Anderson's grandson completes astronaut training
Eric Self, grandson of Evelyn Anderson of Marion, attended Level 1 of the Future Astronaut Training Program June 6-11 at Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson.
Developed by Cosmosphere staff, the intense week-long program incorporates actual astronaut training with briefings on subjects ranging from how the body reacts to spaceflight to principles of rocketry.
During the week, campers train on simulators related to both manned and unmanned spaceflight. Utilizing the 1/6 gravity simulator, they experience walking on the Moon. In the Advanced Flight Simulator, campers pilot an F-101 and F-16 aircraft. Directing a Lunar rover mission much like the Mars Sojourner, they guide a computer-controlled rover around rocks and craters while picking up samples to return to "Earth." Campers also learn how to control body movement on a multi-axis trainer and feel the sensation of liftoff in the Centrifuge, a g-force trainer. The week culminates with the campers flying their own space shuttle mission aboard the Cosmosphere's state-of-the-art space shuttle simulator, the Falcon III.
Future Astronaut Training Program participants learn about the history of the space program in the Cosmosphere's Hall of Space Museum, which houses one of the largest space artifact collections in the world.
As one of the country's top residential space education programs for students entering grades 7-10, more than 8,500 participants from across the country and around the world have graduated from the Cosmosphere's Future Astronaut Training Program since its beginning in 1985.
