Mission Discovery is an international education program run for teenagers in many countries around the world. The programme started in 2011 in

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

, England, and has since expanded to Australia, the US, India and other countries. Mission discovery is run and directed by ISSET (''International Space School Educational Trust''), a registered UK charity founded in 1998 by Chris Barber. So far there have been 15 successful programs: one in India, twelve in the UK and two in the US. Each program has given the students the chance to work with space scientists while they work as a team designing experiments. As part of this program, at least one experiment designed by the students is sent to, and carried out on, the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

Format

Mission Discovery is a week-long event in which the pupils are split into random groups to design an experiment that could be launched into space. During this week the teams are involved in exercises designed to develop their leadership, team building, and personal development skills, while also giving them an insight into scientific fields with a relation to space. The pupils will also hear talks from various

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

, scientists and people from fields outside of science, covering topics including biomedical and scientific research done by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, and the astronaut's experiences in space, as well as topics like public speaking and how to suitably present information. Towards the end of the week, the program is more focused on the design of the students' experiments. The students are given time to design an experiment they believe could work in space and are then tasked with presenting it in both, an informative and interesting way. On the final day, the pupils present their ideas to other colleagues and mentors as well as different scientists, doctors, and professors from universities. The winning idea has their experiment designed and sent to the International Space Station where astronauts there will carry out experiments. So far there have been twenty different winning experiments. Each is then further designed with help from researchers and scientists. After a lengthy process of designing the experiment, the winning team is invited to watch the rocket launch carrying their experiment to the International Space Station. These experiments are then carried out by the current astronauts on board the ISS. Depending on the complexity and the issues with the experiments, they normally take up three years to be launched and carried out on board the ISS.

Previous programmes

People involved

Scientists involved in the program have included:

Astronauts

Michael Foale Colin Michael Foale (; born 6 January 1957) is a British-American astrophysicist and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space missions, and is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the Internat ...

Space time : ~ 374 days in space Area of study : Astrophysicist Mission discoveries attended: 2014 - 2016 King’s College London, England, 2016 Renfrewshire, Scotland, 2016 Ayrshire, Scotland *

Steven Swanson Steven Roy Swanson (born December 3, 1960, in Syracuse, New York) is an American engineer and retired NASA astronaut. Swanson has flown two shuttle flights, STS-117 and STS-119, and one Soyuz flight, TMA-12M. All of the flights were to the Int ...

Space time : ~ 196 days in space Area of study :

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Mission discoveries attended: 2016 Shiv Nadar School, India * Scott Kelly Space time : ~ 570 days in space *

Kenneth Ham Kenneth Todd "Hock" Ham (born December 12, 1964) is a retired American astronaut and a captain in the United States Navy. Ham was selected for NASA's astronaut program in August 1998, while serving as the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet lead carrier suita ...

Space time : ~ 25 days in space Area of study :

Test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

Mission discoveries attended: 2012 - 2014 King’s College London, England, 2014 Renfrewshire, Scotland, 2014 Valparaiso University * Stephen G. Bowen Space time : ~ 40 days in space Area of study :

Mission discoveries attended: 2015 Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK *

Jean-Jacques Favier Jean-Jacques Favier (; 13 April 1949 – 19 March 2023) was a German-born French engineer and a CNES astronaut who flew aboard the STS-78 NASA Space Shuttle mission in 1996. Favier was due to fly aboard the doomed '' Columbia'' mission in 2003 ...

Space time : ~ 16 days in space *

Nicole Stott Nicole Marie Passonno Stott (born November 19, 1962) is an American engineer and a retired NASA astronaut. She served as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 and was a mission specialist on STS-128 and STS-133. After 27 ye ...

Space time : ~ 106 days in space Area of study :

Mission discoveries attended: 2014 Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, US *

Yi So-Yeon Yi So-yeon (born June 2, 1978) is a South Korean astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space. Lee was born and raised in Gwangju, South Korea and graduated from KAIST with a Master's degree in Mechanical Engine ...

Space Time : ~ 10 days in space Area of study :

Naval aviator Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves '' navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seaborne aviation encompas ...

Michael J. McCulley Michael James "Mike" McCulley (born August 4, 1943), (Capt, USN, Ret.), is a retired American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, metallurgical engineer, and former NASA astronaut, and was the first submariner in space. He served as pilot o ...

Space time : ~ 4 days in space Area of study :

Researcher Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

* Jerry L. Ross Space time : ~ 58 days in space Area of study :

Flight Engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

Ken Bowersox Kenneth Dwane "Sox" Bowersox (born November 14, 1956) is a United States Navy officer and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of five Space Shuttle launches and an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. When he launched on STS-73 ...

Space Time : ~ 211 days in space Area of study :

Mission discoveries attended'': 2015 Caerphilly, Wales

Nasa personnel

* Sarah Murray, Assistant chief of EVA, Robotics and Crew Systems * Jay F. Honeycutt, former director of

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

Scientists

* Dr. Julie Keeble,

Pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

, King's College London * Prof. Steve Harridge, Human and Applied Physiology, King's College London * Dr. James Clarke, Human and Applied Physiology, King's College London * Dr. David Green, Human and Aerospace Physiology, King's College London

Completion

On completion of the program, the winning team then has to wait and go through the process of their experiment idea being built from only their design. This is a process which involves the team working with a scientist who helps them make their experiment suitable for the space station, because what the students choose, meaning the specifics, isn't always the best way for it to be done. An example of this process in the team which won the program in Renfrewshire in 2014. For this group, the process of their ideas becoming the real thing lasted two years. This is because the experiment wasn't launched until the summer of 2016. During these two years, the team met up on a few occasions for events as well as experiment discussion sessions. The main experiment discussion session was held in 2014 when the team met with pharmacology lecturer from King's College London, Julie Keeble, who was the main scientist involved in the development of their experiment. This session took place at the

University of the West of Scotland The University of the West of Scotland (), formerly the University of Paisley, is a public university with four campuses in south-western Scotland, in the towns of Paisley, Blantyre, Dumfries and Ayr, as well as a campus in London, England. T ...

, where they spend time in the labs finding out how their experiment would be built and any changes that would need to be made to it. During the period between the first meeting and the launch, the students were also invited to an event which involved astronaut Mike Foale. The students took part in the day which involved meeting with Foale and listening to the talk he gave to the prospectus students for the 2015 program. These two above events were the main two events the students were involved in before their launch in the summer of 2016. This example is similar to most programs run by ISSET.

References

{{Reflist

External links

ISSET Homepage

ISSET Blog
Space program of the United States Space programme of the United Kingdom Space programme of India Space programme of Australia Space camps Educational programs