There was much excitement on P2 Space Day as we found our classrooms transformed into a space station. We were given our security passes on entry and were informed of the various tasks we would have to perform to pass Level 1 of our space training programme. We were told of the qualities we would need in order to pass each test such as good listening and communication skills, a willingness to try things we haven’t done before and a determination to keep going even if the task is difficult.

We tried to simulate the same conditions as astronauts by wearing thick, padded ‘space gloves’ and visors while completing our tasks. Not the easiest of equipment we realised as we tried to sort space rocks and planet dust to take home for scientific analysis, undertake various building projects and repair equipment by fitting screws and nuts onto bolts! Luckily, we had the ground crew in NASA’s mission control giving us instructions and we managed to get the jobs done.

We had the fiddly task of creating a chain to attach ourselves to when venturing outside the station. We persevered and created some impressively long chains using paper clips. We then had to put on our spacesuits and venture outside the space station on a spacewalk to repair some equipment damaged in a meteor shower. We wore belts with carabiners tethered to a handrail and had to make sure we did not unclip both carabiners at the same time or we would have floated away!

Successfully completing our mission, we returned to the safety of the station and sampled some Space Food. We ate spaghetti bolognaise and cheesy pasta sealed in pouches, some dried pineapple and mango, slices of sticky cake and a tortilla spread with honey (no chance of crumbs floating around in the station!). We recorded our impressions of what we ate, and concluded that space food wasn’t that bad, but we would miss our sausages and chips!

Whilst there was much fun to be had we concluded that life must be quite challenging for an astronaut!