The Starship Voyager Opens! Nearly 250 Students Enroll in the New Farpoint and Voyager After School Clubs. A New EdVenture in Experiential Education has Begun. Imaginarium Theater.

Ryan, a Renaissance Academy 9th Grade Voyager, trains a young member of the 4th Grade Scorpion Squadron
on her bridge duties

     After Four Years, Five Months, and 13 Days Starfleet has another ship named Voyager. It has been that long since the original USS Voyager docked at Starbase for decommissioning on Saturday, July 28, 2012.  The once mighty flagship of an ever growing fleet finished it's last mission with Jon Parker as Flight Director. Jon turned off the Voyager's lights, I locked the doors, and the ship that started them all entered history. The original Odyssey was decommissioned that same day but has since been replaced with the new Odyssey at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. 

     Fast forward to the future. It is 4:00 P.M. on January 10, 2017 at Farpoint Station located inside Renaissance Academy.  Twenty-seven cadets in the primary level Scorpion Squadrons meet for the first time in my classroom for their mission briefing and introduction to the Farpoint Club, the school's after school STEM club emphasising simulator based experiential education for grades 3 - 9. 

A Renaissance Academy 3rd Grade Scorpion Cadet learns how to steer the ship 

    

      "Welcome to the Future!" I exclaimed to a crowded room of twenty-seven excited younglings. The Scorpion cadets were divided into their 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teams. I instructed the teams on America's space history, introduced them to simulator based learning, and taught them the Farpoint pledge and its meaning.  

I pledge my best efforts to learn about space and further the cause of human space exploration. I will work to improve my grades in math and science and encourage my friends to do the same. I will be the best I can be at home, at school, and in my community.  I am the future.       

  

Farpoint Cadets at work on the USS Voyager's Bridge

     

    Then came their mission briefing. I explained who they were and their purpose for taking the Voyager out into the vastness of space. "You are tasked to do three things," I said as I paced the room holding a model of the new Voyager. "I'm sending you out to explore. Discover new planets where humans can settle and pave the way for our people to follow. That's your first job. I want you to also protect and defend our citizens and enforce our laws.  Do you understand these first two responsibilities aboard your new starship?"  

     "Yes Sir!" the cadets enthusiastically replied.  

     "Finally - your third responsibility; the most important, which is why I saved it for last.  You are to find that something the great astronomer Carl Sagan referred to when he said, 'Somewhere, something wonderful is waiting to be discovered'.  Can I trust you to never stop exploring until you find it?" 

     "Yes Sir!" The cadets had the vision. Their voices were loud and determined. Their faces expressed an excitement and passion for exploration. They were ready to see what was out there.

Voyager Cadet Spencer trains two Farpoint Scorpions.

     
     I saw my time was short. The Voyager staff were ready to take the first of the three teams into the ship for training. "Cadets, before you leave me for the starship, I'm going to share something that has influenced my life." I was waxing philosophically that afternoon. Afterall, it's not often you get to launch an entirely new education initiative. "Rene Descartes was the father of modern western philosophy. He lived in the early 1600's in France. He wrote, 'There is nothing so far removed from us to be beyond our reach, or so far hidden that we cannot discover it." 

Voyager Cadet Alex trains our young security guards. Young Mr. Ricks looks like an alien guest in the bridge lighting!

     I could see the meaning of the statement was lost on some of the younger cadets so I elaborated. "I believe we can achieve anything if we first imagine it. Then we must believe it can be done. After that comes the hard part - we must learn how to do it. That's where your education come into play. YOU need to do your best in school. Our future depends on it. Once we've learned what we need to know it's time to DO IT. Our own lack of faith in ourselves holds us back along with the effort it takes to achieve great things; all of which is the language of defeatism. Hard work and a good education is the key to success and that's what our club is about, so remember the formula: Imagine. Believe. Learn. and Do.   
     I explained to the cadets that we are this planet's only sentient life forms. "We alone understanding the universe and our place in it.  I'm sending you out there to make history. Be brave. Be courageous. And don't scrape the paint on my starship as you leave spacedock!"

    And with that, our first group of cadets boarded the new USS Voyager. 

Discovery Space Center's Maeson trains a Scorpion Cadet at Damage Control
The new Voyager welcomes volunteers from all the space education centers in Utah

     Would you like to participate in this new educational initiative at Renaissance Academy? If you're in 7th through 12th grade visit ProjectVoyager.org to learn how to join the Voyager Club.  Farpoint is the long duration mission club for grades 3 to 9. Visit SpaceGuard.org for more information. Both the Voyager and Farpoint Clubs sponsor computer programming classes for our cadets. Contact me for further information. Director@spacecamputah.org.

     Friends, the Voyager has launched!  Come by and visit. We'd like to show you what so many volunteer enthusiasts have done for education in Utah. Careful, I may twist your arm to join us. Have your list of excuses ready :) 

Mr. Williamson

Admiral Williamson to my cadets

(It's got a certain ring to it, doesn't it?)

    

The USS Voyager's First Farpoint Cadets. Renaissance Academy's Scorpions with our Opening Day Staff:
Ryan, Maeson, Isaac, Spencer, Alex, Tristan, and Andrew
January 10, 2017

Imaginarium Theater
The week's best gifs edited for a general audience. Great for classroom rewards.

"Telos U opens the Telos Discovery Space Center"

The signing of the papers. The Creation of the Telos Discovery Space Center

Today's news is about as big as it gets space fans.  This afternoon Telos Academy, with schools in Orem and Vineyard, opened a new Space Center company, the Telos Discovery Space Center LLC in partnership with Casey Voeks and Skylar Carr. THe Telos Discovery Space Center will operate out of Telos U in Vineyard and simulators at Canyon Grove Academy in Pleasant Grove and Merit Academy in Springville, and Lakeview Academy in Saratoga Springs.   

Casey and Skyler will also continue their work with InfiniD, where they will focus their efforts on InfinD computer lab simulators in schools nationwide. InfiniD moves ahead doing what it does best and Telos Academy is able to move forward with their goals of using simulator based education in meeting their student's curriculum and treatment needs while providing a service to the community as a whole.

Ryan Anderson, clinical director at Telos, issued the following statement. 

Over 20 years ago, I had an experience that affected me in a profound way: I flew my first mission on the Voyager at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center, with Victor Williamson at the helm as the flight director. From there, I had numerous experiences with Victor and the CMSEC, and I found that my interactions there not only sparked my imagination, but they shaped my character and helped me learn and grow through the emotional turmoil of my adolescence. I can honestly say that I am a healthier, more functional, better balanced adult because of those experiences, and I look back on them still with a sense of awe and gratitude.
I have since grown into adulthood and developed into a professional: a scientist, a therapist, an educator, an author, a business man, and a leader. And with these new lenses in my life, I have looked back upon what Victor created, and have recognized that what he has been accomplishing far exceeds even his vision and his understanding. Beyond education, what he has created is both a powerful, experiential, therapeutic experience and a supportive community.

Six years ago, I began developing the idea for Telos U with my partners. We knew we wanted to innovate in our efforts to help young adults who are struggling to transition into adult roles and teens who struggle with learning disabilities, processing issues, and mental health struggles like anxiety and depression. My mind kept turning again and again to Victor and the CMSEC, and it became clear to me that we could build upon his vision and make space simulations and active, intentional therapeutic tool for executive function training, exposure therapy, psychodrama, and a wide variety of other therapeutic applications. So, when we began to build Telos U, we included a simulator in our building plans. The USS Hyperion currently exists as a framework, and will begin complete construction soon.

When we learned of the possibility of starting the Telos Discovery Space Center, it seemed like such a natural fit. Our vision is to build upon the wonderful work they have done, and further develop the intentional therapeutic elements that are involved. Furthermore, our use of the Telos Discovery Space Center will allow us more opportunities to conduct research to show the academic and emotional benefits of space simulation education and adventure therapy, thus providing the data that school districts often demand when considering the possibility of building their own simulators.
Victor's ideas have been decades ahead of their time. We are very pleased to join in the effort to help them continue to grow, evolve, and become available to many more people. We look forward to our involvement and collaboration with the space center community!


Sincerely,
Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., LMFT, MedFTClinical DirectorTelos U 

InfiniD released the following statement:

In the space center community we all have our role that needs to be performed to spread this wonderful concept that Mr. Williamson (Vic) has been practicing his entire career. Our goal is to allow every teacher to have the resources available to give their students the 'out of this world' experiences that Vic gave to his students.
We determined that ramping down the Discovery Space Center, but helping with the formation of a new company with competent partners would allow us to focus on the enormous task of creating and distributing missions to students everywhere. InfiniD Learning is the software, mission, and curriculum engine that will power all Telos Discovery Space Center programs.

InfiniD is excited about the chance to work with the incredibly talented and passionate people from Telos U. We know that our partnership will allow us focus on creating the missions needed to inspire students, while still ensuring the growth of the space center programs. 

This is a symbotic collaboration between InfiniD and Telos.  Both organizations will work closely with each other to ensure mutual success.  

The Telos Vineyard Campus

I'm also pleased to announce that InfiniD has moved their headquarters to the new Telos campus in Vineyard, Utah.  Casey, Skyler, Brandon, and company have their desks on the same floor as Telos Academy's Hyperion simulator which is currently under construction.

Congratulations to all parties involved.  I can't wait to see what will come next and rest assured, The Troubadour will be on hand to bring you the news as it has done for the past nine years.

Victor Williamson

Now, how about a few more pictures for the historical record. Everyone who knows me knows how important the space center movement is to me.  This blog is my way of documenting the history of this educational initiative started thirty-four years ago with a half crazy teacher, an overhead projector, a boom box cassette player and a dream.  

Saturday on the Starship Apollo, A Fine Jaunt in a Tall Bridged Ship. Space News. Theater Imaginarium.

New Year's Eve.  While many made plans to bring in the new year, the staff and volunteers at many of the local space centers were hard at work creating memories for their guests.

Isaac and Alex DeBirk hard at it

  

Let the historical record show that the new USS Voyager's tactical screen was wired to the control room by ethernet cable on New Year's Eve 2016.  What a process but thankfully it's done. This new cable gives the Voyager staff the option of showing tactical scenes through the network (Flint system) or by cable (InfiniD Simple Scene).  My goal is to make the Voyager multiplatform.  Thank you InfiniD for making your system available to us.  

While they were busy navigating through ceilings and walls, I drove to Lakeview Academy in Saratoga Springs. Brandon Wright is the director of the Lakeview Space Center and was kind to invite me to enjoy some Apollo time with our good friends working on the Starship Apollo. 

Brandon directing the mission while his staff waited with baited breath for every word.

Have I mentioned that my favorite people on this planet are those serving in the Space Service whether it be Starfleet Command at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center, Colonial Command at Lakeview, Canyon Grove, and Merit Academies, or Space Guard at Renaissance Academy?  These people are professionals at what they do and put their visiting crews first.  The atmosphere at the Lakeview Space Center is positive and inviting. The facility is state of the art with two of the valley's newest experiential simulators, Apollo and Artemis.  

I've done several posts on the two ships so I won't bore you with a rehash of the praise already given. What I want to do is highlight something really cool I've not shared with you before.  Brandon took me into the ship's rafters to show me this cool set up.  

"This is our all purpose alien world surface," Brandon explained proudly.  The little remote controlled planetary rover is controlled from the bridge. We've got cameras positioned so the crew can watch the rover on the ship's tactical screen as the operator steers it." 

This innovation is another example of how Lakeview Academy uses their three simulators to make their STEM based Utah State Core missions educational and fun.

  

Brandon invited me to the Apollo's bridge to look at another addition recently installed.
"This is the weapon's compartment complete with lock worn around the first officer's neck," he explained.  The compartment sits at the back of the bridge directly under the engineering loft.  

The Apollo and Artemis are identical. In my wanderings I found two hatchways into the bridge area. The hatch into the Medbay has a nice combo lock, perfect for staff, volunteers, and authorized crew.

While I was there the staff explained many of the features of the ship's new controls. They are cool. Their intuitive design makes flight directing easy. Using the new simulator controls, the flight director spends more time focused on the crew and not on the controls themselves. The new controls also make staffing easy. One person can pretty much run a 15 person ship alone.

Every student at Lakeview gets six missions in the simulators per year.  Each mission is written with a curriculum focus for their grade level all from the Utah State Core.  Rick Veasey, Lakeview's Principal, oversees the program to ensure his students are learning.  The teacher's help with the curriculum. The Lakeview program is a model for school centered experiential simulator education.
      
Great job Lakeview Academy, Brandon Wright, and Staff.  

The lower bridge of the Apollo as seen from the second deck Engineering

Space News

By Mark Daymont

spacerubble.blogspot.com

ISS: Spacewalkers Replace Batteries, Part 1

Astronauts Peggy Whitson (L) and Shane Kimbrough (R) prepare to leave the airlock. There have been 196 spacewalks in support of the International Space Station so far.

On Friday, January 6th, astronauts from Expedition 50 of the ISS exited the Quest Airlock for a six and a half hour EVA to begin the four-year process of changing out the station's main batteries, which are reaching their serviceability lifespan. The new Li-Ion batteries were brought to the station on the Japanese HTV-6 cargo spacecraft on the external pallet. Using the stations remote-control arm, the batteries were removed from the craft and placed in the are of the exchange, which for this mission was the S4 segment of the main truss. There was a lot of work to do in preparation for this part of the battery exchange, both inside and out of the station. Relays and cables to affected station segments were checked, secured, and switched to other areas for the duration of the exchange.

Shane Kimbrough looks quite pleased to be performing his 3rd career spacewalk. Station solar panels in the background.

During the last week, ground controllers used one of the access arms to begin a series of shuffling old batteries from their home on the truss and replacing them with the new batteries stored in temporary positions on the truss. The purpose of this EVA was to finish certain installation tasks that could not be done with the robotic arms. It proves again how the human presence can never be completely removed from space activities for maximum efficiency. 

Astronaut Shane apparently enjoys selfies. Up there, who wouldn't?

Peggy Whitson during suit preparation. This was her 7th career EVA.

The EVA concluded with successful connections of three of the six replaced batteries. Part two of this EVA is scheduled for Friday January 13th, when Kimbrough goes outside again, this time with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, to complete the hookups for the remaining three batteries. The new lithium-ion batteries are a great improvement over the older nickel-hydrogen batteries. The old batteries will be moved by the robotic arm onto the storage pallet on the HTV-6. They will burn up when the HTV-6 is plunged into the atmosphere over the Pacific for disposal.

Theater Imaginarium

The week's best gifs edited for a general audience. Great for classroom rewards.