Mission Alpha

A Mission Alpha is a dry run for the year's Main Mission. This year's Mission Alpha was Daedalus. Its destination was Venus.

Historical

Missions Alpha were typically run about 1 month before the actual mission, lasting about 4–6 hours in duration. The purpose was to test out all equipment, and discover any problems or areas lacking proper planning. It also was an excellent opportunity to test the level of training for both Astronauts and Mission Control staff. This practice was first started by Mission Commanders Daniel Kekez and Jamie Rosen for the Jupiter 1998 mission.

In the 2001–2002 year, a Mission Beta was run. The Mission Alpha occured while the Habitat was still under construction, and as such a second dry run was needed closer to the mission date.

Mini-Missions

Mini-missions were historically an EEP activity for older classes. In recent years, Space Sim has taken to calling the dry-runs Training Missions instead of Mission Alpha.