Mission 1806

Mission 1806 was titled 'Conundrum in the Cosmos' and we solved many riddles with help from several sources including Governor Matt Blunt. This year’s space simulation began with a successful launch of the space shuttle Discovery and very few problems were encountered. Mission Control received an informative message from HAL indicating that Mission Control would be receiving riddles via the station that would be critical in the upcoming events. As an attempt to incorporate as many aspects as possible into a simulation, these riddles lasted throughout the mission and covered a wide variety of topics. For example, the first riddle was; “In Greek mythology, whose father invented wings of wax and feathers?” Do you know the answer? It’s Icarus. Throughout Monday morning, various riddles were received and all answered correctly. Congratulations and well done to the specialists in Mission Control. Later in the day however, things got a bit bumpier. The shuttle Discovery experienced a malfunction during landing and came to a crash on its belly. The crew of CEV1 also crash landed on the moon. It lost all communications however there were no injuries to the crew members.

There were two teleconferences performed on Tuesday, one with Attitude Specialist Ann Esbeck at Johnson Space Flight Center and one with Governor Matt Blunt. Gov. Blunt helped us by giving us the answers to three more riddles. Adding to the excitement of the day, a solar flare was encountered that forced all astronauts into isolation. Shuttle Endeavor had a serious electrical problem and it was put out of commission. We also had a visit by the University of Missouri-Rolla satellite building team to talk to us about launching their satellite.

Wednesday, the pace of the mission picked up a bit. A huge piece of aeronautical history was jeopardized when Mission Control received news of a malfunction of the Hubble Telescope. Fortunately for all involved, orbital mechanics problems were successfully completed and the Hubble was saved. With every success comes a setback, though and the astronauts definitely experienced a few setbacks. Astronaut Ted Cox was electrocuted while working on an MBSU SOBE. After failing to redirect a satellite, it fell from orbit and destroyed Rock Bridge High School and everyone inside. Another teleconference with JSFC was performed and again Ann Esbeck came to our rescue. Mission Control successfully corrected an engine problem with shuttle Atlantis. The main event of the day was the Lunar Outpost accidentally getting set to self-destruct. The Yubenhad Corporation was contacted to help stop the self-destruct mechanism since they had a hand in building the outpost. They said they would help if we rename one of our shuttles after them.

Thursday’s highlights included interviews with Ann Esbeck and Yubenhad Corporation. Mission Control renamed the shuttle as per Yubenhad’s demands but experienced some protests. Mission Commander Jacob Thomeczek was reassigned to Frozen Point Station, Antarctica due to his changing of the shuttle name against the will of the President who will not bow down to terrorists. A predicted hurricane hit Kennedy Space Flight Center injuring one person. The UMR Satellite Team’s MRSat was deployed and retrieved after a successful several month-long collaboration to test it for them.

Friday was a chaotic continuation of the previous problems encountered. The hurricane that hit Kennedy had turned and was heading for Johnson Space Flight Center. They were ready this time and everyone was evacuated to a secure location – Rolling Rock, Texas. Operations continued virtually unchanged from there. The circuit on the Lunar Outpost has been fixed so it will not blow up after all. Discovery is in the air.

Saturday, however, everything came spiraling to a devastating end. Asteroid Stefan was on course to collide with the space station. Discovery lost communications and had to decide whether to stay in orbit, dock or return to earth. The space station had to move out of the way of the asteroid and certain death but the only way to do that was to have Discovery dock and burn to a new orbit. Without communications, that was a risky venture. The pilots were given the information and told to decide which course of action to take. After much discussion, the pilots decide to go against NASA protocol and dock and try to move the station. On docking, they crashed into the station, the asteroid hit and all the astronauts evacuated into Discovery. The shuttle disintegrated upon reentry, killing all onboard. There was some good news amongst the grim; the Lunar Outpost crew had managed to successfully fly the damaged CEV1 back to Earth after losing communications with Mission Control.

Overall, the Mission 1806 was successful, educational, and fun for everyone involved. All participants look forward to doing it again next year. Click here to see pictures of the mission.