Morning started with a plank because some people… decided to sleep in. Around nine o´clock the official opening was marked by a beautiful sunrise and ribbon cutting. After the opening and a short fruit/coffee break, the members were split into groups of seven and we had an interesting tour around the Andøya Space where we were not only introduced to the main buildings, but also the rocket range. Lunch eaten, we got divided into our work groups: Science experiments, Payload (basically building the rocket), Sensor experiment (plus the PTU) and lastly Telemetry. Science and Sensor experiment groups got a crash course on soldering and then actually got to train for tomorrows work. Payload was introduced to the placements of sensors and the wiring. The Telemetry group got an explanation about how the data transfers from the rocket (which is in the air) to the computers and we got to know the hardware. Individual groups got together to brain-storm the ideas of what scientific processes the rocket could measure. It interesting how well students from different nations and backgrounds can get together to find a solution and be able to create a safe place to share ideas. The best part of the day – The hike. Being able to see the Andøya Space and the rest of Andøya from the mountain top (Ramnan) and have the feeling of accomplishment to actually getting to the top alive. Tired and sweat from the hike we decided that a plunge in the Arctic Ocean would be the best idea. It actually wasn’t so bad? Finally, the cultural exchange aka candy from Austria, Latvia and Germany. We thought that this was actually the best part of the day (don’t tell the team coaches). A lot of science, a lot of sugar – what more is there to ask for?

Ville, Samanta, Robbin

Day two of space camp was a huge success!
We have made a lot of progress towards finishing the rocket and even completed the weather balloon! Most of the sensors are now finished and have been tested, some have even been mounted to the frame of the rocket! José gave a very interesting lecture on the different types of balloons that can be used for scientific research, and their strengths and weaknesses. The science experiment group had also been working on simulating the flight of the rocket and presented their findings to the whole group. This helped us to answer some of the questions that we were planning to investigate with the rocket launch!

In the evening Sophie gave two very interesting lectures regarding the James Webb Telescope and the possibility of living on mars. The most memorable parts were holding a piece of the moon, mars and the Hubble telescope. Also, we made water boil in a syringe at less than 100 degrees! #sciencerocks

By far the most exciting part of the day came at the very end, when we built mini rockets out of paper and fired them with a compressed air rocket launcher! This was incredibly effective and launched the rockets way higher than we expected! Robbin and Emil won the competition, with their rocket ‘the beetle’ travelling furthest!

Overall, it was a great day and we can’t wait to do more exciting things tomorrow!
Chur g’s

Spencer, Hannah, Amy, Sondre

Today our goals were to finish the design of the rocket and to release the weather balloon to collect data, that we can launch the rocket properly tomorrow.
But interestingly today we released two balloons, the first balloon sadly popped at an altitude of 14km, which meant another balloon was required to reach higher altitudes. The assembly of the second balloon took 1.5 hours, which was astonishing, as yesterday it took 8 hours. Furthermore, we had to track the balloon manually to get the data, which meant sitting outside twice for 1.5 hours holding the antenna (since this is the time the balloon needs to reach 29 km), however we had an incredible view. But it was worth the effort: the data from the second balloon was a surprise even for the physicists, tomorrow we are in for an exciting presentation.
Other dramas included damage to the payload. The sensor short circuited and when we tried to unscrew the sensor from the board, one of the screws had lost a thread and couldn’t be unscrewed. This led to the payload team having to use an angle grinder to remove the sensor from the board.
After the sensor was removed, we signed the rocket and painted the name of the rocket onto it: Kinetic Energy Needle (KEN).
Then some of us went for what was actually meant to be a nice walk on the beach and found a dead seagull.
Back to Saturn (the classroom) we got a lecture from a Kongsberg employee, which was quite interesting and we learned about micro/nano technology in space.
After everything was (hopefully) successfully finished for the launch tomorrow, we finally had a bit of spare time, which we spent on the ESC Dance Show 2023. It turned out to be super fun. While some of us afterwards went to the shop in Andenes to buy i.e. whale sausage, others ate again some brown cheese and learned funny Latvian sentences. That’s it for today and excited for tomorrow.

Thursday was a very interesting day. We started off with a pre-flight meeting and we were all excited about the upcoming launch. However, something seemed to be wrong – in the middle of the meeting we got some news: There is a problem! Without getting too much information, we were informed that the launch would be delayed due to technical issues, but at that point we were not thinking too much of it. The pre-flight meeting went on, and we went through the countdown procedure.
After a delicious lunch in the cantina, we were presented with a big challenge: we were to construct support for a water balloon to be dropped from different heights. With a limited amount of time and material, we had to make a safe construction for the water balloon in small teams. As the time ran out, no team was done with their construction, but Team Space Camp treated us with great mercy and gave us 5 extra minutes. In the first part of the competition, some groups qualified for a second, final round later.
Now it was time for a status meeting – we entered the classroom, sat down and waited for an announcement. We had to decide if we wanted to hear the good or bad news first: there was an unwanted message to deliver. The good news was that it was sunny outside; the bad news, however, was that the numerical analyst in charge of the wind-weighting program was on vacation and could therefore not fix the technical issues. Consequently, there would be no launch. Heartbroken, we went for dinner.
After dinner, we had two very interesting lectures with Daniel Wischert from ESA. We learned about concurrent engineering and its benefits when making space programs, but also about upcoming and previous ESA missions – so cool!
We ended the day with a super fun and challenging dancing competition where we all got to work together to perform the best dance moves. All in all, this day had its ups and downs which made it unforgettable.
Figaro, Kasia, Stefano, Hanna

Friday was a really interesting day. We started the day with morning activities. After breakfast we had an interesting lecture by Marianne Moen from Norwegian Space Agency. She told us interesting facts about the history of Norwegian space activities, and also the use of space. Marianne spoke about the use of satalite photos, and communication via satellites. Then we worked on our final presentations based on the data from previous rocket launch. We were working on 4 scientific cases: Magnetism, Energy, Weather and Position.
In the afternoon, we got to know that Andoya Space staff lied to us and that the rocket can be fired. The Team Space Camp told us that the staff was brainwashed by the aliens as our balloon almost revealed their existence. We launched the KEN2.0 rocket to inform that we want peace 😊.

In the evening we had a bonnfire where we baked stickbread, sausages and marshmallows. Some people went for late night swim in the Arctic Ocean and we sang songs from different countries (and danced to some of them)!

Today started with an ocean bath and the sauna, followed by the always loved morning gym where we played gravity’s coming – a space version of the Norwegian game “Haien kommer” After the delicious breakfast (with lots of brown cheese) we got to play charades which was at least as cool as the actually planned GPS hunt. Words such as “space junk”, “sustainably fished whale sausage” and “touching JWST” were mimicked by the incredibly talented and experienced actors among us. We continued the morning with Lukass’ thrilling love story and made sure that with the help of our creatively crafted devices, Lukass’ love can overcome all borders

Today was the day we went back home. This has truly been a wonderful week!