Space Centre Excursion

On Friday 10th June, the Year 9 students in the Earth in Our Universe elective went to the Victorian Space Education Centre (VSSEC) to take part in a ‘Mission to Mars’. The Journey to Mars would usually take 12 months and be preceded by a rigorous selection process and a significant amount of training, but VSSEC were satisfied that through the material they’d studied, the skills they had gained and the fact that they returned their permission slips 3 days prior to lift off, that the Year 9s were indeed ready to travel the 203 million km across space to the surface of the red planet to conduct their scientific investigations.

On arrival at VSSEC, which is conveniently located on the outskirts of Melbourne, the students quickly meet their instructors, put on their flight suits and spilt into two groups. Mission Controllers had the job of running operations from the bank of computers and screens that is Mission Control, solving issues as they arose and keeping the astronauts both on task and alive. The Astronauts themselves had to make the voyage across the depths of space, put on their protective space suits and venture out onto the surface of Mars to conduct various chemical, physical and biological experiments and systematically collect samples for analyse.

The students learnt there are many challenges to working on the Martian surface. The average temperature is -63oC, which feels like winter in the Macedon Ranges. The effect of dust storms and radiation from solar flares is a very real threat thanks to the fact that Mars has a very thin atmosphere and no magnetic field to protect its self. 

After a semi-successful mission, where only a few of the Viking mission astronauts were lost to a Martian dust storm, the two groups of students returned to Earth to have lunch and compare experiences before switching job roles for the return Marnier mission.

Taking what they had learnt from their experiences on the first mission into the next, the high levels of team work, communication and problem solving meant that every astronaut was able to execute their designated duties and return safely to the lander before a potentially lethal radiation dose hit the planet’s surface.

All in all, it was a fully immersive, interesting, thought provoking but overall enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Gisborne Secondary College would like to thank the excellent staff at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre and are already looking forward to returning with a new crop of recruits in Semester 2.