I've Returned from the Northlands. Space News. The Imaginarium

I've returned from the Northlands and found all is well.
More to come in later posts.
Today I've got Space News and The Imaginarium to share.
Please read while I unpack and get my bearings, water the brown lawn, find out what died in my house while I was gone because the basement air immediately activates the body's gag reflex, try to retrieve my mail from a box so stuffed it has the same consistency as concrete, throw away half the food in the fridge from spoiling, and catch up on one million hours of recorded shows.  
I don't know where to start.....

Mr. W.

Space News
by Mark Daymont

Progress 62 Completes Redock Test then Leaves the ISS forever.

Progress 62 as photographed by Tim Peake before he returned to Earth.

Russian engineers are continuing efforts to improve the remote piloting of the Russian-designed spacecraft. Progress spacecraft, though similar to Soyuz manned spacecraft in most aspects, are designed to be remote-controlled by computer and by ground controller input. Occasionally, however, there may come a surprise when the Kurz digital navigation system fails. And that's when the engineers want the ISS Russian cosmonauts to step in and "manually" control the craft. "Manual" control actually means radio control from the station, as there are no cosmonauts in the robotic cargo deliver Progress vehicles.

View of Progress 62 from the Pirs Module.

On Friday July 1st, a test was done to the Progress vehicle to see if new upgrades to the manual docking system were working properly. The spacecraft had already been filled with waste and garbage from the ISS, and was ready for this weekend's disposal trip to Earth. Cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin used the remote workstation in the Russian Zvesda Module to control the ship. It correctly undocked from the Pirs module, then moved to a position about 600 feet from the ISS. After a half hour of monitoring and testing, they brought the craft back to redock with station.  According to a report from NASA Spaceflight.com though, there were unusual movements of the spaceship during the redocking procedure. Engineers will be studying the downfeed to assess what may have caused it.

Progress 62 (also designated MS-01) floating above the Earth.

Progress 62 is also the first MS supply ship. The MS series is an upgrade of the progress design, allowing for small satellites to be launched from a new compartment and sporting new navigation and computer guidance features. With the test complete, its mission was accomplished and on Saturday the craft left the ISS for the last time. After backing away from the station to avoid thruster particle contamination, ground controllers guided the craft into a fiery deorbit over the Pacific Ocean where it burned up.

The Imaginarium

Whose Signature is on My Rank Paper? Watch an InfiniD Experience and See How a Computer Lab Can Become a Starship. Theater Imaginarium.

The Summer Camp Forms from a June Camp

Whose Signature is That on a Space Center Rank Form?

Let me start by commenting on the signature itself. Elegant with eruptions of sophistication expressed in the intersecting elongated loops. Obvious to the observer is the delicateness of upper stroke scaffolded by fine lines forming the lower case letters. This combination leaves the admirer with a sense of wonder and respect for the human hand - the result of millions of years of evolution - and what it can achieve with years of practice and an inborn sense of symmetry enveloped in form. 

I sense you're nodding your head in agreement with the critical unbiased opinion expressed in the paragraph above. It is a signature recognized by Space Center devotees, staff, and volunteers county wide. It is the signature which has finalized rank forms for over twenty years.  Many of my fellow Troubadours think the signature alone gives their Space Center rank papers value; value that can only appreciate over time.

The signature found on CMSEC Rank Advancement Forms belongs to, and I say this humbly knowing many of you are signature challenged, me. Yes, it is Mr. Williamson's signature. Sadly it is delivered by stamp, but it was either have my signature artistically eternalized by stamp or develop carpal tunnel syndrome which would eventually require surgery.  Back in the day we had 40-45 campers attending the overnight camps and up to 65 campers on the three and five day summer camps.  Imagine the time and patience it took in the pre-stamp days to sign that paperwork by hand.  Yes, you're understanding the need for the stamp.

Getting one of these rank advancement forms with my signature is reason enough to attend one of the Space Center's summer camps - yes?  Be sure to demand a Mr. Williamson signature. Don't settle for anything less - and believe me, there are some signatures produced at the Space Center that are shameful to those of us who practice the Imagineering arts.  Which is why you ask for an authentic Mr. Williamson upon check in.  

Thank you for you time,
Mr. Williamson

Watch an InfiniD Computer Lab/Simulator in Action           

My good friends at InfiniD are hard at work expanding and promoting Project Voyager, the pioneering work my associates and I did on the first simulator I built back in 1990.  Project Voyager is the name I use for programs worldwide inspired by the mother ship of them all, the USS Voyager.

Before I built the first Voyager,  there was the Pegasus - my classroom simulator. Project Pegasus ran from 1983 to 1990.  My classroom was the bridge. The ship controls were drawn on poster board. Public school computer labs were nonexistent at the time.  

In this video notice how InfiniD takes the relative simplicity of the Pegasus, combined with the sophistication of a starship simulator - like the Voyager, and creates an out of this world experience which is both affordable, educational, and FUN.  

I'm convinced this approach is the future.  School's worldwide have computer labs. InfiniD offers to take a school's lab (or classroom using a mobile lab) and with a few simple modification, make it an experiential learning center. Kid's imaginations fill in the rest. 

See it all in action....  

Sunday's Imaginarium Theater