Team size?

[rkolker]

What do you think makes up a good size for a team at Space Camp?

Clarification: By a team I mean a crew that "flies" together, so a typical session with 16 people, 8 pilots and 8 MS would consist of four teams of four. In the past that was four teams of six, or five teams of five

At one time it was two pilots, two mission specialists, two payload specialists. At the 1990 Adult Level II pilot we did five to a team - two pilots and three MSs. Now it looks like teams are four, two pilots and two MS.

Building team/crew cohesion is an important part of a successful mission.

I think moving away from the payload specialists who spent most of their time in Space Station was a good thing, since space station experiments tend to be...well...weak. But is a flight crew of four sufficient?

What do you think works best?

[SpaceCanada]

I do not understand which 'teams' you are referencing. I believe 16 is a full team for ASA; further broken down to 8 PLTs and 8 MSs I think.

[1MileCrash]

two pilots, 2 payload specs, and 2 mission specs always seemed pretty good to me. everyone could focus on their respective duties at hand and not get in each others way on board or on EVA's.

[monkeynautt]

For my 24 hour EDM in 2004 each crew (shuttle and station) had a pilot, commander and 4 MS. There were 4 EVA's so every MS got one. The crew of 6 worked out well. And there were 7 in MOCR.

[Conan]

I don't agree with just scrapping the Payload/Space Station specialists. I think that these positions have been less popular because not enought time and effort was put into developing them in the simulations. If they were doing more challenging experiments and EVAs as part of their experiments, they would be more interesting. In 1996 when I attended ASAII, one of our payload specialists was scuba certified and the counselors let him do an experiment in the neutral buoyancy tank. Anyway, I think that a good team would consist of 2 pilots, 2-3 Mission Specialists and 2 Payload/Space Station specialists. Experiments and projects should be designed for the PSs that require EVAs and that use the full capabilities of the ISS, even if you have to design your own experiments and bring the equipment to carry them out.
Conan

[rkolker]

I think that these positions have been less popular because not enough time and effort was put into developing them in the simulations.

Agreed. Looking back at my planning documents from 1990, one of the things I had the MSs doing (our teams were two pilots and three MSs, five teams of five) was developing experiments during the week we'd fly during the 24 hour sim. I spent some time thinking up interesting stuff that could practically be done at Space Camp (there was lots of liquid nitrogen involved, as I remember) -- superconduction, materials testing at different temperatures and pressures, there were about a dozen (and I am sure the crew could have come up with more.) Unfortunately, that was the one part of the 1990 pilot session that didn't really get implemented, even for us.

Something could be done to make space station shifts much more interesting, in terms of EVAs, science and station maintenance. It would just take some thought outside the box (and a willingness to let adults play with stuff that's a little more risky than you might want kids to be near). I bet the Mythbusters guys could come up with some good experiments.

Hmm...it never hurts to ask...they have a web site...

[pilotgirl21]

I was a PS my second time at camp and I hated it. I had to switch sessions at the last minute so PS was the only thing available. I remember learning more about medical things than about space. And I don't care about medicine and doctoring and those kinds of things. I decided for our EDM to be in MOCR since I did not like what I was doing on the shuttle or the space station. If there were more interesting things to do as PS then they should keep the PS track. If they don't want to find interesting things to do, then they should eliminate the PS track.

[Boomerang]

I'm not sure tht the PS positions were scrapped due to lack of popularity. In the last few years Space Camp has moved toward an ISS focus just the way NASA has. The last PS to fly a shuttle mission was Ilan Ramon on STS-107. No PS's have flown on any ISS flights. Truth is the jobs being done by PS's at camp were in reality MS jobs anyway. Thge primary reason a PS flew on any mission was a specific payload being flown ussualy by a company or agency the PS's job to operate that payload whether it was an expirement or something else. A few PS's got to go becaue of political clout and publicity stunts. With few exceptions most PS's only flew once. Also one thing to remember a PS was not a career astronaut they got about 6 months of training to fly. Something that career astronauts who waited years to fly absolutely hated. The day of the PS in the US Space Program seems to be over. I doubt they will let someone with 6 months of training spend 6 months on the ISS either. If you want a look into PS's and what the other astronauts though of them read Mike Mullanes book Riding Rockets its a real eye opener.