Mission lesson
Survive the dark side.
Stage 1 of 7
Mission
Who you are, what you are finding out, and what success looks like.
Showing stage 1 of 7: Mission
Mission
Every orbit, your spacecraft passes behind the Earth. For that stretch there is no sunlight, no power from the panels, and everything has to run off the battery. Your team will send two different spacecraft through the same shadow and work out which one comes through it in better shape.
When the Sun disappears, which spacecraft copes better - and how would you know?
- Your role
- Spacecraft energy-budget engineer
- Objective
- Compare two spacecraft profiles through the same modeled eclipse and recommend the more resilient energy strategy.
- Success looks like
- Run both profiles, compare generation, consumption, and battery state, then make a bounded recommendation with a limitation.
Learning outcomes · Grades 11–12
What you should be able to do, and the evidence that shows it.
- 01By the end of this mission, the learner will be able to analyse how shadow duration, battery reserve and bus voltage are linked, and demonstrate this by explaining how a change in one moves the others.
- 02By the end of this mission, the learner will be able to evaluate the temperature margin each spacecraft holds against its stated limits, and demonstrate this by citing the extremes alongside those limits.
- 03By the end of this mission, the learner will be able to formulate a design recommendation and state its verification limit, and demonstrate this by naming the physical test that would be required to confirm it.
Preparation
Before we start
A quick check of what you already know. There is no score.
The idea behind the mission
Two spacecraft, the same orbit, the same shadow. Only the spacecraft is different, so anything that changes is caused by the spacecraft.
No sunlight, no new energy
Solar panels only work in sunlight. Behind the Earth there is none, so for that part of every orbit the spacecraft spends stored energy and makes none. The battery has to be big enough to carry everything through the dark, and still have something left.
Predict before you run
Before you run anything: which spacecraft do you think will have more charge left after the shadow, and why?
Which spacecraft will have more charge left when it comes out of the shadow - and why?
At least 20 characters — say what you expect and why.
Readiness
This is a local preparation check. It is not Challenge qualification and creates no official attempt.
- Mission objective and success criterion reviewed: not done yet
- Preparation diagnostic answered: not done yet
- Mission theory reviewed: not done yet
- Prediction recorded: not done yet
The set-up you will run
These are the two set-ups you will compare. They are fixed on purpose: if only one thing differs between your runs, anything that changes was caused by it.
Baseline case
Small satellite (1U)
Candidate case
Larger satellite (3U)
- Write your prediction first.
- Send both spacecraft through the same shadow, so the only difference is the spacecraft itself.
- The battery, voltage and temperature numbers come from a model, not from a real spacecraft.
Units stay attached to every result: angles in degrees (°), time in seconds (s), power in watts (W), energy in watt-hours (Wh), battery state in percent (%), and elevation in degrees (°) where available.
Finish every preparation item above first; then this can be confirmed.
Official qualification: false. This acknowledgement stays in this browser.
Operate
Readiness required
Complete every preparation requirement, then confirm readiness before operating the Twin.
Send the small satellite through first, then the larger one. Same orbit, same shadow, same length of time.
Baseline
Small satellite (1U)
Candidate
Larger satellite (3U)
Run the baseline first so you have something to compare against.
- Small satellite (1U): not run in this session yet
- Larger satellite (3U): not run in this session yet
Evidence
Run a Digital Twin case first
The results fill in once the Twin has produced evidence. The decision, limits and knowledge check can be read now.
Read the evidence
Look at where the battery falls and where it recovers. The shaded band on the chart is the time in shadow.
Run the Twin to produce evidence.
Complete
Readiness required
Finish the required run or comparison, select evidence, make a decision and answer the knowledge check. Then reflect here and finalize.
Completion records the work you did; it does not mean mastery, qualification, or an official grade.
Reflect
What evidence most challenged your first assumption about the two spacecraft, and what remains uncertain?
At least 20 characters. Editing this or any source work after completion invalidates the local record.
Your formative result
Revisit the mission evidence
Formative · not an official grade
No formative evidence has been recorded yet.
Formative band: revisit. Any formative band may complete the mission. Official grade: none.
Finish the required run or comparison, select evidence, make a decision, answer the formative assessment, and complete your reflection.
Recognition
Lane C provides a private local-practice record. Verified recognition remains a separate Platform workflow.
Complete the mission first
Finalize the mission to create a local-practice record on this device.
Finalize the mission to create a local-practice record on this device.
Home mission
Home mission: the energy budget
Over one orbit the small satellite made 5.22 Wh and used 9.54 Wh. Work out the difference. Then write one sentence explaining why a spacecraft can use more than it makes for part of an orbit and still be fine.