The Ottawa-Carleton Educational Space Simulation (OCESS), unofficially known as "Spacesim" is a student-run organization within the

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB, known as English-language Public District School Board No. 25 prior to 1999) refers to both the institution responsible for the operation of all English public schools in the city of Ottawa, Ont ...

that operates primarily out of

Lisgar Collegiate Institute Lisgar Collegiate Institute is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal. History In 1843, a grammar school with 40 paying students wa ...

. The chief activity of the club is to educate youth about the sciences with relation to

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually con ...

Mission statement

The Ottawa-Carleton Educational Space Simulation, or Spacesim, is a non-profit organization that promotes a greater understanding of

space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by uncrewed rob ...

and research in students of all ages. By conducting a 120-hour mission to a chosen planet, moon or

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

each year, Spacesim strives to foster initiative and responsibility in its members, while instilling love and respect for space and science.

Mission

An important activity conducted by Spacesim is its annual 120-hour simulated space mission. This mission is conducted in a simulated spacecraft or Habitat designed and built by the organization. The current habitat was built in the 2008/2009 school year, after the

asked OCESS to move to a different room within the same building. The previous habitat had been built in 2001. Accompanying the Habitat is an array of custom-made software written by the current Teacher Adviser of the organization, Dr James Magwood. This software handles everything from environmental conditions to the navigation and piloting of the Habitat. Dr Magwood's work with the organization earned him Carleton University's 2010 Patrick O'Brien High School Teaching Award.https://carleton.ca/studentsupport/patrick-obrien-high-school-teaching-award/ A 2011 mission visited Europa(a moon of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...

), an anomalous object, and the

Gliese 581 planetary system Gliese 581 () is a red dwarf star of spectral type M3V at the center of the Gliese 581 planetary system, about 20 light years away from Earth in the Libra constellation. Its estimated mass is about a third of that of the Sun, and it is t ...

. The original flight plan was to fly to the potentially habitable

Gliese 581g Gliese 581g , unofficially known as Zarmina (or Zarmina's World), was a candidate exoplanet postulated to orbit within the Gliese 581 system, twenty light-years from Earth. It was discovered by the Lick–Carnegie Exoplanet Survey, and was the s ...

but due to unknown radiation levels and low fuel, the mission landed on

Gliese 581f Gliese 581 () is a red dwarf star of spectral type M3V at the center of the Gliese 581 planetary system, about 20 light years away from Earth in the Libra constellation. Its estimated mass is about a third of that of the Sun, and it ...

. While the simulation generally steers away from speculative science such as a mission destination the existence of which is indeterminate, this year's was chosen to underscore for members the real life proliferation of

exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

. Previous missions include the 2010 mission to three Jupiter moons, the 2009 mission to Iapetus, the 2008 mission to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

, and the 2007 mission to Borrelly.

Habitat

The Habitat, Hawking III(the third OCESS habitat to be named after eminent physicist Stephen Hawking), is the simulated living space for astronauts during missions. The current incarnation of the Habitat; composed entirely of drywall with metal supports; is made up of seven modules: the Control Room, Interlock, Longhouse, Hotlab, Washroom, Engineering Closet, and

Airlock An airlock, air-lock or air lock, often abbreviated to just lock, is a compartment with doors which can be sealed against pressure which permits the passage of people and objects between environments of differing pressure or atmospheric compo ...

. The Control Room is the

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopt ...

of the Habitat; in it are four computers and some miscellaneous equipment essential to the operation of the mission. The computers run the simulation programs software such as

EECOM Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in such Mission Control Centers as NASA's Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles and use telemetry to mon ...

(Emergency, Environmental & Consumables), BIOCOM ( Biological Communications, which details the health of each astronaut both for Mission Control and for the astronauts), ORBIT (the piloting software) and Engineering, which is used to control the habitat's engineering systems. During the Mission each of these programs is run on a dedicated computer, but BIOCOM shares a computer with mission records and logs. Every room is outfitted with

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', '' Mega Man'', '' ...

(Capsule Cmmmunicator),

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...

lines that allows the astronauts to communicate with Mission Control.

Contents of the rooms

The Control Room contains a television with a camera feed to Mission Control, so as to enable two-way visual communication in the event of a telephone and radio failure. Astronauts are encouraged to become familiar with sign language, an endeavour in which they are aided by an instructive chart on the wall of the Control Room. The Interlock is the largest room of the habitat and it connects to every other room. It serves as a kitchen, containing a refrigerator, a microwave, and a full complement of cupboards and cutlery, and also contains a television and camera feed that monitors activity in the airlock and hotlab. The Longhouse is where the astronauts sleep during the mission. It contains 3 wooden bunk beds, providing 1 bed for each of the 6 astronauts. The Hotlab is a laboratory in which tests are conducted on samples collected during the mission, and contains an isolated work area or 'Hotbox' to handle potentially dangerous substances. It also contains the materials necessary to determine the identity of unknown substances, such as

pH Indicators A pH indicator is a halochromic chemical compound added in small amounts to a solution so the pH ( acidity or basicity) of the solution can be determined visually or spectroscopically by changes in absorption and/or emission properties. Hen ...

, thermometers and solubility charts. The Washroom contains chemical toilets, and is the only room in the habitat aside from the Engineering Closet that does not contain a video camera. The Engineering Closet houses the vital machines that maintain the vital functions of the habitat, such as the engine, air compression systems, and life support. Finally, the Airlock enables astronauts to enter and exit the habitat without venting the atmosphere inside the other five modules. It contains materials necessary for an

Extra-vehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...

, such as flashlights, sample collectors, and EVA suits. In 2011, Samuel Baltz gave
tour
of the habitat and its rooms to the

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The newsp ...

Education

Aside from the mission, SpaceSim also conducts several programs to educate youth outside the club. The organization offers two programs: a hands-on learning experience, known as the Elementary Education Program (EEP), and a

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

program. The OCESS is one of two organizations in the Ottawa area to offer planetariums, the other being the

Canada Science and Technology Museum The Canada Science and Technology Museum (abbreviated as CSTM; french: Musée des sciences et de la technologie du Canada) is a national museum of science and technology in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum has a mandate to preserve and promote ...

Elementary Education Program

EEPs are offered to every elementary school within the Ottawa-Carleton District school board every year, although only one has been performed in the last four years due to a decline in interest within the organization. These entail transporting one or more classes of students to the OCESS's facilities and providing them with science demonstrations in such fields as Electrostatics, Classical Physics, Rocketry, and special characteristics of the planets of the solar system. The best-loved demonstration of the EEP is the Neptune demonstration, which involves freezing marshmallows in

liquid nitrogen Liquid nitrogen—LN2—is nitrogen in a liquid state at low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, low viscosity liquid that is wi ...

as a treat for the visiting classes. Complete details regarding the EEP are available on th
OCESS Website

Planetarium Program

The Planetarium Program involves transporting the OCESS's inflatable planetarium to

elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, a ...

or high schools across the Ottawa region and delivering a presentation involving constellations, luminosity, temperature of stars, and a discussion about light pollution. The standard presentation is designed to complement the Grade 9 Ontario Science Curriculum, but the experience is equally suitable for a younger audience. Complete details regarding the Planetarium Program are available on th
OCESS Website

Leadership

One of the most important facets of the OCESS is the leadership experience it provides for its members. The club is entirely student-run by three commanders: the Mission Commander, the Education Commander, and the Engineering Commander. The Mission Commander is in charge of everything relating to the mission, the Education Commander is in charge of everything relation to Planetariums and EEPs, and the Engineering Commander is in charge of designing any habitat systems, such as door indicators, phone circuitry and/or power systems. The mission is assisted by the Mission Subcommander, who serves as an

executive officer An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, ...

, and the Education Commander is assisted by the Planetarium Commander. Ranked below the commanders are the Directors. These consist of the Quartermaster, who is in charge of storage, and the Webmaster, who is in charge of the Spacesim Website. The Webmaster assigns members to the Wiki Task Force, which is headed by the Wikimaster, who is also a Director. Commanders are chosen every June for the following year, as most of the Commanders are usually in Grade 12, and thus graduate at the end of their term in office. The 2021/2022 Commanders are: *Mission Commander
Cesare Corazza
*Mission Subcommander: Blakely Haughton *Education Commander: Jamie Tait

External links

Ottawa-Carleton Educational Space SimulationOCESS Wiki

References

{{Reflist Education in Ottawa