The Farpoint Voyagers Space and Science Club met yesterday at Renaissance Academy.
The cadets listed and took notes as Emily Paxman gave the mission briefing. Well.... almost all the cadets. A few in the Phoenix team seemed more interested in me than Emily.
Carter is always happy so he gets a pass this time.
Brittney VandenBos spoke about leadership and the importance of teamwork. The cadets spent time with their squadrons and coaches discussing their individual strengths and weaknesses. Squadron mission statements were also on the morning agenda.
Our adult coaches have their work cut out for them. They need to take a collection of individuals and turn them into effective teams able to survive the upcoming mission challenge AND score the winning points to be names Top Team.
Our Long Duration Mission Squadrons
The Teams and Their Coaches
| Phoenix Squadron | Nautilus Squadron | Kraken Squadron | Scorpio Squadron | Prometheus Squadron | ||||
| Alex Debirk (Coach) | Bracken Funk (Coach) | Christine Grosland (Coach) | Brittney VanDenBos (Coach) | Bradyn Lystrup (Coach) | ||||
| Jay Johnson (Asst. Coach) | Matt Long (Asst. Coach) | Brandon Engles (Asst. Coach) | Dave Daymont (Asst. Coach) | BJ Warner (Asst. Coach) |
The Cadet Captains of the Squadrons
| 1. Zachary Hodgson (Captain) | 1. MacKenzie Seidel (Co-Captain) | 1. Bradyn Shelley (Captain) | 1. Jessa Lethbridge (Captain) | 1. Harrison Briggs (Captain) |
Co-Captain
The first Time On Bridge (TOB) is scheduled for Saturday, February 7th from 7:45 to 10:15 A.M. on the Space Center's Magellan. The Nautilus Squadron volunteered to be the first out of the gate.
Watch the blog for updates on the LDM.
The Magellan's Lighting System Goes High Tech
I'd like to show off the Space Center's newest technological achievement, computer controlled lighting.
The Magellan's lighting has been upgraded from off and on switches with dimmer knobs operated by hand to a cool computer system with presets for different types of lighting.
Everything is controlled through the Chauvet box you see above mounted between the flight director and second chair.
The Magellan Flight Director can preset any number of lighting combinations from the standard bridge white lights to the always attention getting power loss and brownouts, to red alert lighting to the "shaking of the lights" during battle scenes.
The CMSEC Does the Nearly Impossible. A Joint Four Simulator Mission
You heard it first right here in The Troubadour. Two Saturday's ago the Space Center (CMSEC) did a four simulator joint mission. The Magellan, Odyssey, Phoenix, and Galileo joined forces and did one mission for a large crew.
How do you pull off a four simulator joint mission? The Space Center staff did it the new fashioned way - facetime.
Connor sits in the Magellan Control Room directing his portion of the mission and facetimes with Alex Anderson in the Phoenix Control Room. On the spot and instant communication keeps the four crews together in the story. It was fun to watch these professionals in action.
Nathan is seen in the photo above flight directing the Odyssey's portion of the joint mission. Farpoint Cadet Scott W., runs his second chair.
Connor's Evil Magellan Departure Sequence
Connor L., made sure I stayed in the Magellan Control Room long enough to watch his crew struggle to get the Magellan out of space dock.
Look how he has the crew penned into a corner. The crew's first officer had a difficult time getting the ship out using thrusters only. There are more "Collision Alert's" issued in one of Connor's departure sequences than in a month's worth of other CMSEC simulators. Is it fair? NO. Could a computer handle the departure better than a human? YES. Will Connor let the ship's computer "Take the ship out?" NO. Is this pure evil on Connor's part? YES!
Will the CMSEC Director do something about it? PLEASE DON'T. It's too fun :)
Post from June 9, 2000.
News on the Falcon Simulator's Opening. The Magellan's Transition from Babylon 5 to Star Trek. The Galileo Switch Over to iMacs. New Computer Controls. The Odyssey's New Engineering Station.
Hello Voyagers!Yesterday we completed our first summer overnight mission. We now register our campers in the cafeteria instead of the gym. The gym is being refinished. A special pat on the back goes to Mark Daymont, Kyle Herring, and Dan Adams (our principal) for the dedicated round the clock work they have put in over the last week getting the Falcon up and running. Intel engineers are still programming the Mars Base controls for PC and told us they wouldn't be ready for the opening of the season. Instead we had to improvise and that's what we did.
The Falcon opened for OV1 as a mysterious rescue pod left on Mars by an alien race 1000 years ago.The kids assigned to the Falcon discover it and then spend their 2.5 hours learning what it is, how it got there, and how to operate it. Of course they can count on several surprises along the way.
Another pat on the back to Allan Stewart, Kyle Herring, and Dan Adams for the Galileo. This last week the Galileo was refit with imacs. That involved remodelling the computer desks in the simulator. Allan has finished the new Galileo controls.
The Magellan is also being worked on. Allan Stewart is programming in hyperspeed to give the Magellan its new Federation look. The Magellan told its last Babylon 5 story yesterday. Tonight, the Magellan sets sail as a Federation Starbase for OV2. Chris Aldridge worked with Allan into the wee hours of the morning finishing up and getting ready. Kyle has installed new CCTV cameras in the Magellan as well.
David Merrill reports success for the Odyssey's first summer mission. The Odyssey's new engineering section worked well.
The Voyager's new captain's quarters was painted by Aaron Yeager, Brady Young, and Daniel Story. It is almost ready for occupants. Two of our elite Voyagers ran the control room without senior staff help! A special pat on the back to Justin Leavitt for running the 2FX station and to Andy Heaton who ran video and the phones. They did a great job! A special salute to Bryce Redd who played his first Voyager doctor and got more votes than our senior staff.
OV 1 went very well. We are all excited about the summer season. Remember, the staff field trip on June 14th. Some of you still need to tell me if you are going. We can't go to Salt Lake Airport -I waited too long to book it and they were full. The planetarium is still a go and the zoo. I'll be sending an email parent permission form so look for that this weekend.
All the Best Voyagers and Friends!Mr. Williamson
What we do.....
There are some people who live
in a dream world, and there are
some who face reality; and then
there are those who turn one into
the other -- Douglas Everett
Troops,
We are the ones who make dreams a reality for thousands of people a year in all the simulators descended from the USS Voyager, wherever they may be. I take great pride in what we have collectively accomplished and what is yet to come in 2015!
Mr. Williamson
The Imaginarium
