It has been a summer not to forget for Sofia Carerra-Knowles, who attended a once-in-a-lifetime European Space Camp before collecting outstanding A levels at Bolton School. Recapping her experience, Sofia said:
‘During the summer I attended the European Space Camp which is a camp where 24 young people, aged 17-20, are chosen, through a selection process, to travel to Andøya Space in Norway. I applied through their website and had to complete multiple tasks, such as building a paper rocket, which led to me receiving a scholarship from the European Space Agency.
‘During the camp we experienced the process of building and launching a rocket. This included building and soldering the sensors for the rocket’s payload. I was in charge of the payload team, which assembled all of the components onto the rocket. It took around three days in total to build, alongside lectures presented by scientists and engineers from all over the world.
‘On the scheduled launch day we prepared for countdown but had to cancel due to complications just as we reached the last five seconds! We successfully launched the rocket the next day. With the rocket itself being around 2 and a half metres tall, it managed to reach a height of nearly 9000m which is higher than Mount Everest!
‘In addition to the lectures and rocket work, we were encouraged to take part in many activities including hiking, GPS challenges and swimming under the midnight sun. We were also given rocks to hold from the Moon and Mars as well as parts of the Hubble telescope. It was definitely an incredible experience where I met people from all over Europe. In my team there were people from Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Sweden and many more places from all kinds of different backgrounds. It was definitely a summer I will never forget!’
Watch the launch of the rocket here:
