ELDERNAUTS: Ready to blast off

Sun City seniors go to space camp

They're not astronauts. They're not cosmonauts. They're eldernauts.

And from the training they received, Adrian and Patricia Cole are ready for outer space, should they ever need to go.

The Sun City Summerlin couple spent five days immersed in the Elderhostel Astronaut Training Program designed for those age 55 and older. The camp was held Sept. 19-24 in Hutchinson, Kan., at Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. The 22 participants came from from 11 states and Canada. The Coles were the only participants from Nevada.

The couple said that upon arrival, they were amazed by the array of large items, such as rockets and shuttle launch engines, on the center's grounds. Their size gave an indication of what it takes to propel vehicles into space.

They were displayed outside because of their dimensions, but also because the center has too much Russian and American space apparatus to house everything in its 105,000-square-foot Hall of Space Museum. Items inside the facility include the space suit Neil Armstrong wore, the Apollo 13 command module, rare V-1 and V-2 rockets and a Soyuz spacecraft.

But this wasn't a trip to casually stroll past museum exhibits. The training had the couple actively involved in a number of space-related activities.

Along with their classmates, the couple tried on space suits, which they found difficult to put on and uncomfortable to wear. They got to experience G-forces, such as those resulting from lift off.

Each participant was strapped into a centrifuge machine, where they were spun in X, Y and Z axis to simulate weightlessness in space.

Later, individuals were put into a multiple axis trainer, which spun them around and around to test their tolerance to dizziness.

"I went around one turn," Patricia said. "I was on it just long enough to say, 'Get me off.'"

Each participant sat in simulators to take the controls of both an F-101 and an F-16 jets. The simulators were actual cockpits from the fighter jets. Screens fooled the brain into seeing the world from a pilot's viewpoint.

Patricia handled the F-16 OK, but had difficulty with the other jet and soon crashed and burned. Adrian was able to fly the F-101, but had difficulty with the F-16.

"I was going north-south and the landing strip was going east-west," Adrian said, throwing up his hands. "I never did get to land it."

The crash-course had them spending 10- to 12-hour days learning about being an astronaut. But not all of it included flight simulators or learning curious things, such as how to sleep, brush teeth or use the bathroom in outer space. They were challenged in creative ways.

For one project, they had to learn to navigate by the stars. For another, they had to call on high school chemistry lessons to make rocket fuel. Another challenge was dumping out 50 pieces from a box and being told to make a workable robot out of them, within the hour.

They also had to build a toy-sized rocket and launch it in an open area.

Then there were teamwork projects, where they had to learn the functions of more than 200 buttons and switches in their shuttle simulator, the Falcon. Missing one step or flipping a switch at the wrong time could spell death if they were truly maneuvering in space.

Afterward, they were told real astronauts had more than 10 times that many buttons to learn by heart.

Another teamwork task had a spotter calling out directions to two people working the controls of a lunar rover and its mechanical arm. The spotter was the only one on the team who could see the target, so his directions had to be clear. That time, their task was to pick up a lunar rock and deposit at a collection point. Patricia was the spotter. Adrian worked one of the controls alongside another participant.

"We ended up driving up over top the rock we were supposed to be picking up," Adrian said, breaking into a laugh.

The couple summed up their space adventure in a couple words, "exciting" and "amazing."

"You just want to do it again," Patricia said, adding she'd be one of the first in line to hop aboard a commercial space flight, if the price were right.

The Elderhostel Astronaut Training Program is offered twice a year. The program is based on the nationally-recognized Future Astronaut Training Program for middle school students.

For more information on Elderhostel Astronaut Training Program or other programs, call 1-800-397-0330 Ext. 319 or visit www.cosmo.org.


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