A week ago I received an interesting email from two Space EdVenture fans that I'd like to share with you.
Mr. Williamson!
This summer has been filled with craziness! So much stuff going on. Parties, bbqs, and a whole lot of fun! But the trick to this summer is that it is the last summer then I leave on my mission, which I am so excited. But for it being my last summer, I wanted to do something INTENSE, a dream come true! So, naturally while remembering that the Space Center was the best thing I've done...(The only reason why I know about the space center is because of my best friend); so my friend and I devised a plan - MAKE OUR OWN SIMULATOR!
Ok, let me give you a little background. This isn't our first time trying to make a simulator. My friend's very first "simulator" was a tent on the ground with two OLD laptops. It passed the time and it was fun, but we had to go further. So I took a shot. I had one laptop, which was my moms, and a tv/av cord to hook up to our TV. We used power point. I think we sent you some of the slides we made. But anyway, for one of the stations we used graph paper which was used for the distance the ship traveled and other traveling purposes. I put my family through a mission. They all loved it! My friend and I were very excited! That was last year. This year is very different. I've always loved the space center! I wish I would of went more. But now my friend and I have reached that age where the space center is just an amazing memory. So... We decided to go big! I bargained with my parents to give me the unused side in our basement that was at that time just holding A TON of supplies, and 80% of that stuff is stuff that can be thrown away. So I bargained. My mom agreed that if my friend and I cleared the space, we could have it. So, we went to work. A labor of love that dragged on for 2 hours. Not the most exciting day. Once clean, we started.
1st attempt at making the simulator.... Well our TV for the main screen was about 26 in' and our lights were LED lights, which was great... But didn't cut it. Time went on. Our simulator turned into a game room for Xbox. We had fun... But we didn't clean for 2 hours to play Xbox. NOW, it just all seemed to click. All the planets perfectly aligned. This was going to happen. So we worked! We have jobs. Which gives us good money, well... for a teenager, so things are in motion we bought a projector, we bought 6 computers off of public surplus for cheap, but good condition. Me and my friend CANNOT BELIEVE IT! We now have a really good main screen and six computers! No way this dream is happening. Now, when I say worked for everything. I mean WE WORKED! Just yesterday my friend and I spent 9 hours constructing a wall to give us some space to set up a control room making us invisible to the crew on the ship! It was hard.... Tons of work. But we were willing to do it. Just today we spent all day making a ceiling mount for our projector to go on. Needless to say, the last two days have been hard, but completely amazing! We hope to be done in August sometime! This is a dream coming true. We can't thank you enough for having that one idea one day to make your own space center to inspire so many kids, including us! The space center is our inspiration! Thank you!
Sincerely:
Matthew and Aaron
Matthew and Aaron aren't the only two Space Center fans who were bitten by the bug and built a simulator of their own. I've heard of several teens who somehow talked their parents out of some section of their basements for their very own starships. In fact, the most successful of these 'home' ships was built by Matt Long. Matt is currently working on his engineering degree at BYU and programming new controls for the Magellan simulator at the Space Center at Central Elementary. Matt is also working with us at Farpoint, using his creative talents in the creation of our soon to be built ships.
Are you one of these visionaries who built a home starship of your own? If so, please share your story with us. Email us at SpaceCampUtah@gmail.org
Congratulations Matthew and Aaron. Please keep us up to date.
Mr. Williamson
So, Let Us Go Forth: The Spirit of Farpoint
"What the space age was seeking all along was not so much an expansion of physical space as an expansion of mind."
-Marina Benjamin
COSMOS is Back, New on Fox in 2014
In 1980, Carl Sagan changed the face of science forever.
In that year, PBS broadcast the TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Sagan’s words and voice drove the show, taking the 500 million people who watched with him as he showed us the Universe, from the distant reaches of its redshifted expansion to the chemical processes as our brains create our minds.
As Sagan himself said, “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
That show transformed how people saw science and also how scientists informed the public. But it was more than 30 years ago, and it’s time, I think, to launch it once again for a new generation.
My old friend and brilliant science communicator Neil Tyson is doing just that. With Fox television, and executive producers Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, the show has been retooled and updated. The result is Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, and it premiers in February 2014. A trailer has been released, and it’s beautiful:
Los Angeles to San Francisco in Less Than 30 Minutes?
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands next to the company's Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted SpaceX's Dragon
capsule into orbit in December 2010.
capsule into orbit in December 2010.
How would you like to zip from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, on the cheap and on your own schedule? Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says it can be done, and he's going to tell us how next month.
Elon Musk, the visionary behind electric-car firm Tesla and the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has been teasing us for a year about something he calls the "Hyperloop." This new solar-powered travel technology, Musk says, would go twice as fast as an airplane and be completely crash-proof. The Hyperloop would also be a cheap way to get around, with tickets costing much less than a seat aboard a plane or train. And there would be no scrambling to make a set departure time — you'd be sent on your way whenever you showed up at the station.
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| This British Paper had a Creatively rebellious way of announcing the royal birth. The Queen was not amused and ordered, "Off with their heads!" |
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| An awesome Dutch jet fighter |
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| A creative solution to the heat |
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| The flies will never see it coming |
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| Building the porch around the trees. A good solution, until the mother of all storms sweeps through. |
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| Anti Stress tissues Imagination: A |
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| From a British Health Clinic |
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| A creative take on the traditional lemonade stand. |
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| Getting directions from the natives |
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| Hand painted. Creativity: A |
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| The imaginative way of showing off the new prince. |
Something you may want to post on the Troubadour for those who want to make a Space Simulator: the Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator.
ReplyDeleteI haven't actually tried this, but it looks extremely promising, especially for those who don't have the room for a permanent simulator.
Essentially, it's a video game played over a LAN, where each of the 6 players controls a different station on the bridge of the starship. I believe the current build is $40; ask 5 of your friends to chip in some cash, find some cheap computers, and you're covered.
This is most definitely in the early stages of production, and a fully dedicated simulator like the ones we all know and love would most certainly outmatch it in most respects (immersion being one of them), but I just thought I'd throw it out there.
-Evan P.