db does a blog

Although one of the lucky ones to go to the press preview day last week, yesterdays visit to the Tom Sachs : Space Program Mars with my son Max was much more fun!

If you are planing to check it out, make sure you go on a day when they are doing demonstrations, or the indoctrination process. This includes an oral & written test to see if you're made of astronaut martial & could handle the training to go to Mars. 

Max (who's 11) and I were the first testers of the day to get all the answers right.

We did have a bit of head's-up over all the others that were failing miserably around us.
We figured out that the written questions in the test all refer to subject matter covered in the 5 short films one is meant to watch as you enter the building.
As I'd already been hugely inspired & blogged about the Ten Bullets video, it was easy & fun to watch all the films with Max, knowing that we would be using these fun facts in the test. http://dbdoesablog.com/10-bullets-by-tom-sachs-code-i-wish-to-live-b 
Test's past with flying colors & our task complete to the satisfaction of our trainer (sweeping a portion of the hall) we were given a NASA rubber stamp on our hands.
This was our OK to climb up into, & be given the basic technical rundown of the LEM (Landing Excursion Module)

Crewman Evan did a very informative Q&A for us & the other lucky trainees on board the LEM. I wanted to know if the guns were on board because no knew what would be faced one the planet's surface & also which brand of beens were stocked? (not Heinz sadly) Hope the air filtration system hold up.

View of the LEM from the Rover's on board monitor, on Mars surface.

Tom was even nice enough to sign Max's punched ticket.
FYI: ABK is bullet # 8 of the Ten & stands for Always Be Knolling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoll_(verb)

You may have seen the sticker created from this in the book www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780789320827 We left the training with the same motto in our heads..