By STACEY PLAISANCE / L’Observateur / February 24, 1999

Gifted students in St. James Parish and their families will soon explorethe dynamics of outer space hands-on during a weekend field trip to the Houston Space Center.

Fifty-eight people from around the parish will attend the two-day space camp in Houston Feb. 26-27, including parents, students and teachers fromeight area schools.

Participating schools are Paulina Elementary, Lutcher Elementary, Gramercy Elementary, St. Peter Chanel, Vacherie Elementary, VacheriePrimary, Fifth Ward Elementary and St. James High.Cost of the camp is $100 per person, and admission includes two nights stay in a hotel with two continental breakfasts. A bus was chartered fromPremier Motor Coach for the drive to and from Houston.

Parents of the students going to Houston held a jambalaya dinner in November to help finance the trip, and some school organizations made small donations. Families of the students made up the difference in cost. According to field trip coordinator Sharon Deroche, the Houston Space Center has been preparing teachers and students for the camp with educational material on outer space and the various programs and services offered at camp.

The center’s educational department provided lesson plans for teachers, and the Houston Space Center Library issued videos to be viewed in the classroom, Deroche said.

The field trip is expected to enhance the students’ classroom studies utilizing hands-on learning experiences at camp, Deroche said.

The students have been learning about many aspects of space, including its history and space exploration, and they are looking forward to actually seeing various spacecrafts they have only yet read about, she explained.

“The students have been studying the history of space travel and many of the aspects of living and working in space,” Deroche said. “When they arein the Starship Gallery, they will be looking for the actual Faith 7 command module flown by Astronaut Gordon Cooper. They will also see theactual Saturn V rocket that helped launch the Apollo modules into space.”The Starship Gallery is one of numerous sites the students and their families will visit during their stay in Houston. The gallery allowsparticipants to journey back in history with a film documenting great moments of the space program.

Students will also have the opportunity to see actual space capsules and get a close up look at the lunar surface, touch a real moon rock and walk through America’s first space station.

The School Overnight Program at the space center was developed specifically to accommodate out-of-town school groups, and it will include activities with education counselors after Space Center Houston is closed to the public. Educational movies and private team tours ofJohnson Space Center will also be conducted.

Other programs include the Space Shuttle Mock-Up, where students will climb aboard and get a close-up look at the flight deck and mid deck of a space shuttle. This high-fidelity shuttle mock-up provides an opportunityto see where and how the astronauts live and work while conducting their experiments in space. Students will get the feel of what it would be likeinside an actual space shuttle.

The Kids Space Place is a new attraction that offers 17 exciting areas with 40 hands-on, interactive exhibits which demonstrate space exploration. Students will experience the gravity of the moon and what itslike to operate robots on Mars from a space station, just to name a few.

Participants will join Professor I.B. Frazzled in the Mission Status Centeras he explores the most frequently asked question at Space Center Houston – “Where’s the anti-gravity room?” This stage show is developed specifically for school groups, and a few lucky students will have the opportunity to be test subjects for the professor.

The high-tech capability of the Mission Status Center will allow students to peek over the shoulders of engineers at work in Mission Control or peer into the depths of the Weightless Environment Training Facility as astronauts prepare for a mission.

These live briefings will bring students up-to-date on the status of the current shuttle mission.

Through manned maneuvering unit training, students can experience the feel of microgravity as they attempt to retrieve a satellite while maneuvering on an air-bearing floor. Students race against time as theyattempt to perform the necessary commands before they run out of fuel and are lost in space forever. This method is the same one used to trainthe astronauts for their Extra Vehicular Activities.

Students will also test their piloting skills by landing the shuttle via simulation. They will learn about orbital mechanics and actuallyrendezvous with a satellite.

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