Recommended lesson
- 1. Brief and prediction — 8 min
- 2. Baseline run — 8 min
- 3. Candidate policy — 12 min
- 4. Evidence comparison — 12 min
- 5. Explanation and report — 10 min
CubeSTEM MissionLab Twin
M3-C Teacher Guide · Practice only
Delivery purpose
Teach mission decisions, not button pressing
M3-C asks learners to predict a mission outcome, run a fixed baseline, apply one bounded mission-policy intervention, inspect synchronized orbit-attitude-power-communications evidence, and explain the resulting trade-off. Hardware is optional and no official attempt is created.
Required learner evidence
- • One explicit prediction
- • Baseline and candidate hashes
- • At least three cited telemetry channels
- • One trade-off or failure diagnosis
- • One justified next improvement
Assessment — 12 marks
- Prediction and rationale — 2
- Policy correctness — 2
- Evidence selection — 3
- Systems trade-off — 3
- Fidelity/provenance awareness — 2
Experiment 1 · 35 minutes
Eclipse Survival: Protect the Energy Reserve
Can mission logic preserve enough battery energy through eclipse while still collecting useful data?
Learning objective
Compare an always-on baseline with a sunlight-aware and reserve-aware mission policy.
Evidence channels
illumination · battery SOC · payload state · safe mode · generated data
Teacher prompt
Require learners to identify the specific event or threshold that protected the reserve.
Interpretation boundary
A successful intervention preserves more battery energy without pretending that zero payload activity is always optimal.
Experiment 2 · 35 minutes
Science versus Power: Schedule the Payload
How much science data can be generated without violating the spacecraft energy reserve?
Learning objective
Use illumination and state-of-charge evidence to schedule a high-load payload.
Evidence channels
payload active frames · battery SOC · generated data · downlinked data
Teacher prompt
Ask learners whether maximum generated data is the same as maximum mission value.
Interpretation boundary
The candidate should preserve the reserve while retaining a defensible fraction of science generation.
Experiment 3 · 40 minutes
First Contact: Point, Acquire and Downlink
Can the spacecraft select the right attitude and communications conditions to complete a first downlink?
Learning objective
Compare blind transmission with pass-aware, link-aware and nadir-pointed operations.
Evidence channels
pointing mode · station visibility · off-boresight angle · link margin · downlinked data
Teacher prompt
Require separate evidence for visibility, pointing and link availability.
Interpretation boundary
The candidate should deliver more data during a valid teaching contact opportunity.
Experiment 4 · 40 minutes
Downlink Bottleneck: Prevent Storage Overflow
What happens when payload data generation exceeds contact-window downlink capacity?
Learning objective
Use storage and pass evidence to reduce overflow while preserving useful science.
Evidence channels
storage percent · overflow · generated data · downlinked data · pass visibility
Teacher prompt
Ask learners to distinguish onboard storage from communications throughput.
Interpretation boundary
A successful policy reduces overflow and improves the fraction of generated data that reaches the ground.
Experiment 5 · 45 minutes
Pointing Trade-off: Sun, Earth or Inertial Hold
Which attitude objective should be prioritized during charging, observation and communications phases?
Learning objective
Schedule different pointing modes and compare energy, pointing and downlink consequences.
Evidence channels
mode switches · solar generation · battery SOC · link margin · science data
Teacher prompt
Have learners justify each mode transition using a mission objective, not appearance.
Interpretation boundary
The candidate should demonstrate a defensible systems trade-off rather than maximizing one metric in isolation.
Experiment 6 · 45 minutes
Fault Recovery: Protect, Recover and Resume
Can bounded mission logic recover from low battery and storage pressure without losing the spacecraft?
Learning objective
Use safe-mode and recovery thresholds while managing payload and downlink activity.
Evidence channels
safe-mode events · recovery events · battery SOC · storage percent · mission yield
Teacher prompt
Use the separate enter and recover thresholds to introduce hysteresis and fault-state stability.
Interpretation boundary
The candidate should protect the reserve, recover only after adequate margin returns and resume useful work safely.
Fidelity and safety disclosure
Mission policies are bounded declarative commands rather than arbitrary code. M3-C selects synchronized evidence from separately validated M3-B pointing-mode artifacts; continuous cross-mode transition dynamics are not yet modeled. All orbit, attitude, power, link and data channels are simulated or derived. Measured-channel count is zero. This is not CAD-confirmed, operational RF, production, regulatory or flight-qualification evidence.