I went to OMSI yesterday with my father and other CVA students. I woke up at 5 in the morning. I was excited to go, even though it was still dark outside when we got on the bus. It was a lot of fun.
The first thing we did was we went to the Turbine Hall. It had a model of one of the return shuttles from one of the Apollo missions. Next we went over to some robots that play Connect 4. They were big yellow robots and they could only move left and right. They could drop the ball too. Then we went to the Physics Lab. We had a lot of fun there playing with generators and telegraph machines. Next we went upstairs and played with a robot with a vacuum arm. It could move up, down, left and right.
Next we went outside to tour the submarine. It was awesome! It was the last diesel submarine in US service. It was in the Willamette River. The outside of the submarine was painted black. It was a hybrid. That means it has an electric motor and a diesel engine for going fast and deep. The bad parts were that it couldn't go under water because they cut doors in the side and we couldn't go into the sail to see the control bridge. We got to see everything else, even the torpedo room. We were warned not to touch any switches or buttons because they had a torpedo loaded and ready to fire.
I had a great time at OMSI. I learned a lot about telegraph machines that I didn't already know. I am excited to go again and maybe even participate in some of their science camps!
7 comments:
Sounds like a great trip, Jonathan! We enjoyed getting to see you.
You said that they cut doors on the side of the submarine, why did they do that?
They cut doors because they did not have a good way for people to get in to see it. You either had to get in through the sail or through the torpedo hatch. People aren't allowed to go in the sail because the stuff in it is top secret. The torpedo hatch is small and has no ladder.
Thank you, Aunt Stasia, for having us over to your house after the trip. Also thank you for the Mountain Dew. It was very tasty.
Why do they still have an active torpedo on the sub?
I don't know why they have active torpedoes on the sub. But they wanted to make sure they had good torpedoes so when you went in the sub it would show you what it was actually like. Did you know that they even had to sleep on the torpedoes to fit enough people in the sub...it was even the considered one of the best places to sleep for enlisted men. Also having real torpedoes will make people want to come back so they stay in business.
That submarine looks pretty cool. I bet they cut the hole in the side because a lot of people that would like to see the sub could not climb the ladder in the sail.
Hey Old Guy that's correct, but they also said the sail is a military secret.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for reminding me about your blog. So glad I got to see these pictures. It's pretty coo (and a little scary) that they have the active torpedo there.
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