Long Duration?

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DanM
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Long Duration?

Post by DanM »

I know that ASA has Long (6 hr) and Extra Long (24 hr) missions. I heard the 24 hr one was discontinued, as it was only part of the 12 day. On either of the missions, is the entirety spend enclosed in the sim? Do you have to pack food on them, or do you leave, or is it delivered? In the ASA missions do you actually land or dock the shuttle, because I remember from Discover at SC it was on autopilot, I was commander on the first mission. In ASA the commander landed safely, but she managed to get 10 miles WNW of the landing site. Do any of the missions actually let you crash and "die"?
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Post by SpaceCanada »

The two 6-hour missions (LDM) I did in the 1990s were mostly self-contained. We ordered pizza to eat during one of them, which was delivered to the sim, and the other we had a 10-minute break to grab a plate of Mexican fare at the mess. It may depend on your counsellor. Some LDMs are scheduled between meals.

The 24-hour mission (EDM) was much more self-contained. The people on the station and orbiter had frozen dinners and other food that was already 'on board'. Those of us in Mission Control did as we pleased and ate camp food and ordered in stuff from a local restaurant.

Otherwise, we were always allowed out of the sims to use the toilet. We called them PVAs. You had to wear a helmet and be back in 5 minutes. For the EDM everyone slept in the station and shuttle, although I think there was an option for some to sleep in the hab if they had medical problems. (We had an older adult group.) They had foam pads and blankets for everyone. Err... the ones in the supply ship for our mission were lost in space. Haha. They got them back eventually - some extended EVA or something. Mission Control had the option to stay or go, but we all stayed and slept on the floor with foam pads and blankets too. You never know if an emergency will pop up in the middle of the night.

I don't know anything about if the sims can fail and let the crew 'die'. We always had fairly competent pilots. I hear you can fly through the VAB, but I've never seen it done.
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