Tag Archives: travel

To Infinity and Beyond

On May 22, 2012, SpaceX successfully launched the first commercial (non government) spacecraft into space. SpaceX’s launch vehicle, Falcon 9 carried the spacecraft, Dragon, into the atmosphere. After reaching space Dragon approached the International Space Station (ISS). Upon arriving, the station’s robotic arm moved Dragon into place to attach to the station. The spacecraft returned to Earth on May 31 splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, 450 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. This difficult feat was a success, making Dragon the first commercial spacecraft to visit and berth to the ISS.

I know you are wondering, why is this such an accomplishment? For starters, any  space travel you’d be driving for hours trying to find your vacation destination, asking your parents the same old question, “Are we there yet?” Secondly, only four governments have made it to the ISS. If a business makes it to space before other governments, that has to be HUGE. I am impressed with the SpaceX mission and am proud to say that I was alive when this feat in history was made.

~Arman Cabral

Vacationing in London

Have you ever wanted to go to London, but never knew what to do? Well I have here some places I have found that you just have to see. The first thing is the London eye boats tour and ride on the London eye. The boat tour takes you up the Thames river. During this time you see things like The London Bridge, London Tower, and where Shakespear’s plays used to be. This is something that you don’t want to miss. The London eye ride is also lots of fun. At the start the workers put you into one of the pods on the London eye. The pods are air conditioned and have IPads. On the IPads you can get information on some of the sites you can see on the ride, like Big Ben. At the end there are cameras that will take a picture of you.The trip around  London is 30 minutes. I have found that it is best to get the boat ride and London eye tickets together.

One more place that I found to be great to see is the London Dungeon. This is a walk though the evil times of London. Although it may be scary for some people I found it fun and exciting. It is also educational because the stuff in there is true. Now that you have read this maybe you know what to do in London.

~Niletta Burton

The Future Is Not So Far Away!

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Have you heard about the 60’s tv show called Star Trek? Well, the starship featured in the show named the USS Enterprise may not be so futuristic now! Scientists and engineers have plans for production of a similar spacecraft in twenty years. You might think, how is our government going to get all that money? Well just a slight tweak in taxes, we can get the money we need for this project very quickly.  We could have one of these spacecraft hurdling through space in no time!

Today, for man to travel to planets in our galaxy is not even really possible. But when we get these spacecraft up and running we could reach Mars in 90 days. With today’s technology we would reach mars in 214 days, which is a big difference and advancement in world history.

Almost all of the specifications are planned out. The ship would be built in space, there would be a rotating gravity wheel inside the saucer ( as shown in picture ) and it would look almost identical to the fictional USS enterprise! It would have 1 nuclear reactor to propel the ship and it is said to have 3 more to make the electricity needed to power it. The spacecraft will function as a spaceship, space station and a spaceport. It will be able to drop off rovers, satellites and other machines to observe a planet or go a different direction in space. There would also be space for people to check out space for the first and most likely only time (there will  be no guarantee that the price will be cheap). Also, one of the coolest most futuristic parts of the spacecraft is its laser it can use for cutting through ice or rock on a planet.

~Noah Perlroth

My “ Epic” Family Trip

Over the summer my sister, my dad, my step-mom, and I  all went on a family trip to “The Big Sky State”, Montana, with 13 other members of my step-mom’s family. My step-mom’s dad and her own an Upland Bird hunting and Fly fishing ranch. The ranch is located on 5,200 acres of beautiful scenery. I personally was kind of scared because of the rattle snakes, but I fortunately never actually encountered one. I also thought, “wow, I’m gonna be bored outta my mind!,” but there was always something that I could be doing, like fishing in the two ponds, or driving the ATV’s around the property.

Probably the most epic thing we did was go Horseback riding through Yellowstone National Park. The reason I describe this as epic was because of how goofy everybody looked! My little sister, Kinsey, got an old, blind mule horse named Opal, who was partially deaf and blind in one eye. My dad, also had a mule. What was funny about that is that mules aren’t as big as horses, so my dad sitting on that mule was like Shaquille O’neil riding a miniature pony. My dad’s mule also had stripes on its legs, like a zebra! My horse wasn’t dysfunctional or funny looking like my dad or sisters’ mules because I had an actual horse, named Bear. Bear was good for the most part, but he was mean. Bear kept bucking and trying to kick my grandpa’s horse. My grandpa’s horse was probably one of the funniest things though. His horse had googly eyes and was actually called “Crazy Horse”.

Over all, my family had a very “interesting” trip and we look forward to doing it again next summer!

~William Ratchelous