“You ever been on one?” Jerome asked.
Cubby shook his head. “I know a lot of this stuff because I’ve read about it in books, but I’ve never been on any of this equipment,” he admitted.
“Who’s going first?” Samantha asked.
Ziggy raised his hand. “Since I fully intend to be a real astronaut,” he announced boldly, “I’m gonna be the first to see what it feels like to get your guts scrambled!”
He walked over to the circular-shaped machine, which was about eight feet tall and four feet wide. It was made of about thirty rounded metal bars that curved around the astronaut-trainee’s seat. In the center of it a leather-cushioned chair with crisscross shoulder straps, arm and leg restraints, and a sturdy seat belt waited for Ziggy.
Samantha helped Ziggy climb into the seat, strapped him in carefully, and asked, “Are you ready, Ziggy?”
He nodded, and she stepped over to the controls to turn the machine on. “Keep your eyes open,” she suggested. “That way, your body will know where it is and you won’t get dizzy.”
“I hope my body knows that,” Ziggy told her quietly.
“His face looks just like it did the day he got called to the principal’s office for letting that stray dog in school and hiding it all day,” Rashawn whispered to Jerome.
“Do you think he’ll throw up?” Rico asked.
“I hope not!” Cubby said. “That wouldn’t be a pretty sight.”
The MAT’s motor began to hum, and then to turn. Faster and faster, up, down, around, upside down, and sideways. Over, under, through, and back again. Ziggy’s braids flew wildly—like branches in a windstorm—but his body stayed safely glued to the chair. “Wheeee!” he cried out.
“How is it, Ziggy?” Alan asked from the benches where the rest of the kids waited their turn.
“Amazing, mon!” Ziggy managed to say as he was whipped around and around.
Finally the machine stopped, and the MAT chair returned to its upright position, swaying just slightly as Ziggy waved at his friends. He jumped down triumphantly and sauntered over to the bench as Jessica ran forward to take her turn.
“Did you feel like you were going to throw up?” Rico wanted to know.
“No, mon. I didn’t even get dizzy. It was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever done!”
“What was it like while you were spinning?” Cubby asked. “Real astronauts train on equipment like this, you know.”
“It was like the floor and the ceiling and the walls were moving, not me. They bounced around in front of me faster than I could even think about it. My body always felt like it was two seconds behind what I was seeing and feeling,” Ziggy explained.
“Cool!” Jerome said. “Hey Samantha, can I be next?”
All of the team members got turns on the trainer, grinning with satisfaction when they finished.
Ziggy asked immediately, “What’s next, Samantha?”
“We’re going to the One-sixth Gravity Chair trainer—the one that lets you see what it feels like to walk on the moon,” she replied.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Ziggy said eagerly.
“What does it feel like when you’re on the moon, Samantha?” Jessica asked. She twirled her hair between her fingers.
Samantha laughed. “Well, the last time I was there, it was snowing!”
“Huh?” Jessica looked confused.
“She’s just teasing you, Jessica,” Cubby said. “Only twelve astronauts have actually walked on the moon for real.”
Samantha touched Jessica on the shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made light of your question. Cubby’s right. Very few people have walked on the moon. But we do know that the moon’s gravity is one-sixth of the earth’s.”
“That means that if you weigh sixty pounds on earth, you only weigh ten pounds on the moon. Right?” Rico asked.
“Absolutely!” Samantha replied.
“And if you can jump five inches off the ground here on Earth, you should be able to jump thirty inches high on the moon,” Cubby added.
“You could jump over the basket on the moon,” Jerome said dreamily.
“I could make baskets and dunk for days!” Rashawn said, pretending to make a jump shot. “NBA coaches would all want me on their team!”
“Yeah, but all your games would have to be on the moon!” Cubby said with a laugh.
“It’s all good, mon!” Ziggy said as he tried to jump as high as he could on the sidewalk. Jerome, Rico, and Rashawn jumped with him, and the twins and Cubby joined in as well. Leaping and laughing, they headed toward the building where the 1/6th Chair sat waiting for them.
The ground beneath the chair was uneven and had been designed to look like the surface of the moon, with craters and hills. The chair, suspended above this “moonscape,” waited.
“It looks like a giant baby’s jumper toy—you know, those things on springs they use to exercise little kids,” Rashawn said.
This time, Rico was the first to try the equipment. Samantha strapped him in and then showed him how to walk, bounce, and jump with what felt like very little gravity. He grinned, leaped, and stretched his arms wide while the others cheered. “I feel like I can fly!” Rico said. “This is glorious.”
“This skill will come in handy when I explore the moon and send my report back for cable news,” Ziggy told the others as he was strapped in next and began to jump.
“Or maybe when you try out for the ballet!” Jerome called out. “You look like a dancer.”
Ziggy just grinned and used his toes to push himself even higher and take larger leaps that helped him soar. He swayed his arms gracefully. “I should have been born on the moon!” he cried out. “This is too cool!”
“There are no hamburgers on the moon, Ziggy,” Neil called out.
“Or pizza with pickles!” Rashawn added.
“I don’t care, mon! I was born to fly!” Ziggy bounced to the side, leaped forward and back, reached toward the ceiling, and jumped higher than his own height. He was a picture of movement—arms, legs, hair—gracefully flowing across the room. He sidestepped and swayed and swerved, almost twirling with delight.
Ziggy didn’t want his turn to be over. But Samantha reminded him that everyone deserved equal time, so Ziggy reluctantly let himself be unstrapped and returned to the world of normal gravity. He knelt down to retie his tennis shoes, which had come unlaced in all the jumping. Lying on the edge of the artificial moon surface, caught between the moonscape and the wooden floor, was a small, oddly shaped, shiny object.
“What’s this?” he whispered. He reached over, grabbed the item quickly, and stuffed it into his pocket.
When he got back to the benches where the others were waiting their turn, he took a seat in the back. He took the glossy, stonelike thing he had found out of his pocket and examined it carefully. It was a dark, shimmery green color—like the color of grass after a rainstorm—totally smooth on one side, and rough to the touch on the back. It was about the size of Ziggy’s thumb. He rolled it around in his hands, a slight frown on his face.
“What’s that you got, Ziggy?” Rico asked as he walked back to where Ziggy was sitting. “Can I see it?”
Ziggy handed it to him. “I think it’s not from this world,” Ziggy said with a serious expression that was unusual for him.
“What makes you say that?” Rico asked as he peered closely at the object.
“It looks hard, but it feels a little soft. It looks like it would be cold to the touch, but it feels warm. I think it’s something left by a space traveler.” Ziggy spoke as if he meant it. For once, he wasn’t laughing.
Rico didn’t make fun of Ziggy’s observation. Instead, he said, “Let’s approach this scientifically, Ziggy. Let’s talk about all the things it could possibly be before we decide it’s from outer space.”
Ziggy nodded, but he didn’t seem convinced. “It looks like the back of one of those insects you find in the summertime—all shiny and metallic-looking,?
?? he said.
“Are you sure it’s not just a piece of dead bug?” Rico asked thoughtfully.
“What’s that you said about bugs?” Jerome asked as he joined them. “I got bug spray in my backpack, you know, just in case.”
“You won’t need spray for this, mon,” Ziggy said, “unless this is a space creature that can come back to life.”
“What are you talking about?” Rashawn asked as he joined them. The other members of the team were taking their turn on the chair.
“Ziggy thinks he found a space artifact,” Rico explained. The four of them took the object and examined it.
“Is it a piece of some kind of plant?” Rashawn asked as he sniffed it.
“It’s too hard, I think,” Ziggy said.
“Could it be broken off one of the pieces of equipment in this room?” Jerome offered. “They’ve got all kinds of space simulators in here. Maybe this is part of one of them.”
“Maybe, mon,” Ziggy said. “But I got a feeling that this shiny green thing has some special meaning.”
Rico looked at the object closely, then tapped it on the bench to listen to the sound it made. “I think it’s made of metal, but I can’t really tell. It’s not rock, either—at least I don’t think it is. Where did you find it, Ziggy?”
“I found it by the moonwalk simulator, and I think it came from outer space,” Ziggy stated.
Rico, Jerome, and Rashawn shook their heads in disbelief. Team America had finished the simulation, and Samantha called them all to head for lunch.
“All we have to do is figure out why it’s here.” Ziggy carefully put the oddly shaped green thing back into his pocket.
AFTER LUNCH AND JUST BEFORE THEIR MISSION, Samantha took Team America outside for a little fresh air and to prep them for their pretend journey into space. “Are there any questions?” she asked.
“We saw what it was like to walk on the moon,” Rico said, “but what does it feel like to be weightless? Does it feel like you’re floating?”
“Well, I’ve never been lucky enough to actually fly in space,” Samantha replied, “but the astronauts I’ve spoken to tell me that sometimes weightlessness makes them throw up, and that it’s hard to adjust to being able to lift heavy objects with no effort.”
“Can you sneeze in space?” Rashawn wanted to know.
“I’m sure you can,” Samantha answered. “But I bet you can’t guess what happens to the liquid that would come out of your nose.” She grinned at the group.
“Tell us!” they demanded eagerly. Nicolina, a petite girl with a quiet smile, put her hand over her ears, pretending she didn’t want to hear.
“Everything liquid in space, from water to fruit juice to mucus—even urine . . . ,” Samantha began.
“Yucko, mon!” Ziggy said, making a face.
“. . . forms into perfectly round balls. All the molecules are pulling on one another, so you see, with no gravity, a force we call surface tension makes the liquids ball up.”
“Hey, since you brought it up, I gotta know this,” Ziggy said slowly. “How do astronauts go to the bathroom, mon?”
“I wondered the same thing,” Jerome admitted, “but I didn’t want to ask.”
“Even I don’t know the answer to that one,” Cubby said.
Samantha smiled as she looked at the group. “First of all, there are no flush toilets, so the toilets function with air instead. Basically, astronauts use the bathroom in something very much like a vacuum cleaner. Some of the shuttle crew call it Mr. Thirsty!” She laughed as the team members giggled with disgust and delight.
“This might be more than I can handle, mon.” Ziggy covered his face with his hands, pretending to be upset. “Maybe I can’t be an astronaut after all.”
“A hose with vacuum suction is attached to the body, and urine is sucked through the hose. It’s quite simple,” Samantha explained, “and nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s a normal human bodily function.”
“What about women astronauts?” Jessica asked shyly. She blushed.
“There is an adapter for females,” Samantha replied matter-of-factly. “And as long as we’re on the subject, solid waste is also eliminated by means of suction devices. The opening is only about four inches in diameter, so an astronaut’s aim becomes really important. They even have a practice device at the training center! It has a TV camera mounted in the toilet bowl so astronauts can learn exactly where to position themselves so everything comes out where it should!”
“Does that one have a name too?” Amy asked.
“For sure! It’s called Target!” Samantha looked like she was having fun. “The astronauts have target practice before a mission.”
“I thought target practice meant shooting at space invaders like on my Mega Mighty Martian Blasters video game, mon!” Ziggy said.
“Not this time, Ziggy,” Samantha replied with a laugh.
“Oh, man!” Jerome said. “Big yuck!”
“So if an astronaut cut herself while in space,” Nicolina asked quietly, “would the blood float like little balls as it leaves the cut?”
“Exactly!” Samantha said. “Little floating globules of blood.”
“That’s amazing,” Nicolina replied, her eyes large with wonder.
Ignoring the boys who were making faces, Amy asked, “So if all liquid turns into little balls, how do they drink anything?”
“Good question, Amy,” Samantha said. “You’re right—they couldn’t drink from a cup. They use straws, instead, used in specially designed containers that help them suck the liquid into their mouth.”
“What do astronauts eat, mon?” Ziggy asked. “I’m almost afraid to know the answer after the last one you gave us.”
Samantha laughed. “This time I think you can handle the answer, Ziggy. They eat MRE’s, which stands for ‘meals ready to eat.’ Often they are dehydrated, which means water has to be added before they can be eaten, but sometimes it’s stuff like candy or peanut butter or cans of pudding like you’d eat at home.”
“Not like stuff I eat at home!” Ziggy told them with a laugh. “I bet the astronauts never had cornflakes with gravy, or peanuts with prune juice, mon.”
“Yuck!” Nicolina and Jessica said together.
“Where do astronauts sleep?” Rashawn asked.
“There are no beds, but they use something called sleep restraints to hold themselves in one place so they won’t float around and bump into one another. When they’re asleep, unless they’re secured, their arms float straight up in front of their bodies. Their hair, too. I’m told it’s a slightly spooky sight.”
Ziggy looked thoughtful. “Samantha, have any space shuttles ever encountered any aliens, mon?” Ziggy asked. “I’m not being silly—I really want to know.”
“No, Ziggy,” she replied with the same seriousness. “But I suppose there is always a first time. Now, let’s get busy. It’s time for our mission. Team America, let’s launch!”
They marched over to Mission Control, where a group of specialists took over the training of the various Space Camp teams. Stanley was one of them. He carried a clipboard with the name and assignment of each member of Team America.
“First, each of you will be assigned a position,” Stanley began. “If this were a real space shuttle about to be launched, what jobs do you think would be needed?”
“Captain of the astronauts!” Ziggy called out.
“Excellent!” Stanley said. “We call him the commander, and he or she is responsible for all crew activities inside the shuttle. We also need a pilot—someone to be in charge of flying the shuttle. Ziggy, you’ll be the commander, and Cubby, you are the pilot.”
“Awesome!” Cubby and Ziggy answered together.
“You know, with all my experience with the Mega Mighty Martian Blasters game, I should be really good at this,” Cubby said.
“You have that game too, mon?” Ziggy asked Cubby enthusiastically.
“Sure,” Cubby said. “I can get to the very top
level!”
Ziggy looked at him with awe.
“We also need mission specialists,” Stanley continued. “These are the folks who do space walks—we call them EVAs, or extravehicular activities—and payload specialists, the folks who work on the cargo or the experiments.”
“Can I be those too, mon?” Ziggy asked.
“This is a team effort, Ziggy.” Stanley checked his clipboard. “Jerome and Rashawn are the payload specialists, and Nicolina and Neil are the mission specialists.”
“None of the experiments involves bugs in space, do they?” Jerome asked. “I saw a movie once about a bug that went into space and it came back and ate up a couple of cities! I don’t think I’ve got enough bug spray for an attack like that!”
“You gotta understand, Stanley. Jerome gets really buggy when it comes to insects!” Rashawn explained as he made buzzing noises near Jerome’s ear.
Stanley laughed. “I promise. No bugs.”
“Don’t you need somebody to be in charge of the computers on the ground?” Amy asked.
“Good, Amy,” Stanley said. “The shuttle can’t go up unless there is somebody on the ground making sure everything is safe. That person is called the flight director. He or she is in charge of the entire mission from ignition to touchdown. That will be your position, Amy.” She grinned with delight.
“What about me?” Rico asked.
“Rico, you’ll be the CAPCOM. That’s the communications captain. You’re in charge of all messages from ground control to the flight crew. Alan, you are the EVA officer. You are responsible for all the equipment that the shuttle crew is operating in space.”
“Like when they do space walks and stuff?”
“Yes, your job is to keep them safe. It’s scary out there—floating in space, connected to the shuttle by only a thin cord.”
“Cool!” Alan said.
“Nicolina and Jessica—you two are assigned to the space station and will do various experiments that must be recorded and analyzed and sent back to Mission Control. You also get to wear the space gear and helmets and do the space walks!” Nicolina put her hand to her head and giggled. The two girls gave each other high fives.