 Center for Space Science Education. All of us at the Challenger Center are very pleased to learn that your class will soon be flying a mission to return to the moon. You might ask, well, what is it like to fly a mission? Well, flying a mission is not like going to an amusement park and riding a ride, but it's more like being on a motion picture set, where each one of you is a star in this future space mission. Once you arrive at the Challenger Learning Center, your group will be divided in half. Half of you will begin your flight in the space station, the other half in mission control. You have a very important flight ahead of you. You are going to return to the moon sometime near the beginning of the 21st century. You're going to build upon what was learned during the Apollo program. During this mission, you're going to gather information which can be studied later in the classroom to determine where to establish a lunar mining base. Everyone who participates in a simulation is very important to the success of the mission. As such, each one of you will be assigned to a team. Your team will have certain things that you must do that relate to the mission. Members of each team will have workstations in both mission control and the space station. During the mission, you will work in both locations. In mission control, you will work at one of the various councils. Team members in mission control guide the space station through various aspects of the flight. As mission controllers, you will supply the flight crew in the space station with information and images needed to complete their task. At the council, you will also receive information to record from the crew in the space station. Sometimes, you will be able to see live images from the space station. The monitors at the front of mission control reflect what is occurring in the space station, the status of the mission, and also show data or video images. As mission controllers, you have a very important role that involves communications and interactions with the crew in the space station. Your job is to help them solve their problems. It is your responsibility to know which tasks the crew in the space station is doing. Task cards will help you do this. Every workstation in the space station and all of the councils in mission control have a set of task cards that relate to the jobs that their team must do during the simulation. Each task card has the steps required to complete a specific task. Notice that the task card has a start and end code. You are to enter the start code when you begin a task and the end code when it is completed. To do this, you will use the Q-pad at your workstation. A Q-pad is not difficult to use. As an example, watch as the start code is entered from one of the task cards. Make sure you enter the correct code. After the start code is entered, press the send button. Once the start code is sent, the mission status board changes to let mission control know what the team is doing. Watch the mission status board change as the send button is pushed. The various tasks are carried out in the space station. If you are a member of the lunar geology team, you will work at this station. From here you can teleoperate vehicles on the moon's surface. Teleoperations means that you are able to operate something from afar. You do not need to be right there to make it work. The lunar geology team will also study moon rocks in the glove box. The medical team studies the effects of space travel on the crew. Is there a difference in the effect of zero G environment of moon orbit and the one six G moon environment on the health of the crew? G stands for the word gravity. You will do tasks to evaluate the crew's health. If you are assigned to work at the isolation chamber, you will use robots to handle and study various materials including lunar core samples outside of the space station. Those of you assigned to the life support team will be involved in checking out the various systems that produce the artificial environment that keeps the astronauts alive. For example, the life support station monitors the oxygen and water necessary for the daily needs of the crew. During the first half of the mission, the navigation team will be busy choosing the best landing site for your spacecraft. During the second half, the navigation team determines the correct orbit to launch onto from the lunar surface for eventual return to Earth. The navigation team members will also have several other navigation tasks to complete. As data team members, you will send messages and supply data to the various teams. You will also make measurements on some of the lunar images. During the first part of the mission, the probe team will assemble and launch a probe that will study the moon. During the second half of the mission, you will analyze probe parts and make measurements of the lunar environment. There will be camp-com and mission control, and sim-com and the space station will be kept busy asking for answers and providing input as necessary to make the entire mission operate smoothly. Well, good luck in your endeavors as you return to the moon. Your flight will involve such things as teamwork, problem-solving, communication skills, skills that you will use all of your life. May your mission to return to the moon be a good one, and hopefully your flight will excite you to explore a future career that involves science or mathematics. But whatever your future holds, remember to always aim for the stars.