Bonjour from International Space University!

Elizabeth's journal about her experience at International Space University in Strasbourg, France. Read on to find out what she did...

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Studying

Nothing exciting to report today unless you count doing laundry as exciting. It was for me because we have so little free time. I was happy to finally get it done! J The lectures continue to get more technical. Today we learned about the sun and heliosphere, space propulsion, and the space environment. We spent the afternoon with our departments. In business and management we had two more lectures; "strategic planning" and "sales and selling". Then we were given a role of either a buyer or a seller for a satellite or launch company, respectively. We paired up and had to negotiate an agreement and price. My partner, Eric, and I came to a win/win solution and were very pleased with our agreement even after comparing the information we were each given.

After the lectures and workshop I met with my business and management project team to work out some of the details and assignments for our project, which is to respond to a request for proposal. To briefly summarize the request, there is a company with a new launch vehicle that has room for a satellite payload which will go into a sun-synchronous orbit (for those of you who understand what that means). It must be a weather satellite with commercial applications. Today we came up with an idea of what type of service the satellite would provide to industry and assigned sections of the proposal to each individual. There are 4 people in the group. Eric from Canada, Alexander from the Netherlands, Jizhong from China, and myself. Jizhong is working on his English, but it is a challenge to talk about something so technical without a translator. We are all doing our best to make sure that we talk slow enough and that he understands and has an opportunity to contribute.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just being there is exciting. I heard a reprt on NPR while driving home today that I thought might be of interest. It was a space entrepreneur. I believe his last name is Bigelow and he has made his fortune as a hotel developer / owner. His dream has been to build a hotel in space perhaps as an embarkation point for points beyond. He has formed a company I believe is in Nevada and has approximately 100 people working full time on making the dream a reality. Today Russia launched and placed into orbit a prototype inflatable bus sized room powered with solar panels. It is a technology developed by NASA and licensed to Mr. Bigelow. Apparantly NASA proposed this technology and Congress did not approve according to the report. The story is probaly on the NPR website if you want to know more.

Hope you are able to make learning all this technical stuff enjoyable and fun. I know you can!

Love and miss you!
dad

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Elizabeth,

I'm not sure if I'm leaving this comment in the correct place, but I hope you see it:) Andrew and I want to say that we miss you and we hope you're having a wonderful time. We also want to wish you a very very happy birthday. It seems pretty fun to spend your birthday shopping in Paris, but I know you miss your friends and family. So...from Andrew, Rhea, Nathan, and Elena....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I'm not sure what the Parisian way is to celebrate a birthday is, but I hope you find out!!

The Montpools

6:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELIZABETH!!! Nope, I didn't forget! Todd says the same! Hope you have a great day - kinda cool to celebrate it in France! You should go out and buy yourself something nice today - consider it a present from everyone who couldn't be there with ya! Love ya!

7:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Elizabeth,

Well besides working I hope you have time to fully enjoy Paris etc.. But main reason i logged on was to say
H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y
look forward to reading all your updates! :)

David & Laura

8:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Elizabeth,

Happy Birthday! Are you really 27? Can that be possible? The week sounds like it was full and fun. I love it that you are getting much attention--again, you are different and your love and concern for others shows in the way you talk and the way you act. Your relationship to Jesus is obvious. How thankful I am for your faith and your sweet walk.

I wish some of us could be in Paris with you today. But, know that we are lifting you up and loving you from here. Papaw had his birthday yesterday and had a good day. This is a wish from him, too!

Mike and I celebrate our 30th anniversary on Monday. Guess what I will be doing next week? Vacation Bible School. Fun!

We love you and wish you all the best. Aunt Kathy, Mike, John, David and Ben. (Mamaw and Papaw, too!)

8:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Elizabeth!!
Have a great time shopping in Paris(sorry Ross). We've been enjoying reading about all your adventures. Keep up the good work.

Love,
Grandaddy & Grndmother

2:43 PM  

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