Join Us at the Orem Public Library.

Hello Troops,

I'll be attending the following event at the Orem Public Library on Wednesday, September 1st and encourage all of you with an interest in Space to attend as well. Mr. Barber will be in Utah to attend the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival. This is his only public appearance (you can see him at the Festival as well).

As a special bonus, all of you that attend wearing your Space Center T-Shirt will be given a certificate for two class hours to go toward your Space Center Rank. This event is not sponsored by the Space Center or the Alpine School District. This event is a part of the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival.

I hope to see many of you at the event to listen to this Mr. Barber talk about his fascinating work at JPL and NASA.

Mr. Williamson

NASA's Science Outreach has accepted an invitation from Orem Library and Timpanogos Storytelling Festival to come to Utah!

Todd Barber, Lead NASA Propulsion Engineer on the Saturn-Cassini Equinox Mission

Will be Speaking at the Orem Public Library on

Wednesday, September 1 at 7pm

Todd will speak on highlights and memorable moments in his career as a NASA engineer. He will share images and recent findings from the ongoing Cassini Equinox Mission studying Saturn, its belts and the planet's 53 moons.

Todd Barber, Award-winning NASA Propulsion Engineer:

*Lead impactor on Deep Space mission (a la "Star Trek") of near-Earth asteroid, Braille

*Award-winning engineer on the launching of Galileo spaceprobe and orbital insertion around Jupiter

*Engineer on several Mars projects including Mar's Rovers

Personal Log 2: Adrian Stevens, Entry 8

This story is just for fun. Any resemblance to the staff at the space center is intentional. Any resemblance to a real space center mission is your imagination.
Aleta Clegg


The emergency lights flickered on, very dim and red.

“Hold the door!” Rafael shouted. “If it shuts, we’ll be locked in here.”

“What’s Vasha doing?” Harken whispered. “Is she trying to kill us all?”

“I wish I knew.”

“Shut up!” A pirate slammed his rifle butt into my back.

I spun on my heel and punched him in the face. He reeled backwards. I grabbed his rifle, pulling the trigger. A spray of plasma bolts caught the other guards, cutting them down. Turner ducked behind me, grabbing Harken on the way.

“Negotiate this, Rafael!” I clicked the trigger.

Rafael was no longer in the doorway. His footsteps faded down the dim corridor.

I dove for the door, jamming the rifle into the opening. A plasma bolt struck the wall next to me. I dropped behind the door, out of range.

“Now what?” Harken asked.

“Unless you know another way out, we’re stuck in here with Caligula.”

“And he isn’t going to be happy when he wakes up.” Turner nudged the prone cyborg.

I slumped against the wall. “We need information. Harken, you were working with Perry. Did you sell out the Federation to these pirates?”

“It was a cover. We were looking for the leak in Starfleet. Although I think Perry decided it paid better than Starfleet ever did.”

I winced as another plasma bolt zipped through the opening. “Admiral Williamson assigned me to do that, too. He said they suspected someone on the Voyager.”

“Captain Herring? The rumors were true?”

I shook my head. “Not him, someone else.”

Harken sank into Caligula’s chair. “We thought it was you, Stevens.”

“Then who was it?”

“Vasha.” Turner smacked his fist into the floor. “She set us up. She’s working with Rafael. I thought he looked familiar. She met him at Starbase a month ago.”

“Why were you following Vasha?”

“We were dating. Sort of. She dumped me after three dates.”

Caligula moaned.

The air vent cover on the other side of the cabin wiggled. I signaled the others to be quiet as I eased the rifle out of the door. It slid closed as another plasma bolt ricocheted down the hall. I aimed at the vent.

It dropped to the floor with a clatter. A petite blond woman in a torn Starfleet uniform crawled out. She sat on the floor, raising her hands. “Y’all want to put that rifle down? I’m here to help. My name’s Evangeline. Call me Angie for short.”

“You’re working with Vasha. Give me one reason we should trust you.” I eased my finger onto the trigger.

“Because I’m your only hope.” Angie raised her hand, showing us a computer disk. “I stole the protocol when Vasha wasn’t looking. She’s gonna be real mad when she finds out none of her commands work. Admiral Williamson warned me to watch out for you, Adrian. Said you’d get me in a heap of trouble if I wasn’t careful.”

“How is Delphi going to help us now?” I shifted the rifle to aim at the ceiling. Any hope was better than none.

“We’re on our way back to Starbase Fourteen. And there ain’t nothing Vasha can do about it. I stole the computer chips that control course settings. All she can do is stop the ship.”

The engines whined to a stop right on cue.

I sighed. “You had to say that.”

The Subway to Wonderland Station

Hello Troops,
Today I took the Subway to the Wonderland Station. It is time for the Space Center and the Imaginarium to open for full normal business. The train was packed with Wonderland employees returning to work after their forced vacation (thanks to the Space Center closing for three weeks). There were smiles on many faces, the kind that come from knowing one still has a job to return to in these tough times.

Yes, even Wonderland has been hit by the Great Recession. It seems millions of Americans have had their dreams shattered by the world's faltering economy. Instead of having time to imagine and dream, more and more people are struggling to just make ends meet. Parental stress is also effecting the nation's children, whose imaginations are the primary fuel powering Wonderland.

Regardless of the situation out in the real world, I was happy to be back on the subway and back to my normal routine, surrounded by the kind of people that think outside the box and look at the world a bit differently. We are a befuddled group suffering from eternal optimism and bewildered by the dark forces of despair. We will work to ensure that creativity, wonder and imagination remain vibrant in this world. It is our goal, it is our mission and it is what we are paid to do.

You never know who you're going to bump into on the Subway to the Wonderland Station.
Just a few on the train today.

Volunteers and Staff. I'm glad to be back, glad you're back with me and glad to be in the trenches. Let's have a great year!

Mr. Williamson