The Troubadour: Proving Renaissance Academy's USS Voyager II and the Brave People Who Do It. Space News. The Imaginarium

The USS Voyager at Renaissance Academy, Lehi

Renaissance Academy's new USS Voyager is being proved by the "Get Er Done" team. Proved is the term we use when testing something new for glitches, errors, bugs, bewitchments, spells, enchantments, blemishes, and possession. We think the new USS Voyager, the actually simulator itself, is ready for center stage and curtain up. Needing proving was the lighting, the computer programming, the sound system, the sound effects, the Flint tactical system, the voice decoder, and the main viewer. These items are the backbone of any ship. The rest is story and mission central. I'm referring to things like a full set of tactical cards, appropriately themed copyright free music, a library of coded messages, damage reports, and printable work for the Chief of Ops. Mission specific work for the engineering room and sick bay are also needed.
Test subjects are used when proving a simulator. It's dangerous work. One wrong mechanical setting. One bug in the software. One failsafe device failing. One short circuit in the warp core. All of these things and many more could fail a test crew. Six to ten promising young people lost in a flash of such magnitude a new sun would momentarily be seen in the sky.
We salute our test subjects willing to put life and limb on the line to advance humanity's exploration of space.

The test subjects getting their proving instructions from the Get Er Done team's very own Isaac. They look calm and unconcerned. This was taken before the liability and Next of Kin paperwork was distributed.

Alex Debirk and Isaac O. working in the Voyager's Control Room. Alex was concerned about an unusual reading coming from one of the primary circuits controlling the CO2 scrubbers. It was about to fail. "Typical," he mumbled. "Did we get our scrubbers from the same place the Space Center got there's?"

Isaac monitored the Flint mixer system. One incorrect setting could result in permanent hearing loss.

The test subjects moved cautiously on the twilighted bridge. So far things seemed to be working. The ship was proving itself worthy of flight.

The pressure got too much for Alex. Nolan stepped in as a substitute (it was more a knock on the Brig's outside door. Alex's wife had his dinner). Nolan's face was permanently set in cringe mode; too many close calls on the bridge.

Results

Last Saturday's test mission by Alex, Brent, and Isaac went well. Monday's second proving was also a success. I'm happy to report the Voyager has so far proven well enough to keep us on schedule. The rest of this week will be spent writing papers and adding content to our tactical library.

Mr. Williamson

Space News
By Mark Daymont
spacerubble.blogspot.com

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2016

50 Years Ago: New Apollo Program Logo

Design for the Apollo program insignia.

Fifty years ago on July 16, 1966, NASA held a special news event at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event celebrated the unveiling of the new logo design that would symbolize the upcoming Apollo moon landing program. Significantly, you can see that North America and its Florida launch site figure dominantly on the Earth and that the A's crossbar includes three stars representing the three-men crews that would fly the missions.

50 Years Ago: Aiming Toward the Space Shuttle

The M2-F2 carefully maneuvers for touchdown. All photos NASA.

On July 12, 1966, NASA and Northrop successfully dropped the new M2-F2 lifting body from a specially prepared B-52 bomber over a dry lake bed at Edwards AFB. The craft was advanced from the original design first test by Northrop's M2-F1 which flew back in 1963.

M2-F2 attached to a pylon on the B-52 before the flight.

The B-52 was the same one used to drop X-15 aircraft, with a modified carry pylon that allowed it to carry lifting bodies as well as the X-15s. On this first flight, Milton Thompson guided the craft from a drop height of 13, 716 feet at a top speed of 727 km/hr, which is equivalent to a little over Mach .6. The flight lasted 3 and a 1/2 minutes.

Cockpit of the M2-F2.

The NASA lifting body tests were important precursors to helping engineers in the initial designs of a possible re-usable spacecraft which could glide from orbit back to the Earth. Eventually these designs would become the Space Shuttle.