 a space vehicle. So the basics are the same—the dynamics, the atmospheric models, the cockpit, all the interfaces and displays for the pilots—but the SMS is specialized for space travel.
You'll get to sit in it, fly it and run the full simulation exactly how the NASA astronauts did.
Several courses in aerospace engineering and other engineering departments will use the simulator—for example, evaluating cockpit–human factors or studying flight mechanics or guidance, navigation, and control. For some courses, we envision creating laboratory sections in which students will use the simulator as part of their work. The SMS will also be available to faculty and students for research, in addition to companies, organizations or individuals who wish to conduct research under contract. Public school students and teachers will also have ample opportunity to experience the SMS.
And this opportunity wouldn't be happening without the dedicated students of Texas A&M. Right now they're doing inventory and helping with site preparation. Students in aerospace engineering honors classes have been working up lesson plans for K–12 teachers and for aerospace engineering courses and laboratory sections at Texas A&M. Members of the Texas A&M chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space are designing the SMS Experience, an immersive experience for the facility, to include everything from selecting the pictures on the wall to the videos shown in the waiting-area monitors to the music playing over the loudspeaker. We want the shuttle simulator experience to be as good as visitors expect it to be, and better.
Approximately 1,000 people each year visit the Vehicle Systems and Control Laboratory on campus to fly the simulators, but I anticipate that visits to the SMS will easily exceed that number. And that's what we want: to make this facility available to the public to see, interact with and learn from. I've already been contacted by people all over the country who want to plan their summer vacations around bringing their families here to fly the simulator.
We will have a significant piece of the space program sitting right here at Texas A&M so that space enthusiasts can come visit it and get to see something on the same quality and significance level as anything at the National Air and Space Museum or one of the NASA museums. So lots of people are excited, and I'm excited too because this will be the only large piece of the space shuttle program that will remain in Texas. I'm excited that Texas A&M students, faculty, former students and friends will be able to use and enjoy it, and get to experience just a little bit of what flying into space on the shuttle is like. You won't be able to do that anywhere else in the world.
I'd like to be the first one to fly the SMS once it's up and running here, but I'll reserve that honor for the student technicians who have worked so hard on it. I flew it when it was at NASA, so I know the experience everyone will have—and it's going to be good. Even though I have worked on and flown simulators in industry and academia for my entire career, flying the SMS was still even better than I thought it would be. Everyone needs to experience this—it's great!
Lisa Warren ’12
SMS student volunteer coordinator
Aerospace Engineering major
A Current Student's Perspective
Every good Aggie will boast of Texas A&M’s prowess and grandeur. College Station will soon be a national landmark as home of the only Space Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) in existence. I am excited that we are receiving not only a vestige of space exploration history but also a critical piece of American history.
The SMS has been a crucial part of the space shuttle program since the program began in the 1970s. Every astronaut who has undertaken a shuttle mission has trained on this extraordinary machine. The SMS is the only major item from the shuttle program that is staying in Texas after the final mission in July 2011.
A team from NASA will assemble the SMS at the Texas A&M University Services Building. The team of student volunteers i