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MissionLab

Your spacecraft. Your mission.

Test an idea, run the mission, decide what the team should do.

Your mission

Pilot lesson

Deployment to first contact

Every step scored something. So which one is actually stopping the mission?

Start mission

5570 minutes · Grade 7 · nothing to set up, and your work stays in this browser

Next missions

The order the programme teaches them in. You can run any of them on their own.

Pilot lesson

Truth and measurement

If the instruments get worse, does the spacecraft get worse - or does it just stop knowing where it is?

5570 minutes · Grade 7 · runs in this browser

Open this mission
Pilot lesson

Commanding attitude

A stronger controller points more accurately. What does that cost the spacecraft?

5570 minutes · Grade 7 · runs in this browser

Open this mission
Pilot lesson

Stabilising the spin

How do you stop something spinning in space, where there is nothing to push against?

5570 minutes · Grade 7 · runs in this browser

Open this mission

What running a mission is like

Every mission moves the same way, whichever spacecraft problem it gives you.

  1. 01 · Mission brief

    What the spacecraft problem is, and what a good answer looks like.

  2. 02 · What do you think?

    Answer the check, read the idea behind it, and write your prediction.

  3. 03 · Prepare

    Confirm you are ready to run, once the prediction is written.

  4. 04 · Run the mission

    Run the spacecraft model — the baseline, then the comparison.

  5. 05 · See results and decide

    Read what the run produced, choose your evidence, decide what the team should do, and say what it does not prove.

  6. 06 · Complete and reflect

    Look back at what changed your mind, and finish your record.

  7. 07 · Your record

    What your finished record is, and what it is not.

Missions for a different grade

The same spacecraft. What changes is how much of it you are shown, and what you are asked to justify.

Where these missions sit

Twelve engineering areas make up the full programme. Thirteen runnable pilot missions cover fourteen experiments; MLX-12 remains mapped but unavailable.

First Contact & Spacecraft Systems

Sensors, Telemetry & Data Quality

Electrical Power & Energy Management

Attitude, Motion & Reaction Wheels

Feedback, Estimation & Control

Communications & Ground Link

Orbit, Ground Track & Contact Planning

Payload / Imaging / Mission Data

Thermal & Environmental Constraints

Faults, Diagnosis & Recovery

Integrated Mission Operations

Model-versus-Hardware Verification / Capstone

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