For all who are interested here's the deal with this place (I worked there for quite a while). They have five "ships" with the Galileo here being the smallest. It's not a simulator in the "Star Tours" sense in that it doesn't have hydraulics or anything like that. It is on wheels so it does move laterally.
The Space center is officially named "The Christa McAcAuliffe Space Education Center" after the teacher that died when the Challenger exploded. It's located in an elementary school in Pleasant Grove, UT.
The gist of what goes on there is these guys write their own Star Trek universe missions, some of which are based on historical events. Each ship has multiple crew positions. The ship that is up for auction has room for 5. Four of the stations have computers, plus the captain. The largest ship takes up two large rooms in the school and has a maximum crew of 18.
The Space Center generally caters to school groups between 4th and 6th grade, but they do have older groups come on occasion. The ships are designed such that every position on the crew is essential - nearly everyone will have an opportunity to make a critical decision that will either save the crew, or kill them.
The campers (as we called them) were free to make whatever decisions they wanted during the course of the mission, and the staff had to react to their decisions. Including things like negotiating with aliens (Klingons, Romulans, etc.) and every mission always has some sort of exciting life or death climax/race to the finish.
We've actually had several kids that ended up working for NASA as a result of the experience they had at the Space Center. The real crux of the experience, however, was the teamwork aspect. You had to learn to work with all these people (many of whom you may have never met before) or you wouldn't get to the end of the mission and find out how the story ends.
@Donathius: Oh...and the sound system in the Galileo is seriously tricked out. It's far and away better than what a lot of people have in their homes. #startrek
When I was younger (maybe 13?) that was part of the high end space camp package we had here in northern Utah. For the last portion of the camp, they drove us to this school. On top of the shuttle simulator, they had a whole bridge and deck 2 setup going for an entire Star Trek space camp experience. I got to be both chief engineer and security officer. Saved the ship from a warp core breach!
@GitEmSteveDave_ H1N1 Symptoms List: Only if you're really short. The nose is fake (hides a TV and an amp), and there is a small step up to the stations in pic #4. There's about 4 feet of uninterrupted floor space in that thing. #startrek
heh, this reminds me of the second grade, where every class except mine got to make a space ship out of a refrigerator box. so after some poking around at the end of 'space month' or whatever, i got to take one of them home. i had it out in the yard until the rain made it fall apart. #startrek
@Dunny0: I thought they canned that attraction. There was a big article about it closing down. I swear, if you get my hopes up for nothing, there will be vengence. #startrek
@Malthian: Oh, it closed. I was there... it was sad, and the "retirement" ceremony for the "time station" was actually very well done. But there's also been a lot of talk of it re-opening in 2010, in the now-defunct Neonopolis building.
The mayor was pretty vocal about it, which surprised the hell out of me.
There's not been any real news on it in ages - but I'm not quite ready to give up that dream just yet. #startrek
@Elizabeth Weinbloom: I used to work there and this is one of five Star Trek style simulators. It is on wheels, so it does move, but there are no hydraulics.
The target audience for this experience is 4th-8th grades with missions oriented more towards older (high school age) kids run during the summer. #startrek
@Malthian: I used to work at that school. A sixth grade teacher transcribed history lessons into episodes of "Star Trek: the Next Generation." and rather than having his students learn history, they experienced history. (then the parallel was explained to them)
This teacher was later given a grant to transform a classroom into a simulator, and within six years he had five working simulators used during the day as other elementary schools would visit for field trips, and after school or over-night missions, where it was more of a Star Trek simulator and less of a classroom.
I, I different times, have played roles like: Klingon, Romulan, Chief Engineer, and Orion Pirate (an original faction created by the director of the simulator.)
@ManchuCandidate: And yet, the absolutely correct answer to the question, "Why don't you have a girlfriend?" Unfortunately, I don't have an excuse this good. #startrek
@Communist Pope: I just emailed my fiance this article and she (jokingly) said I could buy it as long we 'break it in' first. There are women that would jump all over you just for having this. #startrek
That looks sweet! hope their local council doesn't paint over it any time soon. Why is it the governmaent never seems to be able to tell the difference between art and vandalism?
p.s. Ive always thought it was funny how such a chauvanist character is called "Bender"
@Sam: Fingers crossed its one of those new Graffiti walls. Designed to get them to stop spraying on illegal stuff. That said, it still might get painted over for another idiot to spray 'I IM WELZ GUD INNIT' in ten foot letters!!
11/03/09
The Space center is officially named "The Christa McAcAuliffe Space Education Center" after the teacher that died when the Challenger exploded. It's located in an elementary school in Pleasant Grove, UT.
The gist of what goes on there is these guys write their own Star Trek universe missions, some of which are based on historical events. Each ship has multiple crew positions. The ship that is up for auction has room for 5. Four of the stations have computers, plus the captain. The largest ship takes up two large rooms in the school and has a maximum crew of 18.
The Space Center generally caters to school groups between 4th and 6th grade, but they do have older groups come on occasion. The ships are designed such that every position on the crew is essential - nearly everyone will have an opportunity to make a critical decision that will either save the crew, or kill them.
The campers (as we called them) were free to make whatever decisions they wanted during the course of the mission, and the staff had to react to their decisions. Including things like negotiating with aliens (Klingons, Romulans, etc.) and every mission always has some sort of exciting life or death climax/race to the finish.
We've actually had several kids that ended up working for NASA as a result of the experience they had at the Space Center. The real crux of the experience, however, was the teamwork aspect. You had to learn to work with all these people (many of whom you may have never met before) or you wouldn't get to the end of the mission and find out how the story ends.
Their website is: [www.spacecamputah.org]
and a picture of the replacement for this ship can be seen on their blog at:
[voyagerslog.blogspot.com] #startrek
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heh, this reminds me of the second grade, where every class except mine got to make a space ship out of a refrigerator box. so after some poking around at the end of 'space month' or whatever, i got to take one of them home. i had it out in the yard until the rain made it fall apart. #startrek
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Makes me wish the STE would hurry up and re-open. I need my shuttlecraft fix, damn it! #startrek
11/03/09
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The mayor was pretty vocal about it, which surprised the hell out of me.
There's not been any real news on it in ages - but I'm not quite ready to give up that dream just yet. #startrek
11/03/09
The target audience for this experience is 4th-8th grades with missions oriented more towards older (high school age) kids run during the summer. #startrek
11/03/09
This teacher was later given a grant to transform a classroom into a simulator, and within six years he had five working simulators used during the day as other elementary schools would visit for field trips, and after school or over-night missions, where it was more of a Star Trek simulator and less of a classroom.
I, I different times, have played roles like: Klingon, Romulan, Chief Engineer, and Orion Pirate (an original faction created by the director of the simulator.)
11/03/09
And here is a picture of the New Galileo. Man, it looks A LOT more spiffy then the old one....
[voyagerslog.blogspot.com]
They're selling the old one, because, well, it's old. And yes, the New Galileo still uses LCARS (the Star Trek computer interface).
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Other than at a SF convention.
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Oddly enough my wife and I still volunteer with them during the summer to help them with makeup effects for long-form (overnight) missions. #startrek
09/24/09
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@heatstroke: I spotted this one in Granada. I'm all for the Trekkie graffiti, but really, Search for Spock?
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p.s. Ive always thought it was funny how such a chauvanist character is called "Bender"
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