Camilla Corona SDO

Camilla Corona SDO is a rubber chicken and mission mascot for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). She is part of the Education and Public Outreach team and assists with various functions to help educate the public, mainly kids, about the SDO mission, facts about the sun and space weather. Camilla also assists in cross-informing about other NASA missions and space related projects. Camilla Corona SDO uses social media to interact with fans.
Camilla's ultimate dream and wish is to fly to space and visit her best friend little SDO. In order to be ready for this adventure, Camilla is educated and trained almost like a real astronaut. In the progress of her education and training, she shares the information with her fans. Her articles aim to explain many of the "behind the scenes" tasks and people, including how they ended up in their positions.
Camilla's Outfits
Camilla became a little more notable the months leading up to NASA SDO's launch in February 2010. Followers on her Facebook site helped with promotion and one Facebook Follower became Camilla's outfit-maker. Camilla has received several hand and custom made outfits; from her silver flight suit, with name tag and mission patch, an EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity Suit) with helmet and backpack, a Star Trek Captain's Uniform (Voyager area), a "I Dream of Jeannie" outfit, all the way to a Canadian Hockey Jersey for winning Gold at the [ in Vancouver B.C., Canada. The #11 for Patrick Marleau is stitched to the back of the jersey. Patrick Marleau is a player at the San Jose Sharks, which is Camilla's favorite hockey team. She has also received a "Pumpkin" Suit, which is knows as the Advanced Crew Escape Suit, or ACES, is a full pressure suit currently worn by all Space Shuttle crews for the ascent and entry portions of flight.
Camilla and Little SDO are both featured on a quilt panel for The Dream Rocket Project. The Dream Rocket aims to connect art and education through a global collaborative initiative. It will inspire participants to consider, express, and explore their dreams for a better future using "Dream Themes" such as energy, space, peace, science, recycling, among others.
Camilla's Training
In September 2010 Camilla spent a month at NASA Johnson Space Center to go through "Astronaut" training. Everyday she visited a different person/team and learned about the work that was done. Her stay at NASA JSC started out with a day with Astronaut Clayton Anderson. She later visited Houston's Mission Control Center, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, spent time with people working on human space flight medical and health issues, learned about Space Food, spent a day with a JSC Intern, and continued to meet Astronauts (Astronaut Cady Coleman, Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Astronaut TJ Creamer). She even got to experience zero gravity during a Zero G flight.
NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which will observe the Sun for over five years. Launched on February 11, 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. The goal of the LWS program is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. SDO's goal is to understand the Sun's influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO will investigate how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.
NASA SDO is also known as Little SDO in the social media world. Little SDO's firend is Camilla the Rubber Chicken. Camilla is an Education and Public Outreach tool and during the development phase explained the various aspects of the SDO spacecraft. In fact, Camilla visited Little SDO several times in the NASA Goddard clean room, sealed in a plastic bag. Camilla continues to share information with fans via Facebook and Twitter.

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