Imagine trying to pilot a Space Shuttle simulator if you are a person with low vision.

That was the recent experience of two Sydney teenagers, who receive school support services from NextSense.

Rhianna and Sam joined over 200 blind and low vision high school students from around the world at the Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCIVIS) in the US in late September.

The pair travelled to the US Space & Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, chaperoned by NextSense support teachers, Joy and Monica.

It was the adventure of a lifetime

Rhianna said the experience was “fantastic” and that the highlight for her was the gravity chair, which simulates the low gravity experienced by Apollo astronauts on the Moon.

Sam’s highlight was the multi-axis trainer (MAT) simulator, a device used by NASA to train astronauts to handle a spacecraft's uncontrolled tumbling in space. It uses a system of spinning rings to disorient trainees.

“I think it made me taller,” Sam says.

“It stretched my body out.”

Sam, 17, attends the Eileen O’Connor Catholic College in Lewisham. Rhianna, also 17, attends Hills Grammar in Kenthurst.

The pair receive support at their schools several times a year from Monica, who provides assessment and guidance around assistive technologies and helps to build the students’ independence and confidence in the classroom and beyond.

As well as crewing a space shuttle simulator, camp attendees slept in old NASA rockets; rescued submerged airline ‘passengers’ using SCUBA equipment; jumped out of space re-entry capsules into water and much more.

Pranitha Moodley, Manager of School Support Services at NextSense and a Specialist Teacher of blind and low-vision children, has attended three Space Camps with NextSense students.

“It really is a trip of a lifetime,” Pranitha says.

“Students forge strong friendships with other blind and low vision teenagers from all corners of the world.”

If attending the space camp wasn’t exciting enough, shortly after returning to Sydney, Rhianna and Sam joined Pranitha, for a live-to-air interview on ABC TV’s Weekend Breakfast program, where viewers saw videos and photos of many of the pair’s activities.

Asked by program co-host, Lorna Dunkley, if the multi-axis trainer had made him “feel sick”, Sam told viewers: “Nope; not even dizzy, nothing”.

Rhianna said another highlight was “meeting new people”.

Pranitha told viewers that the Space Camp runs throughout the year for “mainstream students” but for one week is adapted for low-vision and blind students.

“Everything is adapted and made accessible, all the panels are removed, and we have brail and large print panels added. We have brail accessible material for our students, with audio and lots of tactual and 3D resources,” Pranitha says.

NextSense, with the help of its generous donors, sends two students to SCIVIS every second year.

“Not only are our students ambassadors for NextSense but for Australia, representing blind and low-vision students,” Pranitha says.

“Although we teach confidence with the expanded core curriculum in schools, this is an add-on.”