More than 200 Alabama Girl Scouts will converge in Huntsville, Ala., Nov. 7-8 to visit NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. About 30 cadets and senior-level scouts will visit the Marshall Center Nov. 7 to discuss careers with Marshall engineers and tour the center's key engineering facilities, where they will learn about NASA's Environmental Control and Life Support System for the International Space Station -- the recycling efforts cuts dependence on resupply from Earth, reducing it by 15,000 pounds each year the water and consumables launched. The group also will visit the Huntsville Operations Support Center -- a mission support facility that distributes secure voice communications, video and science and spaceflight data anywhere in the world.
The scouts will join the rest of their troop members that night at the Space & Rocket Center for team-building activities and viewing the 3D movie "Fly Me to the Moon." On Nov. 8, the troops will take part in space-themed workshops, including water filtration and building water bottle rockets. Senior-level scouts will take part in a LEGO League Robotics workshop developed by FIRST, the "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" program, a global effort to get kids excited about science and technology. The workshop lets young people build their own robots and program them to follow commands.