We had a week full of Space….and it all happened just by chance.† Don’t you love weeks like that?

We were reading “100 Greatest Science Discoveries” and started following rabbit holes.† We ran across a mention of Voyager and the Golden Record.† I didn’t have a clue what this was so we started reading about it.††

Voyager 1 was launched in 1977, passed the orbit of Pluto in 1990, and left the solar system in November 2004. In about 40,000 years, it and Voyager 2 will each come to within about 1.7 light-years of two separate stars. †40,000 YEARS!!

What is so cool about this is that they both had phonograph records aboard.†† This was a huge project led by Carl Sagan.† They were made for “any intelligent extraterrestrial life or future humans.” There are greetings in 55 languages, 116 images, natural sounds and more.† I was blown away by this.† How cool is this?† You have to read more about here.†We also watched some YouTube videos about it.† This is my favorite resource of the week. †

The Golden Record has instructions on how to play it written in binary and diagrams.

Then we watched a 6 episode show on Netflix streaming called “When We Left the Earth”. †

On Wednesday night, we heard that they were trying to get a homeschool group together to see Orion which was on a 3 city tour.† Huntsville was one of the stops.†† They were offering a 5 hour class, complete with movies, a discussion with Rex Walheim one of the last astronauts to fly the Space Shuttle, lunch, museum tour and more.† We signed up immediately.†

We had a blast Thursday.† It was one of the best things we have done in a long time.† Our favorite part was the interview with Rex Walheim.† He was awesome and he brought tons of his photos.† They were amazing.

They talked about each of the space programs, what each cost and how that was in today’s money.† They discussed in great detail plans for Orion.

†1.††††††††† The route of Orion

2.††††††††† The PYRAMIDS from space.

3.†††††††††† Keilee asking a question during the question/answer phase.† She wanted to know if he saw The Great Wall of China.† He didn’t because of cloud cover.

4.††††††††† Rex Walheim during a space walk.

5.††††††††† Rex Walheim in the 360∞ view area of space shuttle.

6.†††††††† Their mission was to take a year’s worth of supplies to The Space Station.† Here is the Space Shuttle crew on board with Russian and Japan astronauts!

We did so many cool things!† Here are a few of my favorite shots.† Including one of Keilee at The Wizard of Oz practice.† She is a very convincing Wicked Witch.† Some of the smaller kids are scared of her!!

†1.††††††††† Exploring the Museum

2.††††††††† Riding the Space Shot!

3.††††††††† Keilee and Hope checking out the astronaut suits

4.††††††††† Wall of Fame

5.†††††††† Lunch a la cafeteria style.† Honestly so many of our kids had no clue what to do.† It was too funny.† Keilee was appalled that she was expected to eat off the tray.† She ate probably 2 bites.† She never bought her lunch in K and 1st grade.† I always made it.

6.††††††† The WICKED WITCH

7.††††††† Ringing the bell on the rock wall.

We also got to sign the Orion!†

†We were tired when we finally made it home but it was so worth it.

Here is a video of Kei and her friends riding the Space Shot.† YES it is sideways.† Please tell me if you know how to ‘straighten’ it!

Keilee wanted me to let† you know that she was NOT screaming like a girl thankyouverymuch!

Just an almost perfect week!† Gotta love when that happens.

Linking up with Susan for “Favorite Resources”

and Mary for “Collage Friday”

Happy weekend,

Homeschooling Rocks!

Karen

“Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.”† ~ Stephen Hawking

“There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good.”† ~ Tom Mueller, SpaceX propulsion chief