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Welcome
to Spacesim.org!
We
welcome you to the official website of the Ottawa-Carleton
Educational Space Simulation (OCESS for short).
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Informally called Spacesim, OCESS is a non-profit organization
that promotes a greater understanding of space exploration and
research in students of all ages.
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By conducting a 96-hour simulated mission to a chosen planet,
moon, or asteroid, Spacesim strives to foster initiative and
responsibility in its members, while instilling love and respect
of space and science.
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Feel free to explore our site. There is always something new and
interesting happening at Spacesim.org. Click on any of the links
below to start exploring:
About
Us: Contains information about Spacesim's Mission Statement,
History, Contact Information and more.
Education:
Features descriptions of space-related programs offered to
school-children of all ages.
Archives:
Contains information about past missions, downloadable files and
images, and previous meeting minutes.
Mission:
Features details about Spacesim's simulated mission to Mars in
the 2007-2008 school year, as well as information about past
missions
If
you would like to visit our facilities on Albert St., please
contact us.
In the Downloads section you can find maps to help
you get there.
Parents please read:
- the Letter to Parents and
- the more about space sim document.
Map of 440 Albert Street, ground floor
Our room is W027
Street map for 440 Albert St
Resources
OCESS Procedures Manual (not updated)
Orbit software (not updated)
Subsim software for Europa ocean exploration
Notes for TRANSORB transfer orbit planning software.
Integrating software and hardware primer
Europa return planning document
Mission Iapetus planning document
Flight training
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Nov. 11, 2011
Astronaut applications will be available soon.
We have chosen our main mission destination: Mars, but we need to work out many of the details:
- we need a mission name
- once we have a name, we will need a mission patch design
- we need a list of goals and experiments for the mission; we have been there before, what do we want to do try to redo from previous missions and what do we want to do that is different?
I will post procedures for designing a mission plan and flight profile this month.
The return-to-earth phase of the training mission was begun during the last work session. I thought that it went well. MC and the astronauts worked communicated well and supported each other's efforts. The simulators planned their events well and all three groups reacted well to each event. We are starting to think like pilots and engineers, which is good. For the first mission of the year, I thought that it was quite successful.
The return phase did encounter problems and, when suspended for the night, had missed the planned earth orbit inertion burn. I think that this can be corrected next week. The issue involved was one of maintaining situational awareness on the part of both the astronauts (not just the pilot, there is too much to do for just one person) and MC (same caveat). I have made a summary of what transpired and how we can fix it next week:
For those of us who want to get more practice we have zip folders for:
Please note that all of these practice packages use the MC telemetry version of the orbit software. Therefore, you must press 'x' to turn telemetry off as soon as you start the software (you will see "TELEMETRY OFF" above the date).
You can load the file "Nov11" to try to correct our training mission situation as of the end of last work session.
I will post similar zip files for the AYSE rescue mission and any other training missions that we set up.
A few points concerning this week's work session:
- The planetary surface task force and the airlock rebuilding task force should write up a list of supplies needed to complete their work.
My split teaching schedule makes it really difficult to make time to survey our inventory and purchase materials. Any help that I can get in the way of:
would be most welcome.
- We think that we know what is wrong with the door status sensor circuit. With any luck, it will be working next week. If you are in any way interested in the electronics side of our simulation, bug the commander incessantly to explain how this works and let you participate in the process! After this, we will:
- start re-implementing the lighting control relay circuit
- complete the wiring of the video/audio communications control circuits
- start wiring the control panels.
There should be lots of work for all sorts of people. If you want some introductory reading, try the Integrating software and hardware primer
- The general clean-up and organization of the room is going really well. I am most impressed with both the effort and the initiative.
- On the other hand, there are a few ways in which we can improve how we manage our work sessions:
- please try to get all of your Quickie runs taken care of early in the evening
- remember that the only places that we can congregate are in the sim room or the hallway outside (for short periods). We can use the pit, but only when I am there
- if you do need to exit the building later in the evening, please let me know so that I can arrange to have you let back in. Do not prop the doors open.
- if you are going to be at the work session, please participate as much as possible. Socializing is important, but we all need to get jobs done as well. In particular, there were a number of people present during the training mission who could have been working in MC at a time when MC was critically short-staffed
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