How Ufa schoolchildren flew to the moon

They say that the pioneer of the Soviet cosmonautics Friedrich Zander began his working day in the basement of the GIRD with the slogan "Go to Mars!" Thirty years later, Boris Chertok suggested that his colleagues shout this slogan while entering the office of Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov. Well, today this invigorating appeal was used as the name of the comprehensive program of the cosmoschool “Big space travel” of the Ufa club “Rosstan”.
Within the framework of this program, on February 1, 2015, the scientific and technical role-playing game “Flight to the Moon” was held. Pupils of the school conducted a training flight to the moon on a Martian ship in a training complex based on the Orbiter simulator.

Crew

The training complex consisted of a “ship” and a MCC. Two people were in the ship, they were supported by three operators in the MCC. Before the start, I managed to briefly talk with the guys:

On the ship,


Ekaterina, 17 years old, experience in the club for two years, was fond of space since childhood. She dreams of connecting her life with astronautics.
Eldar, 15 years old, the third year in the club, got into the club "on a geographical basis" - lives in the same house. I chose a space school, because it's interesting. There are no clear plans for the future, is considering the option of obtaining a technical education to work in the industry.
Both Catherine and Eldar are the repeated winners of the All-Russian Star Relay Competition, which takes place annually at the Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yu.A. Gagarin in Moscow.

In the MCC


Alexander, 16 years old, in the club for the third year, became interested in space thanks to the film “Star Wars”, goes to the club for pleasure, has no plans to connect life with space.

Timur, first got into the club at the Talking Water Native American summer camp, found out about the space school and went to it because he was interested in space and stars. He is thinking of continuing his hobby by enrolling in a space-related specialty at a university.

The third graduate of the space school was the TsUPe, now a student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, who came to Ufa to hold several Fiztekh Olympiads and help his native club.

Training complex

The training complex is quite complex and atmospheric - many computers are connected to the same network, flight data and video communication channels are displayed on monitors. In the event of a complete communication failure, conventional walkie-talkies were provided. The ship’s room is very high quality decorated in space style:

Spacecraft layout

The Martian manned spacecraft is assembled from several ISS modules, the VASIMR engine and the Martian module from the BBC movie “Space Odyssey” .
The spacecraft turned out to be very long, it is difficult to control, and the relatively small thrust of the electric jet engine means that the maneuvers will be performed much longer than in the case of using chemical engines. These factors seriously complicate the flight.

Flight plan

The flight begins in the orbit of the Earth. A Martian ship cannot independently start from the surface; it is assembled in orbit from individual modules launched on its launch vehicles. After the assembly and arrival of the crew, the ship accelerates to the moon (due to the low thrust of the engines this occurs in several stages) and enters the orbit of the moon. In a low lunar orbit, the crew enters the lander, lands on the moon in the region of the Riphean mountains (the ancient name of the Ural Mountains), takes off from the moon, docked with the ship. In the final, the ship starts toward the Earth and finishes in low Earth orbit: The



joint work of the crew and the MCC looks something like this:

Flight results

After five and a half hours of real time and 15 days of simulator time, despite some technical difficulties and psychological fatigue from communicating with journalists, the flight was successfully completed in a circular orbit of the Earth.

Global plans

The role-playing game “Flight to the Moon” is only the beginning of the comprehensive program “Forward to Mars”, which consists of several stages:

1. February 2015. Competition on the history of space.
2. April 2015. Physics and mathematics competition.
3. May 2015. Technical competition (robotics, technical modeling, 3D-modeling).
4. "Preflight training course" - developing activities, excursions.
5. Scientific and technical role-playing game "Flight to Mars".

The program has the following objectives:

• The development of students' interest in applied science and technology.
• Search and support for talented youth.
• Propaganda of Russia's achievements in space.
• Development of methods for the future youth aerospace center in Ufa.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I advise you to watch a very cute video showing the work of the school "Big space travel" over the past few years: