With design and prototyping of key vessel systems well advanced, attention is being turned to the skills and training Endeavour’s crew will need to carry out our deep space mission. The most fundamental skills are maneuvering the ship and maintaining full operational awareness of the surrounding space.

How many crew does Endeavour need to successfully carry out her deep-space mission? This is a question being asked throughout the vessel development team, not least because they need to ensure room for everyone to sleep. The question is also critical to the design of vessel systems that will need crew to support them. Automation and AI built into the command and control system significantly reduces the number of crew needed to operate most systems, but there must still be sufficient crew to cope if systems malfunction or are damaged and manual intervention is required.

The development of propulsion, navigation and tactical systems has begun to cast light on what combat in space will look like. System teams have shared their thoughts on what might happen if Endeavour goes to battlestations.

Being able to assess the status of a system at a glance is vital for managing the complex systems aboard Endeavour. While most core functions are automated, there’s still a lot for the crew to keep an eye on.

The front page of the crew site is designed to display content specific to whoever is logged in. In addition to your profile summary, a couple of new custom features have been added to help facilitate collaboration by keeping you up to date on your group discussions.

Four new crew profiles have been added to the ISDC careers site.

Crew profiles provide an insight into different roles throughout the ISDC and are intended to inspire future recruits. They include an overview of the profiled member’s current role and an insight into how they came to join the ISDC.

Crew profiles also provide valuable insights for existing members into the work being undertaken in different areas of the organisation.

The ISDC’s Generation Program has released an overview of the fusion reactor’s coolant system, coinciding with the commencement of system prototyping. This prototyping is an important next step in the development of a working power system for vessel construction