SPACE STATION 2020 
 

Mission Control

Welcome to Mission control

[image of man in suit] DIRECTOR THOMAS: I am Director Thomas. You arrived here after making an emergency return to Earth from the Space Station. Before returning to the Station, you will need to be debriefed about the nature of the emergency, but first let us give you a tour.


Mission control is the place where our mission was planned and from where engineers and scientists can monitor the Space Station and advise the crew. They also have limited control over some of the Stations functions. Mission Control Centres are often housed in building that look quite dull from the outside, but have extremely exciting things happening inside! It is here that controllers can fire the rocket engines to launch a Mission, and collect data that is returned from sensors on the Space Station.


Industrial Relations

One aspect of life of the Space Station that needs careful handling is industrial relations. It is important that the mission control staff, who work in shifts and can escape from their work, do not make the Space Station crew work too much. This happened with the US Skylab mission. The result was that the crew went on strike! They simply switched off the communication system and wouldn't talk to the ground for several hours.


DIRECTOR THOMAS:
Well, we don't seem to have time for a debrief, now. Just write a report on the nature of the incident and have it on my desk first thing tomorrow! Meanwhile you can return to the Station.

Return to Station

Return to title page

Warp to the Teachers' Index Page

 


Teachers and those in a hurry may take the quick route to the lessons via the index.

Enter the Teachers' Wormhole to go to the Main Index Page.