The HabForum

What should Space Camp be doing to plan for the post Shuttle era? Building simulators for Orion, the Lunar and Mars Landers? How will they handle the smaller crew sizes and still get enough "throughput?" Create their own "next generation" crewed spacecraft? If they did that, would they lose something by losing the sense of reality?

rkolker wrote:What should Space Camp be doing to plan for the post Shuttle era? Building simulators for Orion, the Lunar and Mars Landers? How will they handle the smaller crew sizes and still get enough "throughput?" Create their own "next generation" crewed spacecraft? If they did that, would they lose something by losing the sense of reality?

I think there is enough substance between the Constellation/Orion/ISS without having to create a fictional spacecraft capable of holding more crewmembers.

Team sizes could be the same, just split into two factions. Each faction gets two missions, an Orion/ISS misson and an Orion/Constellation lunar mission. The Orion/ISS "warmup" mission would be packed with EVAs, practice rendevous/docking for Constellation mission, and ISS experiments. The follow-up "mack daddy" mission would focus on manned moon landing and lunar EVA and experiments. "Best Mission" would be awarded based on how your team did on all missions/factions combined.

I think i'd save all the lunar base and Mars stuff for later since alot of the details of those missions and the hardware have not been fully determined.

Just my two cents!

Wasn't Space Camp doing a Mars Base at some point in time? I recall seeing something on that and wondered why they couldn't have THAT when I was going.

I think SC could still do work on the Shuttle from a historical perspective. I'd even love to see Apollo mission re-creations for adult teams, etc. That'd be cool!

Actually smaller crew size doesnt come intop play till the lunar missions anyway. Orion flights to the ISS will still have 6 people only lunatr flights drop to 4> I think a lunar landscape with 1/6th chairs would be easy enough to do for EVA's and there would need to be a lander of course. The ISS mockup could stay easily enough since Orion wont be as large as the shuttle sims they have now.

As much as I would miss the STS sims, I do think that Space Camp must go the way of the space program and convert to the new programs (while keeping the ISS). From an adult peprspective, it's fun to "play" at being an astronaut and to experience "space" from the ground. However, Space Camp is for kids, and hopefully there are many kids who will leave there being more enthusiastic about the sciences and space in general. So I think Space Camp must switch over. However, it would be nice if they could find room for a "nostalgia" session somewhere, by squirrling away one of the orbiter sims (Astrotech building, perhaps)???

Richasi wrote:Wasn't Space Camp doing a Mars Base at some point in time? I recall seeing something on that and wondered why they couldn't have THAT when I was going.

I think SC could still do work on the Shuttle from a historical perspective. I'd even love to see Apollo mission re-creations for adult teams, etc. That'd be cool!

I remember doing a VR Mars Rover thing when I was at SC in 97 and 98. It was a lot of fun, but it took a lot of time for everyone to get their turns.

As for the shuttle era coming to an end, SC probably should convert over to the next space vehicle. It will probably take a few years for them to get all caught up, but to keep the interest of the younger generations they will need to keep up with the times. Maybe they can keep one of the shuttle sims (if there is enough room) for us old timers to use when we spend time at camp, along with learning the new systems.

The end of the shuttle era was planned for by a "Tiger Team" in 2000. Spanky, Sandrat and a few others were on the final team preparing overal revisions to the programs. You could ask them what those ideas entailed.

Many of the current revisions came from their study and recommendations.

Pancho wrote:We got two categories of pilots around here. We got your prime pilots that get all the hot planes, and we got your pud-knockers who dream about getting the hot planes. Now what are you two pud-knockers gonna have?

"Now, hold on sis, you are looking at a whole new ball game here now. Why one day I bet you're gonna immortalize us by puttin' our pictures up there on your wall."

Welcome, Pancho!

Pancho wrote:The end of the shuttle era was planned for by a "Tiger Team" in 2000. Spanky, Sandrat and a few others were on the final team preparing overal revisions to the programs. You could ask them what those ideas entailed.

Many of the current revisions came from their study and recommendations.

Yes there was a "Tiger Team" do-hickey in 2000, and a lot of effort was put into that exercise in futility, but as a inside participant and an outsider with a HD view to the inside I can tell you that very little of what was discussed in '00 is being applied today. They are continuing to upgrade the Shuttle software package, and work on EVAs, but not much towards reality of 2010/14.

The shuttles wouldnt have to end right away, and orion could be easily phased in. plus you can always have an extention of the iss sims to handle more people. Plus there can be new positions added depending on what ends up happening with orion. maybe more mision control positions could be added, and the complexity would be more realistic, with each person having a more specific role like the normal ones but also maybe surgeon, somebody to be a liason between iss and orbiter, etc...