spaceship

posts about #spaceship more →
You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
Bender Makes His Mark on Barcelona
Where's The Bathroom On The Enterprise? 9 Space Toilets
Raiders of the Lost Saucer!
It's 1980, And You're Commanding A Tank On Another Planet
Glow-in-the-Dark Teepee Searches For Alien Life In Liverpool
Mysterious New UFO Pics Probably from X-Files
A Spaceship On Fire Off The Shoulder Of Orion
Haute Couture Spaceship Travels From City to City in Segments
Starfighting In The Museum Of The Improbable

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Donathius
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
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.

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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Donathius
11/03/09

@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
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Donathius was starred Donathius was unstarred

alex.tyler
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
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!
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spoogy
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
The auction site actually says it's at $1,000 with the reserve not yet met. So the reserve seems to be higher than $1,000. #startrek
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment spoogy was starred spoogy was unstarred

ElimGarak
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
Huh? Why are there iMacs in the center console? ST equipment looks more like it is running on a Linux box than a Mac. #startrek
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment ElimGarak was starred ElimGarak was unstarred

GitEmSteveDave_HazEnvy
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
Now if I slept in it in a Taun-Taun sleeping bag, would that be bad? #startrek
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Donathius
11/03/09

@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
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Donathius was starred Donathius was unstarred

Bootknife-Jackson
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
1000 bucks aye?

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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sega8800
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
it has crapple in it. no thanks. #startrek
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Elizabeth Weinbloom
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
Wait, I don't understand. What does it do? Is it a motion simulator? #startrek
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Dunny0
11/03/09

@Elizabeth Weinbloom: I'm not seeing any hydraulics, so my guess is that it's essentially a supped up video game.

Makes me wish the STE would hurry up and re-open. I need my shuttlecraft fix, damn it! #startrek
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Malthian
11/03/09

@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
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Dunny0 promoted this comment Malthian was starred Malthian was unstarred

Dunny0
11/03/09

@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
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Donathius
11/03/09

@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
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Donathius was starred Donathius was unstarred

ghostbusterbob001
11/03/09

@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.)
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Kaila Hale-Stern approved this comment ghostbusterbob001 was starred

Zidel333
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
Here's a link of the Space Education Center that is selling it. [www.spacecamputah.org]

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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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Edited by Zidel333 at 11/03/09 7:34 AM Zidel333 was starred Zidel333 was unstarred

Joshua
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
Wow. This was a major labor of love by somebody back in the late 90s. But still — first gen iMacs? I might have to pass. #startrek
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Joshua was starred Joshua was unstarred

ManchuCandidate
11/03/09

In reply to You Can Have Your Very Own Starfleet Shuttle Simulator
This shuttle would end up to be the wrong answer to the question "What kind of car do you drive?"

Other than at a SF convention.
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Edited by ManchuCandidate at 11/03/09 6:27 AM ManchuCandidate was starred ManchuCandidate was unstarred

Communist Pope
11/03/09

@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
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losersandwich
11/03/09

@ManchuCandidate: nice one
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment losersandwich was starred losersandwich was unstarred

Andrew Dickerson
11/03/09

@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
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Communist Pope promoted this comment Andrew Dickerson was starred Andrew Dickerson was unstarred

Donathius
11/03/09

@Andrew Dickerson: I used to work there running this very simulator. I didn't get any action until several years after I quit.

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
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SJ_Edwards promoted this comment Donathius was starred Donathius was unstarred

NerD: Blattella
09/24/09

In reply to Bender Makes His Mark on Barcelona
Barcelona's graffiti is amazing artwork. I remember taking several photos of it in the busines district the last time I was there.
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Edited by NerD: Blattella at 09/24/09 1:32 PM NerD: Blattella was starred NerD: Blattella was unstarred

Ultimate Cowboy
09/24/09

In reply to Bender Makes His Mark on Barcelona
You could probably do an entire post just about sci-fi graff.
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Elizabeth Weinbloom promoted this comment Ultimate Cowboy was starred Ultimate Cowboy was unstarred

heatstroke
09/24/09

@Ultimate Cowboy: triviagasm list on top 15 best science-fiction street art....GO!
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Elizabeth Weinbloom promoted this comment heatstroke was starred heatstroke was unstarred

Elizabeth Weinbloom
09/24/09

@heatstroke: I spotted this one in Granada. I'm all for the Trekkie graffiti, but really, Search for Spock?
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Elizabeth Weinbloom
09/24/09

@Elizabeth Weinbloom: Oh fine, it got cut off. It says STAR TREK III.
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Sam
09/24/09

In reply to Bender Makes His Mark on Barcelona
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"
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CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) promoted this comment Sam was starred Sam was unstarred

CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard)
09/24/09

@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!!
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ManchuCandidate
09/24/09

In reply to Bender Makes His Mark on Barcelona
Or is it Bender's illegitimate child when he mated with a cylon?
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