The ASH project will build a Virtual Control Room that makes it possible for school classes to plan and carry out virtual missions to a comet to look for traces of life. The students will play the roles of scientists, engineers, mission control managers etc., and they will experience the excitement of making new discoveries. The inspiration for the Virtual Control Room comes from the Mission Control Center in Houston, which became famous in the sixties with the Apollo missions to the Moon. In these days people were fascinated with science and technology. Much has changed since then.
People are now much less concerned with technology.
This also influences the young generation and can be seen by the serious lack of skilled engineers in Europe. One of the aims of the ASH project is to provide a teaching environment that will fascinate school children and make them interested in becoming engineers or scientists. The Virtual Control Room will look somewhat similar to a real mission control center. There will be different work places where specific mission tasks can be controlled and managed. For pedagogical reasons these work places are grouped in islands.