Planetarium Trip By: Stella

Hi All!

Yesterday we went to a fun field trip with our Co-Op to the Planetarium. I would like to tell you about it!
We went to the planetarium, were greeted by our friends, and went into the group waiting room. After everyone got there, Mrs. Foreman, (who was heading the tour) introduced us to our tour guide, Sam, who would be with us for the beginning of the program. We went to a cool display which showed a model of the Freedom 7. That was the ship that Alan Shepard had gone in. Alan Shepard was the first American in space. He was not the first person in space. The first person in space was really a Russian man. We heard a funny story about Alan Shepard.
The day that Alan Shepard was to go up to space in the tiny little cramped space shuttle, everyone was nervous. Shepard ate a big breakfast of steak, eggs, orange juice, and coffee. After having breakfast, they waited a couple of hours, and then brought him to the little space shuttle. He waited inside there for six hours, and still the people were hesitant to send him up. After six hours of waiting, there was a problem. Shepard had to go to the bathroom. The men knew that if Shepard got out of the space shuttle, then there would be no mission that day. There were all sorts of wires hooked up to him which showed his blood pressure, heart rate, etc. They unhooked those wires, told him to just go, and then they FINALLY got him up into space. After hours of waiting, the entire flight took only FIFTEEN MINUTES!!! All that for a little flight. He returned safely though, and then when he splashed down into the water, they picked up Alan Shepard. When on the ground, he told the men in a meeting, hey guys, you've got to figure out a way for astronauts to go to the bathroom!!!
The tour guide then showed us an experiment. He had two cups. He poured water from one cup into another cup, and then after a couple seconds, dumped the cup with the water. Nothing was in it!! It was really amazing. The astronauts then were instructed to use a special type of clothing, hmm... can you guess what that clothing might be? Give up? DIAPERS!! No, I'm not joking, REALLY!!! The astronauts wore diapers up to space. The material that they used to make that was so useful, that the making of them spread, and guess what? Disposable diapers are what astronauts used to wear. I know, it was crazy to me too! Well, your little baby is wearing what astronauts wore. Weird, huh?
After everyone finally believed Sam, we moved on. We watched a video where an astronaut in the International Space Station. We saw liftoff, the space craft hook to the space station, and then the guy showed us his, (LITERALLY!) standing room only bedroom. The camera couldn't even fit in there! There was only room for one person!! It was really fun. We saw all of the different rooms in the station, and the weightlessness was what was really cool. The guy just basically used the same motions that you use when you swim to get around the station. It made us kids jealous!! It looked so fun! We also saw an eating demonstration. It was really cool. They showed us the machine that astronauts use to add moisture to their food. The guy showed us the food, and would pick up a food off of the tray that held the food down, and the drinks, fish, etc. He would pick up a food, hold it up, and then just leave it in the air. The guy did all sorts of stunts with his utensils and stuff (that you could only do WITHOUT gravity). The way that they did the juice box was that they squeezed the juice box so that the drink would get out of the container, and then he would suck it out of the air with his straw. It was cool.
Then they had a thing that looked like you were flying through the space station, and you saw out of the window of the space station. Earth was so beautiful. It was amazing. Our planet is nothing like the flimsy little earth demonstrations and pictures that you see. You just have to see it in reality to take in the real beauty of our amazing planet. I think that it is so humbling to see the hugeness of our planet, our universe even, and the beauty of it all.

By: Stella

(I will leave it to Leo to tell about the rest of the field trip, as I don't want to write about everything!!)