Knox Astro Blog – Day 16
It’s hard to believe we’re only halfway through the program–time truly does fly when you’re having fun. It feels as if I’ve known the people here for years, and despite the challenging workload and late nights spent collaborating on PSETs, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I’ve struggled, laughed, stressed, and experienced every emotion under the sun in the span of ~2.5 weeks, and this morning I unlocked a new one: panic.
I’ve always been a late riser, the saying “the early bird gets the worm” never held much meaning to me. Morning lecture starts at 9:30 AM (14:30 UT), and on a typical day I would probably wake up ~9:00. Yet, being tired from the work due the night prior–LSPR & Report: Observing Methods–I decided it would be a great idea to ignore my five alarms and wake up a little later. Let’s just say that a little later meant rushing to leave the dorm on time while still making sure to complete my morning routine. I probably should have taken more time getting ready, as I arrived at the SMAC (Science Building) six or seven minutes early!
Before I entered the Simpson-Powelson Company Classroom, I was greeted by Sarah, Cynthia, and Luyao’s chalkboard art, and to say I was impressed is an understatement. Seeing this first thing in the morning was one of the many highlights of my day!
The morning lecture with Dr. F was a bit complicated, we started off with calculating two of the six orbital elements (argument of perihelion and mean anomaly) based on the initial position and initial velocity, and then dived straight into generating an Ephemeris without using JPL Horizons! By the time we reached our first ten minute break, we had just finished calculating the orbital elements. For some reason, instead of leaving the classroom for a walk–as most of us usually do–we all stayed and started playing games. Irene was staring right at the camera as I took the photo while Sarah, Cynthia, Rohan, and Sid were playing Pokemon TCG Pocket.
As the lecture came to an end, I managed to take a photo of the Ephemeris generation process because the chalkboard looked cool with all the writing! I expected the process to be more challenging, but it was more straightforward than I initially believed it to be!
Since lecture ends at 12:30 PM, we go straight to lunch after. Although I forgot to take a picture of the food, trust me when I say that the food here is probably the best I’ve had. Every single meal has been consistently good, and I always look forward to meals because of how many new options we have every day. Irene, Cynthia, Sarah, Lucas, Luyao, Tayne, and I walked over together and while we were waiting for Luyao to join us, we decided to take a photo for the blog!
Second lecture started at 1:30 PM and because I was completely focused on trying to understand what was happening, I forgot to take photos :(. Dr. Rocky’s lecture was unique–we played a whole class game of guessing the quadrant with six teams while learning about Random Walk, Gaussian Distribution, and Error Propagation! As the lecture came to an end at ~4:30 PM, we stayed back to continue working until 5:30 so that we could get ready for dinner!
Dinner was a whole rollercoaster. Our table was Dr. Dimitris, Aboud, Delfin, Sid, and Hamza and we had so much fun with contact (a game our cohort has been playing nonstop). To summarize, we were having trouble guessing Aboud’s word (which started with phi) and he declared that he would give us the word if and only if we went up during announcements and declared him the “contact champion”. Less than ten seconds after Dr. Dimitris was able to guess the word, and so Aboud had to go up and make a long announcement regarding how Dr. Dimitris is the “contact champion”. We wanted to get a group photo after, but we were unable to because we got displaced after Aboud’s announcement!
Cynthia and I went on a walk after dinner and decided to do a few laps before heading back to the science building to work on PSET 5 (which was due at 11:59 PM). We talked about so many different things and had so much fun just walking and talking!
As soon as the clock struck 8:00 PM, I was fully locked in. I had 4 hours to finish PSET 5 and although it was relatively easier compared to the earlier PSETs, I still wanted to make sure I had enough time to put forth my best work without stressing about submitting before the deadline. This being said, nothing super interesting happened except for the occasional joke from Aryaman, Frank, or Sriharsh as they laughed over something random.
As we packed up for the night and left the science building earlier than usual, Senya, Luyao, and I took a quick picture to celebrate another day at SSP! I decided to take a photo with Dr. F, Senya, Frank, Aryaman, and Sriharsh right after as I wanted to try and get more people in the blog!
Since we were heading back early, a ton of us decided to sit and talk before getting ready to go to bed! There were so many people so I don’t remember exactly who was there, but it was an amazing end to the day! We joked around and talked about things that would normally take me months to admit to someone I just got to know.
Until this experience I’ve only had one home away from home, and I thought I would never be able to recreate that feeling until post-high school. But the people here–students, faculty, and dining room staff–have been nothing but kind and warm. I’ve had the chance to be myself in every single situation, no matter if it’s me crashing out or talking about the most obscure topic that comes to mind.
The best part by far is how comfortable everyone is with one another, there are no cliques and we are all friends with every other person (including faculty)! There is genuinely something for everyone here, and I am really going to miss this when it comes to an end. The hardest part of this program isn’t the problems or the complex physics, it’s thinking about saying goodbye to everyone.
I mean it when I say I wouldn’t trade this for anything else, and I hope everyone is able to find a community that makes them feel like this! Thank you for reading my blog!!
blog author
Rhea
SSP Participant
Hi!! My name is Rhea and I’m from Washington state! I love the intersection between engineering and space due to my interest in the unknown/what exists beyond our galaxy. I also developed a passion for philosophy over the course of the last few years and enjoy debating ethics. Outside of academics, I love long-distance biking and spending time with my friends!