The Space Center's Magellan Innovates with Crew Positions. Out with the Old. The USS Cassini Gets a New Mascot. Help Name It. News from the New Space Center at American Heritage School in American Fork. Nolan Welch's Test Mission on the Odyssey.Up Past My Bed Time. Imaginarium Theater

Conner Larson briefing the Magellan's test flight with the new departments. The 
crew was composed of Space Center staff and volunteers.

     

     One of the Space Center's founding principles is Innovation.  The willingness to experiment, to try new ideas,  to stick one's neck out and do something no simulator has done before is my definition of innovation.  The day the simulators in the Space EdVenture fleet of ships (Voyager, Magellan, Cassini, Phoenix, Galileo, Falcon, Odyssey, Hyperion, Apollo, Artemis, Leo, Titan, Valiant, Everest, and Pathfinder) sit back on their laurels and just do things that way because that's the way it has always been done is the first day to a long slide into oblivion.  Sure, many things we try end up failing and many don't work as well as we'd hoped.  That's OK.  You learn something in every defeat.  Imagine where we'd be today if I stopped innovating shortly after I opened the Space Center in 1990?  If you guessed that there wouldn't be a Space Center today you're right.  

The Magellan Commander ready to get going and hoping Connor would wrap things up

     I challenge the space centers in the network to continue to experiment.  I encourage you to try new approaches to a mission, try new equipment, write new and different storylines, etc.  

     There's a reason for those last two soap box paragraphs - I want to highlight the Magellan's very own Connor Larsen.  Connor is the Magellan's Set Director at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center.  Connor returned to Utah for the summer.  Mr. Porter contacted him upon his arrival to inform him that his Starfleet Reactivation Clause was enforced. He was to report to duty asap. 

     Connor walked onto the Magellan's bridge, looked around, and waited for inspiration.  What were the whispers faintly heard in the moving air-conditioned air?  He opened his mind and experienced that moment of innovation when the light bulb flashes and the germ of an idea springs into consciousness. Connor had the crazy idea of not giving his crews actual bridge stations in the traditional sense.  Instead, he would create departments and assign his crewmembers to a department instead of a single job.  Each member of the department would be expected to learn every computer station composing that department.  They would learn to be a team, to cover for each other, to train each other, to look after each other.

  

One of the departments. The departments are generally one bank of computers.

     Connor took a few minutes to explain the concept to me at the start of the summer camp season.  I thought it brilliant.  He would give it a go with the Magellan's first test mission of their new summer story. FYI, the departments are Command, Engineering, Logistics, Strategic Operations. 

The back bridge makes up another department

     Of course, there will be the doubters and the traditionalists who will dig in their heels and resist the changes. That is to be expected and not feared.  There is a place for "I don't like this, it isn't the way we've always done it. The old way worked. Why change it?"  My experience is that they are right about 50% of the time.  You need a few people like that. They help you fine-tune the idea to the point of keeping it and making it the new standard of operations, or discarding it and returning to the old tried and true.  However, always remember - if you want to be a valued member of staff, you need to keep an open mind when it comes to innovation.  Give it your best shot.  See if it works.  If it does - your job is to embrace it. 

     Will Conner's idea actually work in the real world of day-to-day simulations?  Time will tell.  Of course "The Troubadour" will keep you updated on developments.  It is what we do...

The Cassini Gets a New Mascot     

      Audrey Henriksen is one of those multi-talented individuals who finds a way to add a bit of class and culture to the Space Center.  Here is one example...... Meet Cassini's new manta ray mascot conceptualized and sewn by Audrey - a true original.     

      Now, a problem....  Jon Parker is the Cassini's Set Director. Jon is gifted in the flight director's chair but draws blanks when it comes to names.  Jon needs your help.  What should Audrey's new creation be named?  Jon is excited to hear your opinion (if you have one).  Please send them to Jon for consideration.  If your name is chosen, you'll be invited to sit next to Jon in Cassini's Control Room for 5 whole minutes!  Jon is willing to take it one step further. Jon will let you talk to him for 2 of those 5 minutes.  I'll even let you sit in my camp-style rocker.  If that doesn't get your creative juices flowing, nothing will.  Send your name suggestions today.  

American Heritage School's Space Center is Moving Ahead Toward a Fall Opening

Alex showing me how his Dilithium Chamber works

  

     Alex DeBirk and students work night and day to get the new space center at American Heritage up and running by Fall.  The new Center will have two simulators: the old Galileo from the Christa McAuliffe Space Center, and a new ship currently under construction in the school's new high school which is also under construction.  Adjoining the two simulators will be a Make-It-Lab.  The Make-It-Lab is a large room, Alex's classroom to be exact.  The room will be equipped with thousands of dollars worth of equipment to be used by his high school engineering and physics students.  Large 3D printers will be used to create props and set pieces for the simulators. 

     Two of his students proudly demonstrated their latest creation, an illuminated dilithium crystal set in a magnetic chamber. I was impressed. Can you imagine what you could do with a prop like this in a simulation?  

     The dilithium chamber is the start of many cool things we can expect to see from the AHS's Make-It-Lab.  To learn more about the new space center at American Heritage in American Fork, keep your eye on The Troubadour. This is where you'll hear it first (or you could contact Alex DeBirk if you're impatient: adebirk@ahsmail.onmicrosoft.com). 

Nolan Welch Successfully Completes His First Odyssey Test Flight Under Natalie Anderson's Watchful Eye and My Encouraging Comments (and annoying suggestions)

     June 16th.  6:30 P.M.  Nolan Welch took center stage on the Odyssey and welcomed his first test flight, just one of many requirements in his quest to achieve the exhausted status of Odyssey Flight Director before his 50th birthday (I'm nearly 63 and haven't gotten it. Mind you, I've not really tried)

     While the crew, made up of roommates and close friends, had their bathroom break, Nolan was summoned into the Odyssey Control Room by the ship's Set Director, Natalie Anderson.  Natalie presented Nolan with his own set of dry erase markers for the ship's briefing room's whiteboard (pictured above).  As if that wasn't enough, Natalie gave Nolan a wrapped present.  I thought he would break down in tears. It was his very own plastic storage container for the control room. What a privilege only offered to those who find themselves in the good graces of Natalie and Tabitha.                      "Absolutely NOT!" was Natalie's response when asked if I could have one.  You see how picky they are in the Odyssey.   

Nolan showing off his container

Katy wasn't having any of that "I'm better than the rest of you," attitude Nolan smirk suggested.  She showed him her container from the shelf.  Nolan smiled for the photo but grumbled a bit as he walked out of the control room.

     Nolan invited me to watch a few days earlier.  He overheard me tell a small gathering in the Cassini Control Room that in my 23 years as Space Center director, I couldn't recall watching a test mission all the way through.  He wanted to be the first.  I accepted his invitation - even though the mission's 9:00 P.M. end was past my bedtime.  I sat behind him and made tastefully appropriate suggestions while Natalie sat beside me showing her approval with "Good Jobs" and her disapproval with a set of "tsk, tsk, tsks".  Young Hyrum sat in the 2nd chair position and Katy worked the bridge.      

The staff for Nolan's first test mission on the Odyssey.

     Nolan did an outstanding job, despite Natalie's remarks :)

And I say that not because Nolan will eventually be training me to work the Cassini's 2nd chair but because he really is a gifted storyteller and a master of accents and voices.  His enthusiasm was contagious.  Double thumbs up from me Nolan despite using the phrase "This Vessel" way too many times for my liking......

And Finally, Has it Been That Long..........   

     I took this photo as I got into my car after Nolan's test flight 

It was after 9:00 P.M. It dawned on me that the last time I stayed this late at the Space Center was the summer of 2012 during the last overnight summer camp before the renovation shut down. Wow, time passes faster and faster the older you get.  

Mr. Williamson

Imaginarium Theater

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