What was that Light in the Sky?! Why the Jumpship Hyperion of Course on her Space Trials. Did you Know Northern Utah is the World's Capital for Simulator Based Experiential Learning? Space News. Imaginarium Theater.

Maeson programmed the Hyperion's "Meredith" A.I.  to see him as "The Creator". Wherever he goes she keeps him in an illuminated state.  He's referred to as "Saint Maeson" behind his back and around the water cooler.   

Fleet Update:  Taking Example from an Amish Barn Raising, The Telos Discovery Space Center's Jump Carrier Hyperion is Made Ready for a Monday Launch.  The Space Trials are Done. If You Build it They Will Come. 

     Last week went by in a blur as the staff and interns of Telos Discovery Space Center readied the newest Space EdVentures starship for its first official crew scheduled for Monday.  The sickbay's two beds were put to use as the staff worked nearly around the clock to ensure a successful start. 

Dr. Ryan Anderson, Executive Director of Telos Discovery Space Center, practices the principle of
leading by example. He doesn't ask anyone to do something he is unwilling to do himself.  Broken sickbay computer?
no problem. Dr. Anderson will be there asap to swap it out.

Practicing the Philosophy of Everyone Mucks in to Get the Job Done: The Amish Approach.
     
     Space EdVentures Directors practice a hands on approach to leadership.  It's always "All Hands on Deck" when things need to get done.  I taught this principle to my staff and volunteers by example as director of the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. If I had the time and everyone else was busy running the camps and missions, then the job of cleaning the bathrooms, wiping tables, and vacuuming carpets fell to me. 

Cleaning up Phoenix vomit, my speciality.

     Many a time on a Saturday afternoon the staff and volunteers found me cleaning the school's bathrooms or mopping up after a camp lunch or dinner.  As the Brits say, "Everyone mucks in. Let's get on with it."       

Austin is a UVU student, TDSC flight director, and imagineer at InfiniD Learning. Here he is volunteering his time
soldering connections for the ship's network.

The Hyperion's Control Room is taking shape.  Maeson is the chief "Putting it All Together" person. Maeson is the
Director of Telos Discovery Space Center's Canyon Grove Academy Center.  You can see how everything is tidy and
organized.  Ignore the Culver's bags. They had temporary permission to sit on the desk.  

The Control Room's ToDo list.

The construction ToDo list in the Hyperion's Briefing Room

The Control Room server rack.  You've got to have a sense of humor in this business.

It took some doing, but after an extensive search I found one, yes only one, flaw in the entire simulator.
This demonstrates a remarkable attention to detail the folks at Telos have put into this ship. Amazing isn't it? 

If you Build it They Will Come and the Art of Knowing When to Step Down

     I attended the TDSC's Administrative Meeting on Wednesday. After the meeting everyone went right back to work on the ship.  I walked around examining the ship.  "How does it make you feel when you see another starship open?"  Ryan asked while he worked on one of the computers in the ship's engineering section. "You started it all."  
     "Amazing," I replied.  "No way did I envision all of this."  
     I knew from the first day I opened the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center that I didn't have the knowledge, time, or talent to take this simulator based experiential learning program worldwide or how to make it a proper business.  I was a teacher with a pretty good imagination who had what I consider a gift in creating simulations to teach concepts.  My goal was to keep the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center open and hope the right people with the right knowledge would show up to take the concept to the next level.  With the help of my staff and hundreds and hundreds of volunteers, we did just that - kept the Center open through thick and thin, good and bad.  
     There were many times I wanted to pack it in and go back to full time teaching, especially after a long 120 hour week. Those were the days it took nearly everything I had to get through one more field trip, or one more 3 day camp.  
    My belief that the right person or persons would show up at the right time to solve a problem or help us get to that next level was what kept me going. If I gave up too soon, the Center would close. I had to stick it out while I waited for the right time and knew the right people were in place to keep it going. And just when I needed a certain kind of help to solve a problem, a person would walk in the Briefing Room door and say, "This place is amazing, what can I do to help?"

Megan Warner and Jon Parker. 2014

     My decision to retire and going back into the classroom in 2013 was the right decision at the right time. I needed to step aside so the younger generation could step in to fill my shoes.  Megan Warner was there to take on the directorship of the Space Center.  

Megan Warner, James Porter, and that old guy... "What's his name?"

     James Porter was the right person at the right time to then take control of the Space Center when the school district decided to hire a full time teacher / administrator for the Center. 

A younger version of that old guy and Casey Voeks

     I introduced Casey Voeks to the good folks at Stone Gate in Pleasant Grove and from that came the Discovery Space Center and InfiniD Learning.  Another situation of the right people at the right time.  
     A few years later I received an unexpected email from Dr. Ryan Anderson. Ryan was one of my young Space Center volunteers some twenty years earlier. Ryan wanted my help in getting a simulator based learning program started at Telos Academy in Orem and Vineyard.  

Skyler Carr, Dr. Ryan Anderson, and Casey Voeks

     Later I introduced Casey, Skyler, and team to Ryan in hopes of finding a way for Telos and InfiniD to work together on common ground.  They found their common ground and today we have the fruits of their hard work in the Telos Discovery Space Center and InfiniD Learning.  
     "If you build it they will come," was a line from a movie I saw years ago. That one line from that film has been, and will always be, our guiding principle.  Fortuna has decreed it so.  

Mr. Williamson

The next generation of Space EdVentures miracle workers on the Hyperion Bridge.  I wonder how many of them are answers to Ryan and Maeson's "If you build it they will come."

Space News

By Mark Daymont

From his blog: SpaceRubble.blogspot.com

ISS: Expedition 55 Having a good start to Spring!

Current Spacecraft docking at the ISS. Credit: NASA.

Spring has gotten off to a good start up in Low Earth Orbit. When the Expedition 54 crew left the station on March XX, it left only three crew aboard: Expedition 55 Commander Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos) Norishige Kanai (Japan) and Scott Tingle (NASA). They did not have long to wait. On March 23, the reinforcements arrived on Soyuz spacecraft MS-08, docking at the Russian-built Poisk module. Joining the crew was Soyuz commander Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos), Dr. Andrew Feustet (NASA), and Rick Arnold (NASA). Comprising the Expedition 55/56 crew, they are all veterans of spaceflight with Artemyev having already visited the ISS for six months in 2014. Dr. Feustel flew aboard shuttle Atlantis in 20009 with the Hubble Servicing Mission, shuttle Endeavor's final mission in 2011 (STS-134), and already has six EVAs to his credit. He will The Expedition 56 commander at the end of Expedition 55. Astronaut Arnold flew aboard shuttle Discovery in 2009, delivering the last set of solar panels to the ISS.

MS-08 approaches the station.

Nice view of MS-08 passing below the already-docked Progress cargo spacecraft.

 The last week of March was a busy one for the full crew. On March 28, ISS crewmembers closed the hatch on Progress 68P, having removed all its cargo and replaced the cargo with trash and waste items. The Progress ship undocked from the Russian-built Pirs module and was maneuvered into a lower orbit. Russian ground controllers are using the craft for some engineering tests, until they are ready to de-orbit the craft on April 25 and let it burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

Progress 68 just getting ready to undock as the ISS flies over the Atlantic Ocean.

The next day, March 29, two of NASA's astronauts went outside for a spacewalk, the fourth of the year. Astronauts Feustel and Arnold performed an EVA for a little over six hours, replacing worrisome cables on a cooling system, installing a TV camera, and placing a new communications antenna on the US Tranquility module. 

Drew Feustel on his March 29 EVA. This makes 7 EVAs in his career.

With the spacewalk completed, astronauts began preparing for their next visitor. On April 2, SpaceX launched another resupply mission to the ISS using the Falcon 9 re-usable rocket and the Dragon cargo spacecraft. Mission CRS-14 brings the station a plethora of science equipment as well as consumables and regular maintenance items. Dragon reached the station and docked on April 4 to the US Harmony module. It will remain on the station until May.

Dragon CRS-14 approaches the station over the magnificent colors of our planet.

The next big event for the station crew will be the end of Expedition 55 in April.

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