New Building, New CASA.

Santa left the students of CASA something over Christmas break, and it wasn't a lump of coal. We came back on January third to an entirely new building, an upgrade of unimaginable proportions from the dingy overcrowded classroom we started the semester in.

Last year, the CASA building was in total disarray. Electrical work was exposed, mold was infiltrating the walls, and the entire system was falling apart. This semester, it's a fresh new start. Not only do we get a space equipped with both a room for mission, and mission control, we've set up dividers in the mission room; so we have spaces for storing projects of years past, space for PAO to bring you the latest CASA news (equipped with green screens and lights), and space with brand new tech that students can utilize to bring their ideas to life.

With mission sixteen classes (24 hours) away, students are frantically setting up work-spaces, developing experiments, and reviewing their responsibilities for mission. Our lead designer of the Aeneas station has been working to make it functional for mission. The station not only provides long term life support to the astronauts making the journey to Venus, but has artificial gravity via centrifugal force, nuclear power, and the ability to survey the atmosphere of Venus with probes upon arrival. We also have a student compiling a bestiary of potential microorganisms that we might find on Venus, using extremophiles from earth (organisms that survive at extreme temperatures) as a template. We have teams of students assembling the station, assembling a hydroponics system, and assembling the mission space.

We're on track for a great mission, and a great time come mission in March.