Pilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Sunlight to energy
Your spacecraft runs on sunlight. Its solar panels only make electricity when light reaches them, and how much reaches them depends on which way the spacecraft is facing. Your team will test two ways of pointing it, compare what the Twin produces, and recommend one — saying clearly what your evidence does and does not prove.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The energy and battery comparison between the two runs
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Orbit pass and link
A satellite can only talk to a ground station while it is above the horizon. That window is short, and it does not happen on demand. Your team will work out when the next window opens, plan what to do with it, and stay honest about the difference between being in view and actually getting the data.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · Whether a pass appeared in each window
- · My reason for the contact plan
- · Why being in view is not the same as receiving data
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Power through the shadow
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.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The battery and temperature comparison between the two spacecraft
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Truth and measurement
A spacecraft cannot see itself. Everything it reports comes from instruments, and instruments are never perfect. Your team will fly the same manoeuvre twice, changing nothing except the quality of the instruments, and find out what that does to what the spacecraft knows about itself.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The truth-against-estimate comparison for both sets of instruments
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Deployment to first contact
The moment a CubeSat leaves the launcher it is tumbling, cold and silent. Before it can do anything useful it has to stop spinning, find the Sun to charge, turn its antenna towards Earth and get a message through. Your team will run that sequence and work out which step is holding the whole mission back.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The step-by-step result for this deployment
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Commanding attitude
Telling a spacecraft where to point is easy. Getting it there is the hard part, and it is the controller that does the work. Your team will run the same manoeuvre with two different controllers and find out what a more accurate one actually costs.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The controller comparison for the two runs
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Stabilising the spin
A spacecraft pushed out of a launcher is tumbling, and until that stops nothing else can happen. No pointing, no charging, no contact. Your team will try two ways of bringing the spin under control and find out that one of them makes things worse before it makes them better.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The spin comparison for the two amounts of damping
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Surviving the environment
Space is not a good place to lose heat. There is no air to carry it away, so a spacecraft running its camera and radio has to get rid of that heat through its own structure. Your team will run the same demanding workload on two spacecraft and see how differently they cope.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The temperature and battery comparison between the two spacecraft
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Planning the observation
A camera that sees more detail makes bigger pictures, and a spacecraft can only send home so much before the pass ends. Your team will fly the same observation with two cameras and work out which one actually delivers more to the ground.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The camera comparison for the two spacecraft
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Configuring the spacecraft
A spacecraft design is a set of promises that all have to be kept at once: enough power, enough storage, mass within limit, balance within tolerance. Your team will put two designs through the same mission and check every budget, not just the ones that pass.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The design-budget comparison for the two spacecraft
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Diagnosing the mission
This mission came home with almost nothing. The spacecraft was healthy at launch, the payload worked, and the ground station was listening - and still, hardly any data arrived. Your team has the mission readings. Work out what happened.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The mission readings for this run
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Writing a safe policy
When a fault happens, nobody on the ground can react in time. Whatever the spacecraft does next was decided months earlier, by whoever wrote its rules. Your team will read a mission that went wrong and write the rule that should have been there.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The mission readings for this run
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this missionPilot lesson55–70 min · software only
Proving it against evidence
A model can be perfectly correct and still let you reach a wrong conclusion, if you stop watching too early. Your team will run the same spacecraft twice, changing nothing but how long you look, and test whether a conclusion drawn from the first run survives the second.
You will produce
- · My prediction
- · The short-run against long-run comparison
- · Where each number came from
- · One thing this model does not cover
Start this mission