Learning Centers

RENDEZVOUS WITH A COMET - A SAMPLE MISSION

A Challenger Learning Center mission is far more than a school outing, unless you consider journeying beyond Earth’s boundaries another field trip. Nor is it merely a visceral amusement park ride or a computer game. Our missions are completely immersive learning experiences based on the simulations used by NASA to prepare astronauts. It’s as real as it gets without needing a spacesuit.

Training

As with all space missions, yours begin before the launch. In the days before, you learn about your mission’s themes and conduct activities in your classroom to build your communications skills. Space travel, after all, demands preparation and teamwork.

Pre-launch Briefing

On launch day, you go to your Challenger Learning Center where a Flight Director greets your class. You’re taken to the briefing room for orientation on your mission to Comet Halley. For 2,500 years, people have wondered what it’s like and what it’s made of. Your mission is to find out.

The mission is bold but tricky. Traveling at some 150,000 mph, Comet Halley is one of the fastest objects in the solar system, and it’s millions of miles away. Once you’re close enough to it, you’ll launch a probe to gather data. Then you’ll make the journey back to Earth. This journey requires closely coordinated teams of specialists both in the spacecraft and on the ground. Your class divides into teams and you each learn your assignments.

• Communications Team  - “Mission Control, do you copy?” COM Officers facilitate communications between the spacecraft and Mission Control.
• Data Team - ensures all the teams at Mission Control and the spacecraft receive their appropriate communications and data, and they access the research video library as needed. The mission depends on their ability to be organized.
• Navigation Team - responsible for navigating the spacecraft on its journey, from launch to landing. It helps to know a little math and geometry.
• Probe Team - assembles, deploys, and monitors the space probes launched during the mission. The probes are a reason why your mission was launched.
• Medical Team  - makes sure everyone remains healthy and fit by monitoring all astronauts for auditory and visual response time, respiration rate, skin temperature, and heart rate.
• Remote Team - operates a robotic arm to collect rock, mineral, and soil samples, and analyzes them. They add to scientific knowledge, which is what your mission is all about.
• Life Support Team - makes sure that the spacecraft’s environment remains healthy. They take thermometer, barometer, and hygrometer readings, and test the spacecraft’s water supply.
• Isolation Team - uses robotic arms to conduct research on meteoroids, radioactivity, and hazardous materials. If they do their job well, the mission just might succeed.

Everyone depends on everyone. Any failures can jeopardize the entire mission.

The Launch

Half your class goes to Mission Control. The other half enters the spacecraft. Everyone sits at their stations and prepares for launch. You’ve been trained, everything’s been checked and rechecked, and it’s time to the countdown.

10…9…8…7…6…The rockets roar—you can almost feel their vibrations. 5…4…3…2…1. Lift off! Everyone on the craft and at Mission Control intently monitor all systems as millions of pounds of thrust propel you beyond Earth’s gravity into space. It only takes a few minutes, but you’re unlikely to forget them.

Once in space, everyone is busy, monitoring the spacecraft and its crew, and your Navigation Team zeroes in on Comet Halley, a speck in the dark void. There’s constant chatter between Mission Control and the spacecraft as systems are checked and the comet grows brighter and brighter.

The spacecraft is finally close enough to the comet and it’s time to launch the probe. Once the science and engineering teams make sure everything is ready, the Probe Team remotely opens the probe door and releases the probe.

   

So far, so good. Everyone is doing their job and everything is functioning according to plan. At this point, the crew members are beamed to Mission Control, and the Mission Control teams are beamed to the spacecraft. Everyone has switched places.

The teams settle into their new stations, and soon, the probe is flying through Comet Halley’s bright tail and is streaming back data about its composition. Meanwhile, the Isolation Team uses a spectrascope to analyze the light coming from the comet to learn more about what’s in it. With great curiosity, teams read the data. The comet is comprised of water vapor, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, with traces of hydrocarbons, methane, and ammonia.

Good work. The mission appears successful and it’s time to return to—

ALARMS RING! LIGHTS FLASH! This is not a drill!  Something’s wrong! There’s an oxygen leak!
 
Everyone in the spacecraft and Mission Control springs to action and checks their systems. Life Support reports that the spacecraft is losing its oxygen. There’s a leak somewhere!

You have a big problem and must solve it fast. This is what you trained for. Think critically, communicate, and work together.

Life Support reports that there’s enough oxygen in the cabin environment—but only if the leak is plugged soon—and the Medical Team closely monitors the crew’s life signs. You discover that there’s a broken seal on the probe door, which is where the oxygen is leaking. Quickly, you follow procedures and fix it. Everyone waits tensely for a report from Life Support. Finally…oxygen levels have stabilized. Together, you saved the mission. And yourselves.

You turn your attention to the trip home. It’s still no time to be careless. The Navigation Team directs you to the landing site and you’re safely back on Earth.

That was quite an adventure. You learned about space travel, comets, and all kinds of science. Most importantly, you learned about yourselves. You can think. You can learn. You can do. You can achieve.

The stars are yours for the taking.

 

Additional Information

For more information on Challenger Learning Center programs, please contact a Learning Center Coordinator via e-mail at ns@challenger.org; by telephone at (877) 443-5701 or (816) 471-7770; or by completing the Feedback Form.