Excelsior Space Mission 2006 : Meet Our Mission Team

Take a voyage in the Space Shuttle Excelsior

Meet Our Mission Team

Excelsior Space Shuttle Mission Roles

Astronauts

Commander
Mission Specialists
Payload Specialists
Medical Officer
Pilot

Duties and Responsibilities

Astronauts are responsible for the execution of space shuttle missions, their rules and control directives, assessing problems and implementing deviations from flight plan, procedures or personnel assignments in the interest of safety or mission accomplishment.

Pilot astronauts serve as both space shuttle commanders and pilots. During flight, the commander has onboard responsibility for the vehicle, crew, mission success, and safety of flight. The pilot assists the commander in controlling and operating the vehicle and may assist in the deployment and retrieval of satellites using the remote manipulator system (RMS), referred to as the robot arm or mechanical arm.

Mission specialist astronauts work with the commander and the pilot and have overall responsibility for coordinating shuttle operations in the following areas: Shuttle systems, crew activity planning, consumables usage, and experiment/payload operations. Mission specialists are trained in the details of the Orbiter onboard systems, as well as the operational characteristics, mission requirements/objectives, and supporting equipment/systems for each of the experiments conducted on their assigned missions. Mission specialists perform extravehicular activities (EVAs), or space walks and operate the remote manipulator system.

The Payload Specialist is the person other than a NASA astronaut who has specialized on-board duties and is a professional in the physical or life sciences, or is a technician skilled in operating unique equipment.

The Medical Officer takes blood pressure and pulse reading before and after liftoff and during exercise and at rest; times reactions for certain activities; gives basic first aid and conducts medical experiments.

Mission Control Team

Communications Team

The Communications Team relays all voice communications from the various teams to the student astronauts. They can send written data to the astronauts via the discussion pages. CAPCOM does much of the talking during the launch and landing scripts. It is also their responsibility to closely monitor the countdown. CAPCOM relays all radio information from various teams to astronauts from launch to landing and instructs data team to send messages to astronauts. They are to work closely and support the Flight Team.

Medical Team

Flight Surgeon, Cardiologist, Physiologist

The Medical Team asks the Medical Officer on board the space shuttle simulator to take blood pressure, heart rate, pulse, and respiration readings from the astronauts several times throughout the simulation. This is done before and after exercise. These data are compared and analyzed for significant differences. The Medical Team is expected to graph the results and compose a written conclusion based on the results to be posted on our website. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IS REQUIRED.

Flight Surgeon:

The Flight Surgeon is the chief medical officer who coordinates the activities of the medical team; communicates with astronauts; evaluates physical, mental, and emotional condition of crew and relays this information to Public Affairs Team; and works with physiologist and cardiologist to create and eye-hand response tests of astronauts' reaction time and record results.

Physiologist:

The Physiologist determines the resting heart rate of astronauts; the time it takes for the astronauts to complete a maze on Earth before and after being spun until dizzy and records the results on a chart; assists medical officer aboard the shuttle to perform the same experiments; and relays the results of the experiments to Public Affairs Team.

Cardiologist :

The Cardiologist determines the heart rate of astronauts before and after exercise (sitting pulse standing pulse, lying down pulse, and inclined pulse) with a heart rate monitor.

Navigation Team

Flight Dynamic Officer, Meteorologists

The Navigation Team plots the shuttle's current position on a large world map. The Navigation Team also posts weather data on the shuttle simulator's 5 (or 10) landing sites around the world and assesses whether an emergency landing there is possible or not.

Flight Dynamics Officer :

The Flight Dynamics Officer communicates with the astronauts during launch and landing; Mission Elapsed Time (MET) every half hour and relays this information to the Public Affairs Team; plot shuttle movement on a world map; research for items of interest to astronauts concerning countries they are currently flying over and relay this information to the Communications Team.

Meteorologist :

The Meteorologist plays the role of the weather plane and reports current weather conditions at Kennedy Space Center on Merrit Island, Florida, prior to launch; reports current weather conditions at Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, for landing; records temperature, humidity, wind directions and speed, and any special weather conditions (e.g., thunderstorms, tornados, snow, etc.) and relays this weather information to Public Affairs Team every half hour.

Public Affairs

Chief Correspondent, Communication and Flight Correspondent, Science Correspondent, Medical Correspondent

The Public Affairs Team scurries about, picking up information from all teams to post on a large bulletin board. It is the responsibility of the Public Affairs Team to post mission updates to our Internet site. The Public Affairs team can write articles describing the mission. The Public Affairs Team is also responsible for "advertising" the mission throughout the school and local community by creating posters, leaflets, Press Releases for the local (and national) media, and so on.

Chief Correspondent

The Chief Correspondent coordinates the handling of information sent by the Medical, Lab, Navigation, and Communication Teams; posts mission updates on the school bulletin board; prepares a summary for the school newspaper; conducts preflight and post flight press conferences; and composes Press Releases for local media

Science Correspondent

The Science Correspondent composes news summaries of experiments conducted by the Medical Team; post summary of lab experiments on school bulletin board and Internet site.

Medical Correspondent

The Medical Correspondent composes news summaries of experiments conducted by the Medical Team; post summaries of medical tests on school bulletin board and Internet site.

Flight Correspondent

The Flight Correspondent composes news summaries relating to the position of the shuttle as determined by the Navigation Team and post summaries on the school bulletin board and Internet site.

Lab Team

Science Officers
The Lab Team collects data from the Payload Specialists inside the simulator who are performing the experiments. They create a series of experiments for the astronauts to perform. The Lab Team is expected to demonstrate the results (through graphs, etc.) and compose a written conclusion based on the results. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD MUST BE USED.

Science Officers (Mission Control)

The Science Officer (Mission Control) provides direction for experiments; coordinates all experiments conducted by the astronauts in flight; relays experimental results to Public Affairs Team; and prepares a summary of experiments for the webpage.

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