I'm now a graduate of Mars Academy Crew 1115 as the Crew Engineer and 3D Printing Officer. How I got there I was not pushed out of my comfort zone but, I think that I was thrown out of my comfort zone. Preparation Day -2 of the simulation It starts innocently enough I go to here place first and there is a shit ton of stuff and someone else and we have to pack all this camping equipment and electronics into our car. Then we go onto a campsite in 105 to 110 degree weather we start setting up tents where red ants are crawling around. The tents were these things that you pulled them out from the sides but, when I pushed the roofs up I got a sand shower seems she didn't wash the tents before we used them. Then when we were setting up the tents with poles it was like doing trigonometry or something and she told the intern to pull on one of these poles and the intern got a splinter. After that at night Susan who was in charge of the whole thing was afraid to drive back because it was night time and wanted to sleep there I suggested we go home because not all the places to sleep weren't set up yet. I had the idea of driving Susan to her place and since I had to be at her place anyway Tomorrow at 8 AM I suggested since I had my luggage all packed I just sleep at her place. She seconded the idea and said it was OK. This was a totally different experience never in my life was I invited to sleepover at a persons place that was offering me a chance to advance my career. She was really nice she made food for me and let me use the shower.  Day -1 of the simulation So we wake up she makes breakfast and stuffs my car with more stuff to take to the campsite. We get to the campsite and we start setting more things up. Unfortunately over there its no signal over there or wifi. So we had two more people joining us so I go to the McDonalds 2 miles away to get a wifi signal and some girl is supposed to be picking them up. So I keep trying to get in touch with the lady who was supposed to pick them up. She is not answering turns out she's at the court fighting a case and suing people. Susan read the message wrong so that left me and her. She told me I had to go pick them up at the flyaway. So I have to drive back 32 miles to the flyaway airport I meet both of them and they are great people. One is from Mexico city and he's a pilot and a doctor the other is an Indian guy who lives in Muscat, Oman and he is a doctor who works for Aerospace medicine. So I drive both of them to a T-mobile store so one of them can get a sim card. I get to know them more. On the way back to the campsite we get stuck in traffic the drive up there takes an hour and a half. We finally get there and they help us with the tents that we couldn't put up Yesterday. So at midnight the sim actually starts and I'm briefed on how it works and what we're supposed to do. Simulation starts Day 1  The next day I am in charge of waking people up and I wake them all up at 7 AM. After that we have a sim we need to do also since we are technically on "Mars" we use a bathroom for number 1 inside of the habitat and I was put in charge of taking care of people's liquid waste. Before we leave for the mission in 110 degree weather we have to don our space suits. Now this crazy women wants us to put on these black suits in this weather then after we put on the black suits we need to put something extra on our legs, then we have to wear these nasty smelling latex gloves, then we have a radio with an ear piece that we have to put on our ears with scotch tape on it, then we need to wear a beanie, then a square backpack filled with Tupperware (oxygen system), and last but certainly not least we have to wear these stupid biker helmets that squish our heads and rams the ear piece into our ears. So after we're done wearing this spacesuit monstrosity we go to the airlock and wait 3 minutes until we leave we are using the radio. So I'm in charge of taking care of the liquid waste so I am all disoriented and my head feels cramped. I go to the main bathroom at the campsite and the lady tells me I can't dispose of the waste there so I radio that in and the crazy lady in charge of the mission wants me to take the waste into my car and dispose of the waste on my way up to the site we are going to. So I take the waste and dump it in the garbage disposal no way in hell is that getting anywhere near my car. So we all finally get in my car all cramped with the AC on full blast with all this spacesuit crap on me. So much stuff on me I have to contort myself into my own car. So finally after the 3 minute recompression sequence I can take off the helmet and the backpack. We drive up to the rocks in that terrible weather and once we get there we have to put on the stupid helmet and the backpack over again. Again it crashes my head and rams the radio in my ear then after that we go hiking on the rocks we communicate by radio and we have to take pictures and get samples. I get a headache and I go back down and I take the helmet and the earpiece out all disoriented. When I get back to the car the crew comes in my car to and once the helmet is off his face is sweating like crazy. They are concerned for my health and think I haven't drank enough water or had enough food. That's not the case at all it was just the stupid tight helmet that was driving me nuts. So we drive back to the hab and after that I finally get a chance to take off all that space clothes. At night we install the lights at the habitat and it turns out that the lady who had that court date Yesterday finally makes it to the hab she doesn't bring her own car she had someone drop her off. Then we install lights at the hab so we don't have to use flashlights. At night when I sleep I sleep next to the Indian guy and he snores extremely loud, his snoring, the birds outside, and the sounds of ranchero music because of the campsites around us I have to use ear plugs.  Day 2 I wake people up at 7 AM again and it seems like the Indian guy and the Mexican (we are using inflatable mattresses that work with an air pump) their beds constantly deflated. So in the morning we go over how to do proper CPR and I practice CPR on the Mexican guy.  It was actually quite interesting learning about it and what to do. Then we go to the pool to practice underwater CPR I join them and it was the worst mistake I should've opted out. My car keys were still in my swimming trunks when I went in and luckily for me they were waterproof I thought I wouldn't be able to use the FOB on my car after that. Then when we get back I take a shower and it was the weirdest most awful and awkward shower I've ever taken in my life. I had limited water to use with dish washing soap and I had to put my clothes up in the zipper of the tent. Not to mention the toilet being right next to me. I get out of that shower ordeal. Now at this point by some miracle Susan needs to go back down to her house to collect some things and Carlos (the Mexican guy is in charge). He's much more lax and fun than Susan he's an awesome guy to be around. So me and him go out to a place with signal to finally get the UAV to work. I actually do a better job than him in figuring out how it works. We finally get it to work and fly it around the habitat (we spy on the other two lol) and then it flys up 100 feet in the air and finds its way back to us. Now I'm having fun and actually enjoying myself. We have another training where we pretend an astronaut has gotten lost and fell unconscious except this time around I don't have to wear those space suit monstrosities and I'm habcom. They go out in the scorching heat doing the exercise and I communicate with them on the inside. For this exercise we are using the drone although there is a problem and the drone isn't charging. Also because of the scorching heat the electrical system are having their fair share of charging and overheating problems. So when they ask for drone support I say I could if I could but, I can't (wasn't charged). So they bring in the "unconscious medic" and wear these hospital scrubs to do CPR on a manikin. They see all the 3D printed stuff I made and they are impressed. After that Susan finally comes back and she brings this sound therapy guy to do some sound therapy on us. Before that though we give our presentations and I give my presentation about 3D printing. Then when the guy is ready to do sound therapy the 5th and final member of the crew shows up who is the crew psychiatrist and film taker she's from Russia but, lives in Pasadena. She's just in time for the sound therapy. We do the sound therapy and the guy who does the sound therapy for us sleeps with us on that night. At night Ashock (the Indian guy) is pissed off at the bed situation and decides to put the queen mattress under his mattress and then what ends up happening is that his mattress plus the queen mattress both deflates and I end up in my bed sleeping at angle with his snoring which isn't comfortable at all.  Day 3 So we wake up and I wake everyone up early I hardly get a wink of sleep. My engineering room is a complete mess because now everyone is charging their electronics in that room that my laptop and my 3D printer is in. There is just a smorgasbord of usb cables, wires, chargers, and electronic devices in the scorching heat. So we go to the briefing room after that and the sound therapy guy makes us some egg whites. Seems like we're going to the rocks yet again. This time though it's different the drone works. Susan tells me I wont just be staying in the car all the time working with the drone but, she's not there and that's exactly what I do lol. The interesting thing is this I tell them that I may need a practice run with the drone before we go up to the rocks (it's an $800 piece of equipment). Commander Carlos denies my request and says there is no time (so I'm thinking if this drone crashes or something happens to it it's not my fault). So now the Russian girl brought her own car Carlos rides with her and I ride with the Indian guy and the artstronaut. At the rocks I fly the drone really high and take a couple of shots they're pretty good shots. I don't get out of the car and my helmet and backpack is off. The rest of them are out there taking pictures and collecting samples. OK so we get back to the base and then the Russian lady films us for something special we talk about the samples we collected and why we collected them. The best part of course is my part when I finally get a chance to demonstrate my 3D printing printer and the pen. The 3D printing pen turned the pilot and the doctor both into kindergartners they were so amazed and impressed with it. I managed to 3D print medical devices like hemostats and scalpels out of plastic. I also 3D printed a cat for the doctor to take home to his son. The doctor was staring at the 3D printed cat for 5 minutes he was so impressed with it. Then I explained to the doctor and the pilot how everything worked. When I demonstrated my pen the camera woman was so impressed that she wanted to play with it too. So someone took over her duties. It really felt great at that moment to explain all that and be the center of attention (even though I know this ego stuff isn't good) at least I was making people happy. Then near the end of the day we did body mapping art which is a form of therapy. Then it was time to sleep after all that I was next to the snoring again and later at night they were both snoring.  Day 4 last day Susan had to go to Palmdale to pick up her sister that meant Carlos was in charge again and I was happy with that. So that day we had another event we had to do at the pool. This time I didn't go in the pool I was just looking over everyone's stuff and taking pictures of the underwater activities. After that was over we went to an air conditioned room near another pool. Carlos gave this absolutely amazing presentation about space and what happens in space it was better than any lecture I ever had in high school and University. After that awesome presentation we go back into the hab and we just wash dishes and speak with each other basically we bond. So eventually I get bored go outside turn on the drone and I see if I can spy on them. Then after that we're waiting for Susan to get back because we're not going to sleep there again. She finally gets back at about 7 PM and after that we graduate I get a Diploma and so does everyone else. We all get a special spacesuit with all our names embroidered on it and we take tons of pictures. Then I fly the drone and take a couple of pictures of us with the drone. Although we're not out of the woods yet because of all the shit we need to take back. I fit everything I can in the engineering room into my car and then The Russian lady takes everyone else home so it's just me and Susan. Then Susan tells me that she needs to follow my car because she can't see in the dark and I also tell her that I'll come back to help her Tomorrow to get some of the stuff down. I get home at 12:30 past midnight with the drone and the rover and the electronics in my car. Day 5 post mission I am with Susan at the site and with the drone. I play around with the drone a little and help Susan out with these tents I take two tents in my car, and some other stuff. I throw a bucket into a tent she is keeping for storage little did I know (because she didn't tell me) that there was urine in that bucket. The urine spills into some of the prepackaged food and starts stinking up the tent. At this point I stop caring and she tells me it's not big deal. So she needs to pick up her sister later to take her to the hospital. So we finally drive out of there and little did I know I left the pad that had all the pictures from the drone. I call the ranger at night and let him know so he can keep it in lost and found. Then all of a sudden at midnight I get this excruciating pain in my upper right shoulder upper back. It hurts so much I do whatever I can to stop it walk, sit, and lay down none of it works and I end up collapsing on the floor in pain that's when my mom sees me and gets some Advil for me then the pain slowly dissipates.  Day 6 finally OK so turns out Ashock is still in LA and hasn't gone to Muscat yet. He forgets his laptop charger in the engineering room and I have it. He takes an uber to my house and me him and my mom have a friendly chat together. Then when he leaves I remember Susan said something about her daughter being a pilot at Long Beach airport. I call just to see if I can have a chance to sit in the backseat of these flights when she flies (big mistake) the airport tells her about me and she's upset she calls her mom. Then Susan calls me and she's extremely upset because she thinks I am mixing professional with personal (even though she let me sleep at her place and introduced me to her sister and her son) I pretend to regret it and I apologize to her then her anger abates. She asks me about Ashock coming over to my place and I said it was pretty awesome.  All and all an interesting experience that really pushed me to the edge. It had its fun parts and its terrible parts and at the same time really grew me as a person and opened up opportunities and I made great friends. Anything else you want to know about it feel free to ask.