Mission Operations

The ISDC’s Mission Operations team will support Endeavour’s crew with detailed mission planning. This includes drafting procedures that anticipate what the crew may encounter and define what is required for success. All available intelligence and scientific data relevant to the mission must also be compiled for the crew.

Attention to detail is vital as communication is virtually impossible from deep space, meaning Endeavour operates independently once a mission is underway.

The Mission Operations team also delivers the Academy’s simulation program, devising and managing the training evolutions and mission scenarios that will prepare crew for whatever is waiting for them in deep space.

From their control room the team pilot enemy vessels for the crew to battle, simulate new planets to explore or strange phenomena to encounter and initiate systems failures or other problems to contend with.

The control room team are supported remotely by the specialists who designed the specific mission objects such as ships, planets or phenomena.

The skill and experience required for this means that team members are recruited from among the most experienced crew and are often also instructors at the Academy.

Mission Operations Roles

There are a wide range of roles in Mission Operations.

Running mission scenarios from the control room requires a team with significant experience in navigation and tactical specialisations.

Developing mission scenarios requires as much imagination as technical knowledge. The scenario must be challenging but plausible and developed in sufficient detail to anticipate crew reactions to key events.

Scenario objects are typically created by specialists at the request of scenario producers using tools that have or will be developed. Examples include:

Star systems and planets: including planetary mapping to the required level of detail

Sub-planetary objects or phenomena: representing a puzzle for the crew to analyse and solve, even including danger to the ship or crew

TSMOs: other vessels or artificial structures in space with alien designs are powered by the simulator’s navigation engine

Vessel systems: each vessel system will be designed in detail so that when relevant it can malfunction or be enhanced by the crew to win the mission

Joining Mission Operations

Anyone interested in joining the Mission Operations team is encouraged to train as crew in a career track that interests them first.

Scholarships to cover training costs are available for candidates who show early aptitude and specialists will be considered for direct entry.