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Mission Priorities
• Protect the lives and health
of the astronauts
• Protect the space station’s systems
• Protect essential space station research projects
• Protect resources
Mission Directives
• Recruit Communications, Radiation,
Life Support and Solar Weather Watch teams.
• Prepare teams for the predicted solar storm event.
In this simulation, your scheduled mission takes place on
February 14, 2001. On this date, the space station glides
through the silence of space, two hundred and fifty miles
above the earth. The station's solar panels bathe in the sun's
rays, generating the electrical energy vital to the station's
systems. Everything appears tranquil and safe. A major solar
flare, however, is about to erupt.
Managing the Space Station’s life-sustaining systems
requires teamwork, planning, and clear-headed problem-solving
ability -- especially in emergency situations.
Ninety three million miles away, this storm brews on the surface
of the sun. Suddenly a major solar storm spews ionized atomic
particles, X-rays, and gamma rays into space. The GOES-8 satellite
detects and transmits early-warning data to Mission Control.
Some scientists believe that this coronal mass ejection is
the largest ever recorded.
Mission Control must warn the Astronauts on board the Space
Station and help guide them through this dangerous event.
Major solar storms invade the Earth’s atmosphere, create
Northern Lights, disable satellites, and knock out earth-bound
electrical power grids. Both the Astronauts and the Space
Station’s delicate electrical systems will be exposed
to life-threatening levels of radiation.
As this storm’s high-energy "fallout" pulses
through the Space Station’s walls, electrical and computer
systems begin to malfunction…oxygen generation is interrupted…the
power supply begins to drop…and harmful radiation levels
begin to rise… |
