Kyle 'The Fish' HerringGreetings readers!
This is Mr. Herring, not Mr. W.
Many comments have come in for Mr. W. to stop his endless stream of crazy rants about loons in Rapid City, South Dakota and to start talking more about the awesome projects we are working on at the Space Center, especially the new Galileo, Mark VI.
The Galileo, Mark V was built over 12 years ago in the Provo School District as an experimental "portable" simulator. The Galileo history is a long story for another time but the short version is 10 years ago the Space Center bought the simulator and renamed it the Galileo.
I built the Galileo and I was the first and only flight director for the Galileo for over 4 years, until Mr. Billings arrived on the scene. Now the Galileo has had over 10 Flight Directors and countless thousands of flights!
If you take the approximate cost for the Galileo the Space Center has spent over 10 years, about $10,000.00. Divide it by 10 getting = $1000.00 per year. Running Approximately 200 + Missions per year. Costing the center about $5.00 or less per mission to run. The Galileo has been a whale of a deal in my opinion.
Six years ago Alex Debirk and I began working on designing the new Galileo, we affectionately named the "Mark VI". We had a grand vision for the new ship, one that would require a lot more expertise then both of us has.
Two years ago I discovered the BYU Capstone Projects and the possibilities for our design to come to life with their help. For the next year I worked at getting the monies and permissions to begin the Fall of 08'.
The Capstone Team has taken our design and polished it, worked it to fit within budget constraints, made it much more portable and put it through simulations testing. Next week they will start construction with a scheduled completion of the structure, shell and doors by April 1st were then it will be on display at BYU and then transported to Scenic Service Specialists for painting, completion of the interior and electrical.
The new Mark VI in my opinion is awesome! It has an aluminum exterior, steel bulkheads, sleeping for 4, Torpedo launching tube (yes you will have to manually put in the accessories for your probe or torpedo in the casing, place it in a tube and lock it in, to be fired!), has a crew of 6, custom designed chairs, interior like a jet aircraft except for the diamond plate aluminum floor, sliding interior door, drawbridge exit aft door, emergency escape hatch in the front, and touch screen controls! I think that is most of the key features…
Some of the builders of the new Galileo will be visiting the Space Center for the upcoming Voyager Club Meeting with blue prints and first hand accounts of their efforts! If you can't come to the meeting, keep you Internet browser on this blog as we will be posting pictures of some of the construction efforts.
All the Best!
Mr. Herring
4 comments:
Whoa!! That sounds way awesome!! Will it be available for the summer?
Is there a set day or a date or something when the new Galileo will be in the Space Center and we can do missions in it for Private Programs and stuff??
Touch pad controls, eh? Sounds pretty sweet! My question is: will it cost more than the current Galileo for Private Programs?
I like the idea of locking and loading the torpedoes, (I also enjoy the new engineers panels in the Oddyssey adnd the Phoenix, it would be cool if you have one for the new Galileo)but I'm not sure I entierly agree with everythign that the 21st century has to bring.
I object to the diomond plate aluminum floor. What was wrong with the carpet? I realize that carpet has to be vacumed, and often replaced, but I don't like the way the metal reacts with the sound or the lights. IT also, seems to me, like your trying to hard. LIek "ooh look at us we have metalic floors, which is kind of like chrome, which is awesome, because in the future everything will be covered with chorome".
I also disagree with the touch screens. IF you can get them to work, and the buttons don't end up looking like they jsut jumped out of a 'Dora the Explorer' episode than that would make it better, than thats great. But reasant experience tells me that touch screens often don't follow your fingers all that well. The graphics, in order to accomidate this set back, become too big and chunky. I feel it takes away the beatiful sleak, and well organized style of the current screens now.
Of course this is just a simple middle school childs opinion. but I knew I would regret it if I didn't atleast try to plug in some type of ad for what I think.
Will the new galileo be still be in the Gym? Will it still be mobile? As in will the wheels be lost in this trasnphormation? I think that the wheels are a great thing and would be missed greatly if they were not included int he next sketch.
I also realize that the plans have been made, the blueprints drawn, the construction 'made under way' if you will. NOne the less, this is what I think. =)
=)
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