Stennis Space Center

Aug. 4, 2015

We decided to take one last family trip before school started on the 6th.  We wanted to do a temple trip, so we planned some fun things to do on the way to the temple in Baton Rouge, LA.  On the way there we stopped at the Stennis Space Center on the Louisiana Mississippi boarder.

This eagle carving is very unique.  I really liked it.

We got there about lunch time, so we had a little bite to eat before heading in.

There are several oceanic exploration vehicles.  It is interesting to see what each one was used for.

The Rufas I

The remote underwater fishery assessment system from the late 1960's.

Rufas II

Second generation remote underwater fishery assessment system introduced in 1974.

These giant buoys are still used by NOAA today to track storms.

The kids were more interested in the coins in the fountain than they were in the cool NOAA equipment.

I loved this display.  The astronauts are doll sized, but it shows what the old capsule models looked like.

One of the first things the boys noticed was this large Angry Birds Game.

Bradley was super excited!

Linear Aerospike Engine

It is pretty big!

This is a very large engine.

Made by Rolls-Royce

This simulator was a favorite.  The boys spend a lot of time playing on it.

Luckily it wasn't busy the day we were there, so they could play almost as long as they wanted.

Bradley trying to land his plane.  He got pretty good at it.

This was one of Eliza's favorites.  It is made out of Lego's.

Nathan checking on Bradley and Daniel.

Yeah Mom.  They are still going.

I spotted a cute little astronaut.

Nathan

Eliza loved this little squirrel.  She finds animals everywhere we go.

Another cute astronaut.

Daniel

Eliza and Nathan spotted the alligator in the swamp exhibit.

This gator lost his head...or body.  :)

This game was suppose to work with the movement of your arms.  The idea is to land the lunar landing ship on the moon using your arms to guide it.

It didn't work very well....

Two more cute astronauts!  They were popping up all over. 

Bradley and Eliza

Eliza hamming it up.

This simulator was upstairs.  In this one you had to land the space shuttle.  It was harder than the one downstairs.

This display shows what the inside of the space station looks like.  There is no way I could be in space for months on end.  It is way too small in there!

This is a robot they use to make repairs on the space station.

Upstairs they also had a paper airplane station.  There were instructions on ways to make paper airplanes.  Bradley was a paper airplane making machine!  He made one for Eliza as well.

Daniel making his.

This is a little runway on the floor below the paper airplane station.  The kids tried to get their planes to land on the run way.

While there we went on a bus tour of the grounds.  This is the second biggest NASA center in the U.S.  Cape Canaveral is the only one with more land.  This is a canal they built so they could get the big pieces of equipment in so they could build the testing sites, and the rockets and engines tested here.  The Navy uses the canal to run drills on river war fare and safety.

This is the main office building with rocket engines out front for decoration.

Naval Oceanographic Office

Stennis Space Center is basically a small city.  They have everything you could need from gas, to food, to laundry service.

This is one of the towers they use to test the rockets and engines for the space shuttles.  It was mind boggling to hear all the steel and cement that went into constructing this tower.  It has two bays and can test two rockets or engines at once.

Looking out at another tower.

These structures are huge!

It would be awesome to see them do testing here.

On the way back we saw a rocket fuel cell that was used on one of the Apollo space shuttles.

Back at the museum/visitor center we had to try more paper airplane flying.

Josh and Dad supervising Nathan and Eliza.

Nathan launching his air plane.

Another launch.

Eliza launching a plane.

After flying some planes we headed over to a bubble table.  They had all kinds of shapes you could try blowing bubbles with.

Eliza giving a triangle shape a try.

She got some bubbles!

Nathan joined her.  They had so much fun!

This bubble table kept them entertained for a long time.

Eliza headed over to the animal table again.  There was a lady there with pictures of animals and foot print casts.  She had the kids try to match the foot print with the animal.  It was a lot of fun.  She also had beaver teeth there.  It is amazing how big their teeth are!

This is a boar tooth.  I wouldn't want to have a run in with one of these guys.

Back upstairs we checked out more displays.  This one had tiles used on space shuttles.

This is one of the tires off of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.  

Then we found a thermal heat camera.

This is Mom and Nathan

Nathan was doing some cool dance moves for me.

Can you tell what this move is?

Mom

Next up is Daniel busting some moves.

Eliza tried her hand at dancing.

Dad came over to see what we were up to.  Looking at his picture compared to the others you can see that hair can shield the heat from the camera.  Dad's head is really hot with out any hair. :)

He is holding Josh in these pictures.

Then I put Josh on the ground on his blanket.  I took off my sandals and walked around to get a better picture.  I noticed that my bare feet left a heat signature for a few seconds.

I talked Andy into walking around Josh so I could get a picture of his feet leaving a heat signature behind.

We had a lot of fun. :)

Nathan loved the simulators.  He only got to drive if you found one that his brothers were not at.   He takes his driving very seriously.

We got wanted a family picture by this awesome boat on our way out.  Dad got the camera set up with the timer.

Ah!  Everyone was looking except me!!!

Dad, Bradley, Daniel, Nathan, Josh, Mom and Eliza

That is better.

These are some big engines.

There was a little pond with signs warning about alligators.  We tried to find some, but no luck.

It was a really fun place to visit.  We would definitely come again.  After loading up we continued on to Baton Rouge, LA.