Ready for lift-off with Family Space Camp

Welcome to Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo Treasures Family Space Camp 2020. We’ll be with you every day this week, bringing you on a virtual action-packed space journey with Dr Norah Patten and Mark Langtry. Prepare for some hands-on family challenges and activities along with some ‘out of this world’ guests throughout the week.

Today we kick off your family’s mission to space with Norah and Mark who will be looking at the many different areas of space training and what it is really like to live and work in space.

Norah and Mark

Introducing your crew mates for the week: Norah studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Limerick and developed a passion for space when she visited NASA in America at the age of 11. In 2018, she was one of only 35 people from around the world to travel to Canada to take part in Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (PoSSUM), which involves zero-gravity training, spacesuit testing and high-G flight training.

Mark Langtry played professional football for 10 years while also pursing his love of science. Mark is a theoretical physicist and head of sport and science at Explorium in Dublin.

Monday's programme

Making the journey to space is a challenge both mentally and physically and astronauts must build up their strength before launch, so to kick off today’s Family Space Camp we’re going to get everybody up and moving for a quick Astroworkout.

Next up, Norah and Mark will take you through the must-have ‘mission patch’. A space mission patch is an emblem that is worn by the astronauts and crew which features colours and names that are linked to their mission. In fact, astronaut crews are in charge of designing their team’s mission patch and every expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) has a unique patch. We’ll take you through some quick tips and ideas on how you can create your own very special mission patch for the Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo Treasures Family Space Camp.

Today’s adventure will also take you to Birr Castle. You might not realise it, but Ireland has a rich history in space and astronomy and there are some beautiful places that families can visit to learn more. At Birr Castle your crew will show you an incredible telescope, ‘Leviathan’, as it is named. In the early 1840s, the Third Earl of Rosse designed and built the largest telescope in the world. With this telescope, he discovered the spiral nature of some of the galaxies, and from 1845-1914, anyone wishing to witness this phenomenon had to come to Birr. And they came, in their hundreds, from across Europe and beyond, to observe the stars. This telescope remained the largest in the world for over 70 years.

This is just a flavour of Ireland’s involvement in space, throughout the week we’re going to be looking into this further and speaking to some more inspiring people.

The grand finale of today’s Family Space Camp is to demonstrate just how cold it is in outer space. To show you this we’re going to be using liquid nitrogen but this is not for trying at home. Outer space is around -270°c and liquid nitrogen is -196°c. Norah and Mark are going to show you exactly why you need a space suit and a well-designed space craft to keep you safe in space.

Our mission for Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo Treasures Family Space Camp 2020 has officially begun and we’re getting ready for launch.

Don’t forget to check back in with your crew tomorrow as we begin to look at how to get to space and what astronauts need to do to get there. See you tomorrow.

[ The Irish Times website ]