Announcing the USS Cassini; Soon to be The Newest Ship in the Space EdVentures Fleet. What Does a German Programmer, Thorium, and the Christa McAuliffe Space Center Have in Common? The Magellan's New Mission "Divided We Fall". The Imaginarium.

The Cassini Probe at Saturn;  The USS Cassini Concept Render

The USS Cassini A New Starship Soon to Launch at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center

     I'm a little bit late to the party on this announcement but better late than never. As many of you know, a new Christa McAuliffe Space Center is under construction along with a new Central Elementary School.

     The new CMSC will have six simulators and a 40 ft. tall planetarium.  Four of the new ships will be named after the four current simulators at the CMSC:  The Galileo, Odyssey, Magellan, and Phoenix.  The two new simulators were nameless until a month ago when the name of one was released.  Welcome USS Cassini to the growing number of Space EdVentures simulators.  The name of the last new ship is a closely guarded secret known only to Mr. Porter himself. 

     The Cassini is named after the Cassini space probe.  

     For more than a decade, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shared the wonders of Saturn and its family of icy moons—taking us to astounding worlds where methane rivers run to a methane sea and where jets of ice and gas are blasting material into space from a liquid water ocean that might harbor the ingredients for life.      Cassini revealed in great detail the true wonders of Saturn, a giant world ruled by raging storms and delicate harmonies of gravity. Cassini carried a passenger to the Saturn system, the European Huygens probe—the first human-made object to land on a world in the distant outer solar system.     After 20 years in space — 13 of those years exploring Saturn — Cassini exhausted its fuel supply. And so, to protect moons of Saturn that could have conditions suitable for life, Cassini was sent on a daring final mission that would seal its fate. After a series of nearly two dozen nail-biting dives between the planet and its icy rings, Cassini plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017, returning science data to the very end.

          Source NASA

     Mr. Porter just posted this picture on the CMSC's Facebook page (be sure to hit the 'like' button. Doterra gives the CMSC $$ for every 'like' the Facebook page gets) 

      

   This little white truck is currently parked where the starship Cassini soon will be. Above it will be a 40 ft planetarium dome. 

     Construction of the new school and space center continues with a grand opening in the Spring of 2020.  

Mr. Williamson

Divided We Fall Poster Proudly Displayed in the Magellan Control Room

     Thank you Audrey for sending this photo from the Magellan's Control Room. The Magellan's summer space camp story is called "Divided we Fall".  This is the original artwork poster Audrey created for the mission.  Pretty good job I'd say. 

     The Magellan's Set Director sends this summary of "Divided We Fall"

     From the writer of Paradise Lost, Prelude to War, and Against the Tide comes 'Divided We Fall', the USS Magellan's story for the 2019 summer season.      It's after the Borg War. The Federation is in shambles. A recent development in technology has led to a divide of the once mighty Federation. On the brink of war, the Centralist Union of Planets and the Trans-Planetary Economic Alliance are still trying to rebuild from the devastating Borg War. While most of the Centralist fleet is blockading the border between the Alliance and the Pakled Emirates, the Magellan is being dispatched to a nearby solar system directly in the path of a devastating Neutronic Storm to provide relief and assistance in coordination with the Red Cross.           What is the true motivation for having the Magellan that close to a potential war zone? Only you can find out. Join us for one of the most daring, eventful, and exciting stories in the Magellan's recent history. A definite first in regards to Space Center missions with a style and layout  bound to please crews of all ages. This exciting mission explores moral dilemmas and contains aspects of US History along with never before seen Pakled characters. There are even echoes of music history from 19th century France.  Oh la la....seulement le meilleur.     Will history repeat itself and plunge us into a Civil War, or will the crew of the Magellan find a way to diffuse a volatile situation?  Sign up for summer camp now.

          Conner Larsen 

What Does a Programmer from Germany, Thorium, and the Christa McAuliffe Space Center Have in Common?

From the Desk of Mr. Porter

Christa McAuliffe Space Center

     What does a German programmer and a small town simulator based educational program have in common?  Not a whole lot. But we found that we both love creating unique experiences and with Tim Pietrusky's help we have our lighting system connected to our open source simulator software.

     We found Tim while looking for solutions and it has been so great to have his expertise and excitement. He has volunteered a lot of time to help us move our simulators over to the next generation of software and so we are super appreciative.

     So wonderful to see that a community of support for providing these experiences extends far beyond our local borders.

https://twitter.com/TimPietrusky/status/1137134112714743808

Imaginarium
Imagination; faster than light

 

 

 

How you teach penmanship in China. Keep that back straight!

 

 

We Have Great Staff and Volunteers at Utah's Five Space EdVenture Centers. What Does it Take to Produce and Stage an Outstanding Summer Camp Season? Construction Update on the New CMSC. Imaginarium Theater

A few of the outstanding staff and volunteers at Renaissance Space Academy. All of this talent crammed into the Starship Voyager all at once for one 5 hour mission last Saturday caused a large disturbance in the Force.  There was a Chernobyl ionized blue glow around the school noticeable for miles in all directions

     Utah's Space EdVenture Centers:  Christa McAuliffe Space Center, Renaissance Space Academy, Reality's Edge Space Center, Telos Discovery Space Center, and Lions Gate Center.

     Great staff and volunteers are the heart of each of our programs at Utah's Space EdVenture Centers. We remind ourselves of that fact each time a crew of enthusiastic young astronauts board one of the 13 starships in fleet.  The importance of keeping our head in the game and giving 100 percent is perfectly summed up with this sign that hangs near Mr. Porter's office door at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. 

     In a recent Facebook post, Mr. Porter wrote about starting every mission with the right frame of mind and to remember to make that flight the best experience the crew has ever had because it might be the only one they have.  Mr. Porter wrote: 

     "This phrase has been something we have been trying to keep in mind this year. We have been so busy with the new developments and many changes within the Space Center we wanted to make sure we don't lose our focus.... 
     So as a part of that here's a huge thank you to all of the amazing staff and volunteers of the Space Center. This last week they have been feverishly working to get us ready for summer with new stories, touch ups to the ship, repairs to equipment, and every other little aspect that makes our magic that much more potent. All with the goal to make it so every experience is unforgettable...."     

CMSC's Ian at work on phaser repair. Matt Ricks entertaining a space camper at last week's CMSC space camp.
Each doing his part to make every mission the best it can be.

     If you're a current member of staff or a volunteer at one of the Space EdVenture Centers I want to thank you for your dedication to our great endeavor of creating a spacefaring civilization. 
     "Why did you create this program?" is a question I've been asked many times since I opened the Christa McAuliffe Space Center nearly 30 years ago.  And usually in the same breath the questioner tries to answer his own question with, "Are you trying to get kids to want to be astronauts?"  
     The true answer to the question is simple; I created the Space EdVentures program to encourage kids to learn about space in the hopes that mankind will look up and see where destiny intends us to go. I want to create a space faring civilization. The first step toward that goal is to find ways to excite our students to excel in their schoolwork. Space exploration demands excellence in math, science, technology, engineering, and of course the arts and humanities - two subjects which enrich our lives and help us understand what it means to be human. Utah's five Space EdVenture centers, along with our friends at InfiniD and Dream Flight Adventures, are doing just that. 
     Our collective mission is realized everytime one of our starships ventures into the unknown. Thank you to all who work toward this goal. Have a great summer camp season!

Victor Williamson 

What Does it Take to Produce and Stage an Outstanding Summer Camp Season?  Let's Ask the Staff and Volunteers at the Space Academy   

The Space Academy's Bracken Funk hard at work creating the special effects needed for the Academy's new missions.

1.  New Missions.  Summer space camps need new missions.  Many campers are mult-center campers, meaning they fly in multiple simulators at any of Utah's five Space EdVenture Centers.  Imagine the pressure our centers are under to produce new missions every summer, something which has been done for the past 29 years.  Space EdVenture missions are not your average sci-fi.  Our missions cannot be character centered like you find in sci-fi books, movies, and TV shows.  They can't be planet centered stories (lots of time out of the ship) because our simulators are built in 21st century neighborhoods.  Hard to get Lehi to look like Vulcan.  Overall we do a pretty good job.  Sure there are the occasional stinkers (Saladin) but we like to forget those and move on. 

2.  Special Effects.  Creating cool animations is the next step once a mission has been written.  Not many of our staff know how to create eye popping tactical cards.  Those few who do are beyond busy at the moment.  

Mr. Funk and Spencer Baird loading the effects into Thorium in the USS Voyager's Control Room.  

3.  Loading everything into your mission control computers and testing to see if it displays and runs correctly.

4.  Props and Costuming.  Each mission requires costumes and props.  Kyan, a Space Academy top notch 8th grader, models his take on Piddlewee evening wear.  Piddlewee are Farpoint's Paklids.  They come from the planet Uck.  They're members of our union but constantly find ways of irritating Terran Space Command with their antics.   

5.  Landing Party Prep.  Every summer camp mission has a landing party or two. We call them "Away Missions".  Years ago we called excursions out of the simulators "Deck 21".  Deck 21 was usually the kindergarten hallway at Central Elementary.  
     Above you see Megan Warner and Tabitha working to put up a few black plastic barriers in the school's music room. During the summer the music room will be the bridge of a Piddlewee SpaceBug.  

 6.  Make-up.  Mr. Robinson is teaching several of the Space Academy volunteers how to apply make up.  Mr. Robinson is the Academy's InfiniD coordinator and teaches the Space Tech classes in addition to his history, speech, and debate classes.  Not only will the volunteers learn make-up, they will also learn how to create and apply darn good looking silicone wound prosthetics.     

7.  The proper liquid refreshment for a long summer camp season.  The USS Voyager is powered by fusion and jump engines which use helium 3 as fuel.  The Voyager's staff and volunteers require a different type of fuel to keep them going.  We keep the control room fully supplied.  A happy, hydrated staff makes for happy campers.  

8.  Dress rehearsals.  Every new mission needs at least one dress rehearsal to find bugs in the code and plot holes in the mission and landing parties.  Bracken, Megan, and Spencer discuss a few issues in the Voyager Control Room.

The New Christa McAuliffe Space Center and Central Elementary School Construction Update 

      As you can see in the two photos above, construction is moving ahead of schedule on the new Space Center and Central School.  Footings are being poured.  

Imaginarium Theater
The Best Videoettes From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience