Announcing the Arrival of a New Starship Simulator in Pleasant Grove! Welcome USS Valiant. The CMSEC Staff Visit the Explorer Simulator at USU; From the Sagas of Yesteryear. Theater Imaginarium.

The Starship Valiant Docks at Canyon Grove Academy in Pleasant Grove, Utah. 

The Valiant at its new Home, Canyon Grove Academy, Pleasant Grove

     The Starship Valiant was funded by Dave Moon. Dave, Shelley Ellington and I designed the ship. There is a long story behind iWorlds. I won't cover it here, but you're welcome to do a quick search on this blog to find the many posts on the program from the mid to late 2000's.  
     The Valiant has seen many berths over its decade of service to the fleet.  It was first docked at Thanksgiving Point, right outside the dinosaur museum.  From there it warped to Park City High School.  Casey Voeks ran a school based program using the Valiant.  Park City regulations forbid permanently parked trailers so the Valiant had to move at the end of the school year.  
     Dave Moon moved the Valiant to his office building's parking lot where it sat for several years while Dave served as the mission president in Cambodia.  I looked into purchasing the Valiant for the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in 2012.  Our problem was no place to park the semi-trailer at Central School.  The plan was scrapped.  
     Fast Forward to 2017.  Dave Moon wanted to see the ship in use and arrangements were made to transfer ownership to the Telos Discovery Space Center.  The Valiant warped once again to Vineyard and found a home in the Telos Academy parking lot. 

The Valiant with Warp Engine Attached is Ready for its move from Telos to Canyon Grove Academy.

     The Valiant has found its way to Pleasant Grove after all and sits just outside the Discovery Space Center's Everest simulator.  The TDSC at Canyon Grove now has three simulators; the Everest, the Dauntless, and the Valiant.  With the Valiant comes the necessary seats to host field trips.  Starting next school year, the Telos Discovery Space Center will host school field trips once again with the capacity to take two full classes per day, matching the capacity of the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. 
     Having another space center field trip center is necessary to meet the demand for field trips.  The CMSEC is overwhelmed with just the schools in the Alpine District.  The TDSC Center will be able to meet the needs of charter schools and schools from outside the Alpine District.  

The main entrance to the Discovery Space Center (left) and the Valant on the right.

     The Valiant will operate under the authority of the Terran Space Command within the Farpoint Universe.  Are you interested in booking a private mission aboard the Valiant?  Contact Telos Discovery Space Center to make reservations.

Welcome to Pleasant Grove Valiant!

Mr. Williamson

The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center Staff Visit the USS Explorer in Logan Utah

The CMSEC's Ranger Squad (late 1990's)

     In the late 1990's our good friends running the USS Explorer at Utah State University in Logan invited the Rangers (Blue Shirts) from the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center to come up for a mission.
     The staff were somewhat familiar with the Explorer. That previous summer Steve and Dave Wall had a smaller version of the simulator setup in Central Elementary School's resource room for our summer camps. The campers enjoyed the ship and the mission.  I don't remember much about the story except that the ship crash landed on a primitive planet with flesh eating dinosaurs.  With the campers trapped in the ship, the staff and volunteers circled outside making disgusting guttural sounds. There was sufficient pounding on the exterior walls that many of the campers thought they would be that evening's main course for the dino's feast.  
     The fright got even worse.  The Explorer had an exterior airlock.  At one point in the story, while the crew was inside desperately trying to figure out how to repair the ship's damage so they could escape the planet, the flesh eaters broke through the outer hatch and entered the airlock.  The screaming from inside the small, cramped bride was deafening. It brought out the worst in the staff. They begged and pleaded for a story change.  "Let's have a power outage. And when the lights go off, we'll break through into the crew cabin."  
     Knowing how many pairs of underwear would be soiled in such a scenario, not to mention the post camp nightmares and trips to the therapist, I issued strict orders against it.  
     Steve Wall took the Explorer and set up a larger version of the ship in the engineering building's basement at USU.  

Finding the Explorer was the challenge. The ship was in the basement. It was down a
spiral staircase.  Westin Sampson and Stephen Porter.

With the mission briefing over, the Explorer crew wait to board the ship.
Front Row: Kyle Herring, David Merrell.  Midrow: James Porter, Alan Steward, Chris Call, and Little Jon.
Back Row: Mark Daymont, Westin Sampson, Jason Hills, Shayne Skaggs, Ryan Davis, Josh Webb, Stephen Porter, and Dave Wall. 

      I don't remember much about the mission. The staff had a great time. I didn't join the crew. I wanted to go back and forth between the control area and the ship always on the hunt for something new we could incorporate in our five simulators in Pleasant Grove.                 

Shayne Skaggs and David Merrell

Dave Wall, Steve Wall, Mark Daymont, and Pat Bown in the Control Area. 

      The Explorer had a feature our ships didn't have, live video communication.  Look to the back of the photo and you'll see a camera on a tripod. Behind the camera is a blue curtain. The crew spoke face to face with Starbase and with aliens. 

Ryan Davis and Dave Wall

     The Explorer had an engineering crawl space under the bridge floor similar to the one we were installing into today's Magellan before the 2012 remodel.  Of course it was cool. What kid wouldn't want to enter a dark narrow cavern to rewire a faulty circuit or replace a few isolinear chips?

The crew line up at the ship's airlock to greet Captain Chris Call.  James Porter is the first on the left. James is the Director at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center today.
Ignore the date stamped on the photo. I never did change the date on the camera, so all my pictures from that time
show January 1, 1994.

          These gentlemen have all grown up and moved on with life.  One thing they share is their time spent in Starfleet. They look back on fondly on those happy days.  

Mr. Williamson

Imaginarium Theater
The Best Gifs from Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience