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PROJECT NEWS |
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PROJECT NEWS |
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The Latest Pics:
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Latest News:CS4 MISSION CONCLUDEDThe CS4 project, an unqualified success, was prematurely ended in Spember 1999 when Mission Director Michael Scott left St. Peter High School to pursue a consultant position with the Ottawa Carleton Catholic School Board. The CS4 habitat was dismantled to make room for other projects. We are currently looking for other schools interested in continuing the project, and will be happy to provide any assistance to interested parties. The virtual reality portion of our project, IS3:VR was developed into a company, ISRS, the International Student Reality Simulators, and was showcased at the Nortel Young Entrepreneurs Showcase in April 26, 1999. See Scotty's Surfin' Shack for information.More student project work will be posted as it is processed. Any future endeavours in space simulation and virtual reality modeling of space based projects will be posted here as well.
THE PAYETTE MISSIONThe second mission was conducted on June 4-5 1999. The 24 hour mission coincided with Canadian astronaut Julie Payette's visit to the International Space Station. Problems were encountered with Live WebCam, but Mission Control gave the OK to go ahead when technicians wired a video feed to the station. Many experiments were conducted including a construction of a robot by an astronaut through communications with Mission Control, use of new software for weather satellite image processing, and biomedical experiments. We also watched Julie Payette live on NASA TV on the Internet as she conducted several tasks such as the launch of StarShine.
THE DISCOVERY MISSIONOur first mission was accomplished November 6-7, 1998. The 24 hour mission, dubbed "The Discovery Mission" was designed to be a shakedown cruise to test subsystems and protocols. The CS4 crew were featured on the Discovery Channel worldwide in an episode of LifeSpace: The Human Journey. The astronauts did fine and were able to get past several computer and communications problems. Some reports were posted online during the mission. Communications were tested and included NetMeeting, IRC, walkie-talkies and headsets. Many thanks go to all the student volunteers and teacher helpers.
PHASE 3: SEPTEMBER 1998Phase 3, the installation of equipment, selection of astronauts and initial habitations was initiated at the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year. A new crop of students were given their tasks and after preliminary research on last year's work, CS4 is being readied for the first habitation. Several teams were devised to handle project work in robotics, biomedical testing, communications and weather science.The Planning Team developed a timeline and project teams have been given milestones to accomplish. The Communication Team evaluated software requirements for online communications. The Biomedical Team prepared the Astronaut Selection campaign. The IS3:VR team learned VRML 2.0 and developed Java and VRML web related materials. The Science Team tested our weather data acquisition and robotic mechanisms and cameras. Here are some of our pictures of the eastern coast of North America from our OFS WeatherFax polar satellite receiving station. Our Science Team put together weather analysis tools and a weather data collection station designed to be used by our CS4 astronauts.
PHASE 2: FEB. 1998- JUNE 1998Phase 2; the construction of the living quarters is complete. The living area has been built and electrical wiring has been completed. Since the ISS has been delayed to next November, we have decided to postpone our first habitation till next fall. Our first mission, Phase 3, will entail developing the interior furnishings and selecting the first astronauts. We are also in the process of obtaining partners in our project. Projected first habitation is scheduled for late October, 1998IS3:VR, our International Student Space Station: Virtual Reality, is nearing the end of initial Phase 1 development. We have developed external and internal views of a VR station, which will be used for demonstration purposes. We will soon be calling for participation from the international educational community, and looking into the development of an interactive environment. CS4 has been the center of displays and presentations at the Nortel Young Entrepreneurs Showcase, (part of OCRI's national conference), at the Congress Center, May 10-11; the OCRI Ottawa Technology Showcase, March 25 (the only high school there!); our school board's Board of Trustees meeting March 24; the Eastern Ontario Staff Development Network conference April 24; and Canadian National Marsville Link-up Day, at the Museum of Science and Technology April 25. Canadian astronaut, Bjarni Tryggvason, who went up in August, 1997, visited St. Peter High School as part of CS4 and the Grade 8 Canadian National Marsville projects, on Feb. 26 1998. The whole school was given a presentation by Bjarni on recent Canadian space initiatives. We were pleased to have this opportunity. New mission crest (above) created 98.02.19. Students of Design and Technology are putting their research online as part of their requirements. Please see their work at the Student CS4 Project.
PHASE 1: DESIGN, SEPT. 1997-JAN. 1998January 22 was our Phase 1 Presentation Day. A wonderful job done by all students. Congratulations! Students presented their habitat models and research work such as robotics and microgravity simulation to a selected group of industry reps and the media. On to Phase 2!On January 19, Ted Waring from the Ottawa Heart Institute came to our class to show the latest gear in electronic heart, pulse and blood pressure monitoring equipment on behalf of the CS4 Biomedical Team. Great job, Ted...the students loved it! Thank you. Please have a look at our CS4 captured live WebCam, one of many phases of this project. Stay tuned for further evolutionary developments! Last but not least, take a look at the real thing, at The International Space Station web site by NASA, and at NASA's incredible educational outreach program, at Quest. CS4 TIMELINEThe initial phases of design and shell construction were completed in three phases from September 1997 to February 1999. Habitations and experiments were designed to precede events of the International Space Station. This project involved students from Grade 9 to Grade 12/OAC. Personnel for the habitation phase were on a school wide volunteer basis. The timeline was as follows:
(Revised timeline October 1998)
September - October 1997
November 1997 - February 1998
March - May 1998
Any questions or comments? E-mail me: michael_scott@occdsb.on.ca. Comments are always appreciated.
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