Contact Victor Williamson with your questions about simulator based experiential education programs for your school.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Odyssey's Removal. Space and Science News


Hello Troops
Work continues at the Space Center on the removal of the Odyssey and electrical repairs and additions to the Phoenix, Magellan and Galileo.




Two large dumpsters sit outside the Voyager's back entrance for the demolished Odyssey.  It is sad to see the Odyssey removed.  I know several of The Troubadour's readers regarded the Odyssey as their favorite ship.   

The Odyssey's removal will allow us to access the Briefing Room and Phoenix.   Soon the Center will reopen on a limited basisWe hope to take one class per day on field trips.  The committee hasn't decided on what its recommendation will be for after school and Saturday private missions.  

The electricans are moving electrical plugs in the Magellan's control room.  They have work to do under the Magellan's risers as well.  The Phoenix control room will be getting several new banks of electrical outlets along with new LED lights to illuminate the Phoenix bridgeVery cool indeed.  The Galileo is getting new wiring for its plugs and lighting.  Jon Parker and Matt Ricks spent the best part of last Saturday removing the Galileo's wall panels for electrical access.  

Thank you for your continued support.   

Mr. W.   

In the News

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Astrobiologists have been worried for quite some time now that the Martian surface has been contaminated with microbes originating from Earth.  Read On

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China gets set to grow veggies on Mars, and start the first Deep Space brand of the Communist Party.
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The 13 best apps every owner of an iPad or iPad mini should own.  Just in time for your post Christmas boredom.  Read On

Have you ever wondered whether all this--you, your life, the universe--is just a sophisticated computer simulation? Martin Savage, a physicist at the University of Washington, thinks we can't discount the idea. In fact, he and two colleagues (Silas Beane and Zohreh Davoudi) published a paper in November 2012 exploring the possibility.  Read On 

The most extreme space discoveries of 2012.  Astronomical discoveries in 2012 have reshaped what we know about the universe and pushed some instruments to the very limits of their observing power.  Read On

A sun-like star in our solar system's backyard may host five planets, including one perhaps capable of supporting life as we know it, a new study reports.  Read On


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's some suggestions for the Odyssey version 2.0. None of these would be very hard or expensive.

-First of all, I think that it should have the designation of "A" rather than "2" because it follows Star Trek naming conventions, and it's just a gut feeling that it sounds 'better' when the ship is named by the main computer.

-Secondly, there should be another intruder hatchway that's easily accessible. When I volunteered, I wanted so badly to use the hatch into the engineering compartment, but it just wasn't practical to access.

-It would be kind of neat if the Odyssey and Voyager could do co-op missions. When co-op missions are done, it's always the Phoenix and Odyssey, which never made sense to me since the Odyssey is almost always seen deploying from the Voyager at the mission's very beginning.

-This also applies to the Galileo. It would be neat if the Odyssey could fly in a planetary atmosphere (in the story universe, of course; a flying simulator would be WAY over-budget). It's not too big in-universe to do this, and the Galileo lands on planets regularly with a much less aerodynamic hull. Allowing the ship itself to make physical contact with a planet could open up a lot of story possibilities; for example, a captain may be forced to have the ship land on a dangerous planet after the ship gets badly damaged-and they end up with a killer alien aboard.
Programming a tactical screen for flying over a planet's surface would be pretty easy, so I'd like to see at least one of the smaller ships at the space center able to get up close and personal with those alien worlds.

Sorry for the long post, but that's just my $0.02 on a new Odyssey.

Anonymous said...

Can we start booking missions, I want to be the first person on the new simulators :D