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KidSat and Shuttle Status Area

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Purpose: Students monitor the progress of the shuttle flight and post important information about the orbits and the status of the KidSat camera.

At the center of this area is a computer with two Netscape windows open:

• NASA's shuttle site - which provides on-going updates on the shuttle flight, and  
  displays the current location of the shuttle

• KidSat Mission Operations Status page-which the Gateway uses to send essential status 
  messages to the schools, to update deadlines, and to provide the longitude of the 
  descending nodes to position the orbital overlay map.

On the left side is a KidSat Status bulletin board. In the illustration above, the left side of the board is used to record each orbit's "descending node" and where day and night begin in the orbit. This information is used to position the orbit overlay. Also, the deadline to submit requests for the next orbit is posted, as well as any other vital information about the KidSat mission.

On the right side is a Shuttle Mission Status bulletin board. This includes information about the overall shuttle mission, such as launch and landing time, upcoming key events and the NASA TV schedule.

This area also has 2 clocks: Local Time and Mission Elapsed Time or MET (time since launch-shuttle operations are scheduled on the basis of MET).

Teachers' Handbook               Page 26