science

Mission Discovery

Mission Discovery is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mission Discovery rather than just read about it. In short: 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, England, and has since expanded to Australia, the US, India and other countries.

Key takeaways

Mission Discovery belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mission Discovery to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mission Discovery from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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, 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.

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, scientists and people from fields outside of science, covering topics including biomedical and scientific research done by NASA, 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 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 Space time : ~ 196 days in space Area of study : Engineer Mission discoveries attended: 2016 Shiv Nadar School, India

Scott Kelly Space time : ~ 570 days in space

Kenneth Ham Space time : ~ 25 days in space Area of study : Test pilot 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 : Engineer Mission discoveries attended: 2015 Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK

Jean-Jacques Favier Space time : ~ 16 days in space

Nicole Stott Space time : ~ 106 days in space Area of study : Engineer Mission discoveries attended: 2014 Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, US

Yi So-Yeon Space Time : ~ 10 days in space Area of study : Naval aviator, Test pilot, Engineer

Michael J. McCulley Space time : ~ 4 days in space Area of study : Researcher

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

Ken Bowersox Space Time : ~ 211 days in space Area of study : Test pilot '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

Scientists Dr. Julie Keeble, Pharmacology, 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, 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.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mission Discovery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mission Discovery claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mission Discovery before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mission Discovery ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mission Discovery

In research: Mission Discovery appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mission Discovery in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mission Discovery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Educational programs, Space camps, Space program of Australia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mission Discovery outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mission Discovery in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mission Discovery means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mission Discovery out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mission Discovery in simple terms?

Why does Mission Discovery matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mission Discovery?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mission Discovery.