Good Morning Troops,
The Troubadour apologizes for the lack of recent updates from the Space EdVenturing World. Mr. Williamson has been preoccupied with the closing of the school year and the start of the summer space camp season.
There is a lot to cover so let's get straight to business.
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| Ryker and Jackson on a successful landing party. They are members of the Voyager Club's 7-8th Grade Flight Squadron |
The Voyager Club at Renaissance Academy Finishes the School Year with Successful Missions
We didn't know if we'd be able to operate a Voyager Club this year due to covid, but with the springtime easing of restrictions, the door opened and we got the ball rolling. Bracken Funk spent several weeks in the Starship Voyager getting it ready for the new mission. Once the ship was ready, the invitation to join was issued. We didn't know what kind of response we'd get with a part of the student body doing online learning and the lateness of the year. But despite the roadblocks we were able to field 8 squadrons with nearly 100 students in grades 3 - 8.
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| The Voyager Club's Monday Squadron |
Each squadron met three times and did a new mission written by myself and Bracken Funk.
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| The Tuesday Squadron |
The cadets were masked up until the last week of school when the mask requirement was lifted. The decision to not wear our standard uniforms was kept in place until the summer season.
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| Carter did an awesome job commanding the Wednesday 1st Squadron |
We needed a new mission. The majority of our cadets had been members of the school's Voyager Club for a number of years and knew the ship's library of flights. It's surprising how quickly a mission can come together in a pinch. The new mission is a good one - great story, lots of action, and very very few tactical cards required.
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| The Thursday 3rd grade squadron did Intolerance |
The third-grade squadron did Intolerance. What a great all-around story.
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| One of the Club's Friday Squadrons commanded by Max - the Great. |
The 2020-2021 Voyager Club has one more squadron to finish up on Monday and that will be it. The start of the 2021-2022 school year means a new round of space service recruiting by Terran Space Command. Next year's club will be open to students in grades 3 - 9.
History was Made Last Week! The First Summer Camp in the New Christa McAuliffe Space Center
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| Jon Parker Briefing the Cassini Crew on their mission "Greenpeace" |
The Space Center has always had summer camps (except last summer due to Covid) since the summer of 1991. What makes this summer's camps unique is the fact that they are being held in the NEW Christa McAuliffe Space Center in the new starship simulators.
I was invited to join the camps this summer as a trainee in the new Cassini. My job is to learn how to fly the ship. I'll be honest when I say the new Thorium controls are more complicated than the old Voyager controls I last used during the summer of 2012, but with Jon Parker and Nolan Welch's patience, I feel confident I'll have them mastered in no time.
The camp started at 8:00 A.M. Monday, June 1 with a planetarium show "The Star Wars Planets". I arrived just as Jon was assigning the cadets to their simulators. Some things never change. If it wasn't for the planetarium surroundings you'd swear you were back in the old Central School gym with me at the front of a bunch of students assigning them to a ship with the flight directors all lined up nicely behind me waiting to receive their charges.
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| There I am assigning cadets to their simulators back in June 2008 |
I followed the Cassini team downstairs and onto the flight deck of Starbase Williamson (I sure love the sound of that :)
The cadets gathered around their flight directors in the large hallway to receive their bridge positions. All except the Odyssey. For some reason, the Odyssey crew gets to use Central School's conference room - a throwback to the old school I guess.
While Jon briefed I took the opportunity to roam and snap a few pictures for the blog and for history. On a side note, I sure wish I had done something like this back in 1991. It took me a while to understand the importance of documenting the history of an organization - especially one as unusual as the Space Center!
My first stop was the Phoenix. The crew had just finished the briefing and was ready to launch. The captain gave me a thumbs up. He was ready for action. What do you think of the new Phoenix? Do you like it better, the same, or not as much as the old Phoenix?
The Phoenix was staffed by Jordan Smith (at the FD station) with Scott Wiltbank at second chair. Maeson Perry was on standby for assistance.
My next stop was the Galileo Control Room so Lindsey could ask me for the highlight of my day. "Working with all of you of course," I answered. She gave me a smile and a thumbs up.
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| The front of the Galileo Bridge |
While Lindsey was busy lifting everyone's spirits, Brylee Perry was in the Galileo briefing the crew. I didn't want to become a distraction so I took my photo and escaped to the Odyssey to see what Tabitha and Matt Ricks were up to.
Tabitha was found messing with the Odyssey's switch panel at the back of the bridge. She was decked out in what appeared to be mercenary attire complete with a side blaster for emergencies. Her face needed a good wash, but I was too polite to point it out. I'm guessing it had something to do with the character she was playing, or so I hoped.
While his wife was fiddling the controls, Matt Ricks sat in the Odyssey Control Room pretending to flight direct the ship. Bless his heart, he tries so hard. I'm hoping someday, some Set Director will give Matt a shot at flying a ship. Doesn't he deserve it after all the years he has wandered the halls of the Center looking for something constructive to do? Matt, you come talk to me once I get passed off on the Cassini and I'll set things straight regardless of what Jon says.
While Matt was going "Vroom Vroom," in the Odyssey Control Room, Natalie Anderson had the ship's crew upstairs in the school's conference room briefing them on the mission. It was going to be a great mission for sure.
I snapped a few pictures as Cassini's well-trained volunteers
set the ship up for the crew's return from being captured by the ever painful Orion Pirates. Those pirates seem to be lurking around every moon and asteroid throughout the Federation. How they got there, nobody knows - except their fearless leader Mad Dog.
And of course, the pirates can't leave well enough alone. They always find their way to the bridge of every ship they capture and always find a way to override the ship's computer safety features to break into the mainframe and alter the program or change the ship's course. It's just what they do. Who is more annoying, the Paklids or the Orion Pirates?
What's amazing is the speed at which the camps filled this year. Mr. Porter opened the camps for booking on the Monday and had everything booked by the Friday. I'm told there are 200 students on the camp's waiting list.
Will you agree with me that the summer's hottest ticket for fun and learning is a summer camp at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center?
The Magellan and Falcon were closed for the first week of summer camp. The Magellan spent the day running a test mission of its summer story (I'll post a story about that this week) and the Falcon is closed for a few weeks while Mr. Porter organizes staff and gets them trained.
Tomorrow starts the week with another camp, and I'll be there sandwiched between Nolan and Jon doing my best to stay out of their way while at the same time pushing their patience as best I can with questions.
Victor
Imaginarium Theater
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