BLOOMINGTON — What kind of field trip could be more exciting than a space flight to Mars?

But if a school can’t afford a real trip to Mars, the next best thing might be an afternoon at the Challenger Learning Center, located at the Prairie Aviation Museum on the grounds of the old Bloomington airport.

On March 16-17, Mr. John Coffey, eighth grade science teacher at Epiphany School in Normal, took his students to the Bloomington CLC, where they took part in a simulated mission to Mars set in the year 2076.

At the center, the adventures and experiences of a space mission that would take about two years in real life are compressed into just three hours. Twenty-three students took part in the March 16 “mission.”

The field trips last month were sponsored by the Normal Knights of Columbus, Father Thomas Carmody Council No. 6498. It’s the third year that Mr. Coffey has taken his students to the CLC for a fun hands-on learning experience.

Just as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration gives each space flight an identifying number, the Epiphany eighth-graders’ mission on March 16 was given the number “C1606-SP.”

The teachers at the CLC, known as “flight directors,” lead the student missions, guiding them through their tasks.

“They’ll leave here and think they’ve had a play day. They don’t think they’ve done any math or science,” she continued. “They don’t realize how much of their schooling they’ve applied.”

The Epiphany students’ simulated mission was a “crew exchange” — sending a fresh crew of astronauts to replace those who had spent the previous two years living and working in the Mars base, and bringing the old crew back to earth.

During their trip, the students conducted experiments and prepared probes to study the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. They also had to use some quick thinking to cope with various emergencies that cropped up from time to time.

With the mission complete, Mrs. Shrewsbury “debriefed” the students, who reviewed the things they had learned on their mission — teamwork, cooperation, knowledge, literacy skills, communication and following instructions.