade science teacher, and he is in sixth grade and that is when they start learning about space exploration.
"So I thought this age is the perfect age because he had just learned about space."
The camp was for ages 9 to 11 and mostly for sixth-graders, Cameron said.
Since Cameron had completed sixth-grade, he said he was already ahead of the other campers.
"I already knew all of the stuff in school that they were saying," he said. "Everybody there was 11 so they were going into sixth grade. I've already done sixth grade."
The days included trips to museums where he saw a space shuttle and other space-related exhibits.
Campers built their own rocket, but the launch was scrubbed because of lightning.
Another task was to build a cube underwater.
"Then we had to put it on the grass and then take it back and put it under water and take it apart, and put it back together, but we couldn't talk," he said.
It was done in a shallow body of water the campers stood in while submerging their hands to work on the cube, he said.
They also practiced for missions.
"One of them, I was a mission specialist," Cameron said. "We were in the Orion capsule, and we went to Mars, and we did stuff there."
That included transferring the air from the spacecraft into a habitat.
The spacesuit was heavy and bulky, and the helmet did not have a faceplate, but the window of the spacecraft simulated space, he said.
In the second mission, Cameron worked in mission control.
Cameron said he liked the mission control simulation better because he got to say more than he could as a mission specialist.
"When I was in mission control, I had my own computer where I could click all of the buttons that I wanted to," he said.
Cameron said he did that about 20 times.
But doing so caused problems, and the pilot would say, "Houston, we have a problem," he said.
"Every time that would happen I would say, 'Dang it. What did I do?'" Cameron said. "But every page it says go to this and make sure this is at this speed or at this temperature.
"So when I got in there I was like, oh, let's make this a bit more fun. So I messed with some things and that ruined it."
"So we don't want you to go into space with anybody," his mother said. "You are not going to follow the manuals."
Cameron said he did not get unto any trouble since they were able to fix the issues he caused.
"It wasn't my job to fix it," he said. "There was somebody else, who whenever there was a problem, her job actually was to get a book and look and see how you are supposed to fix it."
At the end of the busy days, campers had 45 minutes to do what they needed to do, then all of the lights were turned off, he said.
"Everybody would yell at each other to turn their electronics off and to stop yelling at each other," he said.
At the end of the session, his team won special recognition for patch design.
Also, as a member of Boy Scout Troop 258, Cameron will be able to earn badges for attending Space Camp.