Resources

www.google.com
www.howstuffworks.com
Zero Gravity, Felming, Sarah OXFORD University Press
Man on the Moon, Butterworth, Christine OXFORD University Press
Space, Ben Denne & Eileen O'Brien Usborne Discovery
Noordwijk, Space Expo
Per Valegard (astronomer)
Mr.Meddens
Mrs.Debby

Daily Life in Space

We arrived on Earth again, and to my amazement we DID land in Kazakhstan! I will soon tell you how it was like in space, my daily life in Space. Its really not that hard to stay up in Space, but you should know that you might have to stay there longer than you would expect. There was a cosmonaut that had to stay in the I.S.S. for fifteen months! He had to stay there because the astronomers didn't have enough money to get him back down.

My life in Space was pretty fun. It looked a bit like a fancy airplane! Since I was only out there for five days I didn't take a shower, 1. because the shower was probably freezing cold, and 2. because if you wanted to take a shower you could also use wet tissues. (I didn't want to do that)

(Having a hard time to eat your sweets?)
We had a big breakfast, because we don't have lunch OR diner. We eat it all in the morning. The first day I practised some keyboard, I also read little bit, but later I gave up because my book kept on floating away. Only on the third day, I think, I fixed the Hubble Space Telescope. On a space shuttle there is a massive vacuum, with this, you can go to the toilet, have a shower and get fit. The toilet was especially like a plane. To eat you had to put your food under the rubber-bands on the table, if you wanted to drink you just had to catch a little ball of juice. Today the food is much tastier, you just have to add some water. I did need to do a little research. It was not so comfortable to do it because you couldn't sit on a chair. Instead you're feet were strapped to the floor, really tight TOO tight.

I might have to go to Space again, because they thought I did a really good job. I'm proud of myself. Hope my next mission is to go to Mars, but even if I won't, I will still keep writing in my Space Diaries.

The Return to Earth

It's September 7, 2010. Today I am going back to Earth. My mission was successful! The Hubble Space Telescope is fixed. Luckily. I was as busy as a bee. It was fun going in Space for the first time. I'm one of the few that actually got out of the shuttle. It was hard to remember what tools to use, but later on I got it.

We are first going to make one orbit around the Earth, without the engine running. Then we will send little rockets called thrusts out of the tip of the shuttle, which is called the nose. The thrusts will give the shuttle power and send us back to Earth. We are probably going to land in Kazakhstan. Like usually.Well I think that's what we are going to do today.

(I don't know why the parachute is soooo small)

The Day of the Launch

It is the day after I told you my mission, which means September 2, 2010. My shuttle looks as shiny as a button. Its called Apollo 20, the biggest Space Shuttle in the world. My rocket is going to shoot up any minute now. I can here the people counting down. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0! I was shooting up like a bullet.

(To much smoke, cough cough)

I got up this morning and ate some cereal. I almost forgot about the launch. I quickly got in my space suit and my mom drove me to NASA. I got inside the rocket. Apollo 20's rockets fired. I heard a roar and slowly lifted up into the air. I heard people shouting with happiness. Forty seconds later I was travelling faster than the speed of sound. Then the first stage rocket was released from the space craft. The second stage rocket falls off. The third stage rocket takes the shuttle out of the Earths atmosphere and into orbit 184 km above the Earth. Less than three hours later the rocket fires again, launching the ship to the Hubble Space Telescope. In no time I was already floating in zero gravity. I have to stay up in space for about five days. If I stayed there for five nights my bones would get soft and my muscles too. I will be like that for five days when I get back to Earth. I have to do some trainig now. Wonder how it will be like.

The mission

It’s now September 1, 2010. I, Astronaut Inez from Holland & Portugal, am going up to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. With some of my colleages, Astronaut Georgia and Mariana. It's lenses aren't sharp anymore and all the pictures it takes are blurry. The astronomers sent me up because I am the only one that knows how to fix it.

I'm very nervous because its my first time in Space. I haven't been trained much either and I hardly know Georgia and Mariana because I am new but I know A LOT about space, so don't think its weird that I am going up to space. We are going up tomorrow. I can't wait!