Mission 2008

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Monday morning of CASA’s twentieth anniversary mission, 2008: Maelstrom! started off with a special tribute to Mr. Lynn Diel, an outstanding mentor who has been with CASA since its beginnings. Mr. Diel was presented with an award created in his honor, titled the “Big Diel Award.” At the end of the mission, he announced the names of two students who excelled in this year’s mission, Chris Novosel and Danny Nabelek. Their names have been engraved on a plaque along with the spaces for future recipients of this honor.

During the early hours of the mission, space shuttle Discovery launched, transporting solar panels to the space station. This launch would be the first of many supply missions to the station. Later in the week, however, the need for these missions increased as a result of a water filtration system malfunction, which caused many of the astronauts to become violently ill. The space shuttles had to make continuous trips to the ISS to supply it with fresh water. This dilemma lasted throughout the week and caused a number of further complications. The Japanese company that supplied the water filtration system sent directions to fix the system in Japanese and Korean. After some rather tricky negotiations and agreements, Mission Control was able to obtain the plans to repair the water system in English. In order to obtain the plans, Mission Control had to meet some of the Japanese companies’ odd requests, such as information about the CASA cat, Astro. These demands were met and the translators successfully interpreted the instructions and the water filtration system. There were many injuries during the week besides dysentery from the water filtration system. These injuries included third degree electrical burns and carbon dioxide poisoning. Radiation poisoning was also a problem during the week; there were a numerous times where the ISS accidentally entered the radiation belt. To correct this problem an astronaut would have to leave isolation and initiate an OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) burn to maneuver the station out of the belt. Unfortunately though, this meant that the astronaut that had initiated the burn was exposed to varying degrees of radiation. Head, brain injuries, and blindness also occurred throughout the week. One of the more serious injuries was when space debris collided with a station which resulted in serious injuries to several astronauts, among them was astronaut Nadia Vizitei who suffered temporary blindness. Another notable injury during the week was when pilot Adrian Mitrea and co-pilot Danny Tennyson crashed into the ISS while docking. These numerous problems kept our medical officers busy for quite some time.

An interesting event of the mission was the unforgettable Sirus satellite. This was a two day affair that consisted of a list of songs that played on and on repeatedly until the artist information was correctly input in the system. This was a problem because the songs being played interfered with the I-Comm transmissions between Mission, Station, and the shuttle. By the time it was solved, everyone was immensely thrilled.

In the final hours of the mission, a Russian satellite fired a missile at the space station. The National Security Agency representative, John Prost, recommended evacuation of the station. All the astronauts got onto the shuttle but, as they were leaving, the space station exploded and pilot Adrian Mitrea’s eyes were damaged. Co-pilot Danny Tennyson coached Adrian to reentry and landing. The shortly after reentry, the shuttle crash landed on the Cape Canaveral runway. Thankfully there were no injuries. Though all the astronauts and pilots were saved, the ISS was destroyed! What will happen next year?

This year included another inventive twist – having teachers in space! The teachers included in this special event were Mr. Phil Overeem, Mrs. Darci Humphrey, Mrs. Ashley Malorin, and Mr. Michael Moody. Their unique skills were invaluable acquisitions for the mission. Overall this year’s mission was an absolute success and will be remembered for the next twenty years.