Songyan Cai is a Grade 11 student at Lisgar Collegiate who has returned to SpaceSim this year.  He was born and grown up in China.  With a considerable knowledge and interest in Mathematics, Science, and Mechanics, he has always been a hands-on kind of guy, who likes to solve problems, take challenge, and goes around and fix/take a part everything.  Other than playing with computers, trashing electronics, he also loves the “Great outdoor” as he calls it.  He likes to participate in various sports, and especially enjoys outdoor activities, such as Camping, Canoeing, Hiking, Mountain Biking, and Snowboarding.  

Michael Garfinkle (pilot)

Michael Garfinkle was born in Montreal in 1986 and moved to Ottawa when he was eight. He entered Lisgar in grade 9 and enjoys the serene bike rides from his home in the Glebe to school along the canal—if he’s on schedule that is. He is clarinet in the Lisgar senior band and orchestra and also plays the piano. In his spare time Michael enjoys patronizing his three younger siblings and surfing his favorite web sites. Michael’s other hobbies include model rocketry, and he recently built a launchable, one-meter scale model of the Saturn V rocket. Michael’s love for rocketry also motivated his climb up the steep learning curve of simulated space flight. Michael joined spacesim in grade 11 and will be primary pilot during the mission.

Lucia Qiao (payload specialist)

Lucia Qiao is a Grade 11 student who spends most of her time 3.82m above the grounds of Ottawa. As a child, she dreamed of exploring stars in the sky as an astronaut. Now that her dreams will come true (in a simulated way) – she will do her best to drive the senses out of her fellow astronauts during the 96-hour mission. Lucia is good at history, logic, science posters, etc., however, she does have serious trouble driving people mad… so she might just remain peaceful… Her other hobbies include sleeping on the bus, arguing with teachers, and trying to play her flute.

Tong Shen (co-pilot)

Dan Sirbu (mission commander)

Dan Sirbu is a grade 12 student at Lisgar Collegiate and this year's mission co-commander after having been involved with SpaceSim since grade 9. He enjoys reading and learning about a variety of fields ranging from physics and mathematics to history and economics so he is particularly hard-pressed making a decision this year for a field of study at university. Outside of SpaceSim and schoolwork, he is engaged in other activities such as debating, fencing, and robotics. When he has any spare time, he pursues his hobbies which include playing chess and with computers, listening to music, and reading science fiction as well as about new scientific developments .

Jiayi Zhou (payload specialist)

 "Ooh, shiny things."  This could sum up Jiayi Zhou's outlook on life, the planiverse and spacesim.  She attends Canterbury High School for Literary Arts.  Yes, writing is an art, hyperbolas are wonderful and worms eat her garbage.  If she gets to the other side of the Grade 11 Homework Mountain, she'll be tinkering with machinery, looking at Betelgeuse, reading about fractals, or playing a flute.  Any and all time left over is spent on shuteye.  Jiayi would like to remind everyone that the universe arose from random collisions of particles blinking in and out of existence.  Compared to that, how much does a French summative amount to?  Or some high school diploma? Bombs away.