ISU Space Studies Program - Week 1!

How has a week gone by already?! This first week at the 2023 Space Studies Program of the International Space University has come to a close and I think I have learned enough content to fill a full month of learning at a normal university! More on that in a moment though.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be documenting my journey and experience here at the ISU's 2023 SSP program in S?o Josè dos Campos, Brazil for my own benefit as well as to bring some more awareness to the program within my professional network. And maybe provide some tips and tricks should you come to SSP in a coming year!

I landed in Sao Josè dos Campos on June 24 and was able to check into my room around noon that day. First tip - come a day or two early to acclimate! You get going with SSP activities nearly right away with welcome activities. Our week kicked off first with a welcome dinner at Restaurante Auà Gastronomia where we got to meet our fellow participants and the SSP organizing team and get to know interesting facts and favorite foods about each other. (I didn't take any pictures, sadly!) The intro I gave to the group: I love French macarons (literally, could eat my weight in them!), I love staying active by doing Crossfit and Olympic Weightlifting, and my first time camping was on the 4-day Inca trail hike last year.

Day 2 started early with a hike through Parque da Cidade to our brunch location at Residência de Olivo Gome. We were greeted by this amazing view of palm trees surrounding us and a traditional gathering of Capoeira, which is a type of Afro-Brazilian material art that it seemed like involved the whole community, young and old, musicians and performers, observers - it was quite a way to wake up from a little bit of jet lag! You would never imagine that this is their "winter" with the sun shining and all the lush greenery!

Surprisingly, most of the restaurants we eat at are buffet style - so we have such an array of food to chose from. One food I see everywhere - p?o de queijo (aka cheese bread). The delectable little bites of cheese filled bread have the perfect crisp and gooey center. This will likely be the death of me this summer! And of course, the vast array of fresh fruits - mango, banana, papaya, acai....Our brunch program also included an introduction to all of the organizing team and facilitators of the SSP this year, including the large and very welcoming local team to S?o Josè dos Campos.

After our brunch, we had a city tour on the bus on our way to our general orientation to the program and our time in S?o Josè dos Campos. Most of our time here will be spent at the local organizations of ITA and INPE. We also learned that there are 97 of us from 27 different countries! How many programs let you learn with a cohort that diverse!

In the SSP, we have three main components of our curriculum. We have our Core Lecture series which will cover a broad range of topics from propulsion and orbital mechanics, to satellite operations and communications, to arts and culture related to space. In this first week, we had 14 Core Lectures. The second component of SSP is the Department Lectures (more to come on this as this part of the program starts in about week 4). But basically, we get to choose a department to get a deeper knowledge in - these departments range from science, engineering, space applications, humanities, space law and policy, business and management, and human performance. In these departments (which is it encouraged to pick on that is outside of your realm of expertise) we get a chance to do an individual project related to the department we are put into. The final major component of this program is the team project. There are 4 team projects this year: Smart Cities, Metaverse, Space Sustainability, and Water Security. I'll be on the Water Security team when this part of the program starts in week 2!

Day 2 included some more introductions as well as our opening ceremony and dinner as a churrascaria. The opening ceremony included some amazing performances that my personal camera just doesn't do any justice. So you can find the entire ceremony on YouTube! But dinner after was amazing! I have never seen so much food delivered to me tableside so quickly in my life. And the way they picked up plates - was truly an engineering marvel to witness!

The rest of the work week included some lectures on the origins of the space age, space policy, business and economic rationales for space programs, management of space projects, the electromagnetic spectrum, orbital mechanics, space and the arts, the space environment, space applications and remote sensing, and microgravity. I think one of the most interesting lectures was the origins of the space age, where we got to explore from a global perspective, how air and spaceflight inspired our cultures and what lead to the first spaceflights. I also very much enjoyed learning how art has inspired space and vice versa. This lecture was a lot about things I have viewed or utilized but never really took a moment to see how space and art truly work in tandem with each other to keep our industry moving forward.

We also had a chance to get to know each other by chatting about our path to the space industry.

Also as part of this first week we were able to do two team workshops to improve our communication skills and ability to work in a team. The first workshop, we had to build a contraption out of 50 straws and tape to hold a marshmallow. We went one step further and secured the marshmallow so we could make our contraption fly! (See the upright landing below!)

Our second task was to build as accurate of a representation of SpaceX's Starship vehicle using paper, toilet paper tubes, aluminum foil, and glue.

At the end of the week, we were able to interact with the local students at ITA. There we got to eat some traditional Brazilian desserts and learn about their rocketry club. We were also taught how to walk on a slackline (sorry, no pictures of this mess were found while writing this post!)

Every Friday night, we have a cultural night where a handful of countries get to show us about their culture, hear their music, and cook foods native to their countries. This week we honored Australia, Canada, Austria, Spain, and Scotland. The Canadian's went all out and brought in a kayak filled with ice and drinks! It was a nice and fun way to interact with each other in a more relaxed manner and a great way to close out the week.

While most weekends are filled with professional visits and project work, this weekend was one of our free weekends. About half of us ventured about ~2 hours away from Sao Josè dos Campos to a little island called Ilhabela - which means "Beautiful Island". We took a Jeep tour of the island and hunted for some of the islands most beautiful waterfalls. You can take a look for yourself below.

We that about sums up the majority of the chaos that ensued during the first week of SSP23 in Sao Josè dos Campos. See you next week!