Mission
Mission Format
Every year, Spacesim conducts two missions: a mini, or Training Mission usually lasting about 4 to 6 hours, and a 96 hour "Main Mission" to an astral body in the solar system. Candidates for mission destinations have been planets, moons, and even asteroids as the OCESS astronauts search for their own educational experience in the depths of "space" by conducting experiments, simulated extra-terrestrial/space walks, piloting space vehicles and dealing with various simulated scenarios and problems that may play out over the course of a real space mission such as meteor strikes, ion storms and engine failures.
During the mission, the astronauts remain inside the Habitat, their only contact with the outside world being through a telephone, radios, webcams, and computers much like a real space mission. It is inside the Hab that they must eat, drink, sleep, play and carry out all life functions. These astronauts usually miss several days of school to wear flight suits and helmets while the rest of the school wishes they were missing school with them.
See Space Sim Groups for more information.
Mission History
The first mission in Ottawa took place in 1992. From then until the 2002-2003, missions were 72-hours in duration. In fact, the 2001-2002 mission was originally scheduled to be the first 96-hour mission, but was delayed 24 hours by the Board.
Historically, missions ran from a Thursday to a Sunday, although recent times has seen them move to occupy more of the school week. The mission date was set for February by the International Student Space Simulation so that all missions would occur simultaneously. This practice continued until arround 1996, at which point, mission date coordination only took place between Ottawa and our sister-mission in Lexington, South Carolina. the South Carolina exchanges ended in the late 90's, but the 2001-2002 mission did involve an exchange with a school from Florida.
