USAFE youth 'camp' out, have fun in space

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Austin Carter
  • 425th Air Base Squadron Public Affairs
IZMIR AIR BASE, Turkey (USAFENS) --  Historically, summer camp is about how to tie a knot, build a fire or learn how to kayak down a river without a compass. But for some U.S. Air Forces in Europe youngsters from Ankara and Incirlik Air Bases, Turkey, learning about zero gravity, flight control and pounds of thrust for a solid rocket motor in a six-day space camp in Izmir, Turkey, easily eclipses the bucolic life.

For the last five years, the space camp, established in 2000 just outside of Izmir in an industrial area, has offered young people from around the world a glimpse of the science and glamour of the space program.

Sixteen children from Ankara and Incirlik joined 70 other children from Turkey , Israel, France and Lebanon, July 10 - 16, for the camp, which, for the American children, was fully funded by the USAFE Services’ summer camp program.

“It’s an international mix here at the camp,” said Scott Woodham, marketing and public relations director at the camp. “That’s part of (the reason) why people come here.”

For Clark Della Silva, 13, from Ankara, the allure is a mix of science and international friendships.

“It’s an opportunity to meet all nationalities and to learn and have fun with space and science,” he said.

A normal day’s itinerary could entail a class in hydroponics, the process of recycling oxygen in a long interplanetary flight and a historic look at the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, with maybe a course in rocket engineering thrown in for good measure.

The center, one of only five accredited in the world, had a full itinerary for the children for the six days, including lectures, classes and seminars.

But the most fun, many of the children will tell you, is the simulators -- seven machines taken from prototypes from the early space program -- guaranteed to make riders feel the effects of space, where the earth’s immutable laws of gravity and friction can find no purchase. Their carnival-like names sound like an invitation to the county fair: The “Zero Gravity Chair” (weightlessness using counterweight buoyancy); the “Multi-Access Trainer” (testing the effects of tumble and spin on pilots and how to compensate); and the “Five Degrees of Freedom” (trying to work in a frictionless world) for instance.

The final highlight is when teams, made up of 10 to 12 children each, split and either take seats in the simulated nose of the shuttle in the space camp’s auditorium or at the flight control center to guide the astronauts’ launch and landing.

“It isn’t that we want the children to be astronauts,” said Audrey Morelli, a counselor at the center. “We know most of them are not interested in that. We’re just interested in showing them an experience in something they’ve never seen before. And we think it encourages interest in math and the sciences.”

Clark, who has been to the space camp three times, was enthusiastic about the science connection.

“I love engineering, math and science, so I will probably go into one of those fields,” he said.

Ultimately, said Beth Mitchell, the camp’s program adviser, the aim is not making children dizzy -- it’s about something more important.

“These kids get a sense of team-building, independence and global friendship,” she said. “And we’re opening minds to space sciences.”

More than 40,000 children have attended space camp at Izmir since it opened five years ago and she said the concept seems to have worked. The camp has brought together diverse cultures from the Middle East, America and Eastern Europe using the common thread of space to lure them.

Ten-year-old Lorenzo Hernandez of Incirlik, with an interest in physics, summed it up best when he was being readied for a ride on the Zero Gravity Chair. “This is a lotta fun.”