Christa McAuliffe Space Center

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Logo used for the Christa McAuliffe Space Center Spacecenterlogo.png
Logo used for the Christa McAuliffe Space Center

The Christa McAuliffe Space Center (known as the McAuliffe Space Center or CMSC), in Pleasant Grove, Utah, teaches school children about space and is visited by students from around the world. [1] It has a number of space flight simulators.

Contents

The center, named for educator Christa McAuliffe, who was killed in the Challenger disaster, was started in 1990 by Victor Williamson, [2] an educator at Central Elementary School. [3] It is a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) building added onto Central Elementary. [4] It aims to teach astronomy and social studies through the use of simulators; the first, Voyager, proved itself popular, and a new planetarium built in 2020. As the years passed, the demand for flights expanded and new ships were commissioned.

In October 2012, the space center was temporarily closed at Central Elementary [5] [6] but re-opened, following several district-mandated upgrades, closures, and maintenance procedures, in the spring of 2013. [7] The original simulators, along with the school that housed them, was demolished on May 5, 2020, to make way for a new space center built behind the original property. [8] The new space center included the second largest planetarium in the state of Utah, which started running shows in November 2020. In 2018, the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center (as it was then called) removed the word "Education" from its name and also updated its logo to a new stylized version of the original.[ citation needed ]

Simulators

The simulators employed by the center have included the following (in order of original construction):

Some simulators have their own plaque. The plaque displays the ship's names and other things about that specific simulator.

Most missions contain aspects of the Star Trek universe. However, the center has many original species and groups that help separate it. These include groups such as the Lisko Authority, Nox'Hun Imperium, Peylin, and Merchant's Guild.

The center and its founder were honored in a ceremony in its 15th year by many individuals, including Gary Herbert, the Lieutenant Governor of Utah. At that time, with its five spaceship simulators, it was educating 16,000 students a year. [10]

Teaching method

The space center uses its simulators in order to create interactive stories, usually applicable to historical events, in which the students are involved. Since November 2020, they also use the planetarium that was built during their 2020 rebuild.

Students also learn and apply different aspects of astronomy and science in missions. They get the chance to learn about black holes, nebulae, asteroids, planets, planetary systems, moons, and a variety of other phenomena. [11]

Students who attended the space center 15 years ago are now pursuing fields in science, technology, space exploration, programming, and electrical engineering. [12] Students at the local Brigham Young University have the opportunity to develop consoles and equipment for the space center; gadgets such as Tricorders, touch panel equipment, fiber optics systems, ships, and digital/analog control interfaces all help to give a more realistic effect to the experience.

The center's staff hopes that its visitors are tomorrow's scientists. [13] [14] [15]

Simulator technology

The space center employs technologies and equipment to achieve its simulations. In each ship, there is a powerful sound system (including a powerful bass response to simulate the feeling of the reactor core) hooked up to an industry standard mixing board which combines input from a combination of sound sources heard through the main speakers, such as, sound effects, music, microphones, and voice distorter.

The video system is just as complex. In the past, missions had a story DVD with clips compiled for scenes in a story and other visual effects. These video sources were all controlled by a video switcher so that it appears to be a seamless video. Now, the space center uses a software called "Thorium" to manage mission visuals. The space center also makes its own tactical screens. Tactical screens are in essence complex power points that can be networked to display real time information about the ship. This information may include information about things related to the current story such as ship systems while others may be maps or other mission information. Various programs have been used to create these screens, including HyperCard, Runtime Revolution, and Thorium.

Each simulator is also equipped with a lighting system allowing several different colored lights to be displayed. For instance, red during alerts and blue during normal alert levels. Each set of lights is attached to a dimmer in the control room allowing the lights to manually fluctuate in different events during a mission, such as a torpedo impact or power failure.

In order to ensure that visitors are safe, a network of cameras is also installed at key points on the set to monitor their positions. Each simulator has part of the bridge and connected areas of the set monitored at all times.

The most complex part of each simulator is the computer systems. Each ship has several computers installed. The smallest set, the Galileo, has five, while the largest set, the Magellan, has 13. Each one of these computers (excluding sound effect computers and tactical [main viewer] computers) is connected to a network allowing communication between computers. In this way, the programs on each of the computers are also able to communicate with each other, allowing the control room to monitor the simulation and for computers on the bridge to update each other with information sent from the control room. The programming on each of the computers used to be programmed in HyperCard, which was in use on the USS Voyager until the simulator was decommissioned. Later however, the space center switched to Revolution by Runtime Revolution. The next generation of programs at the space center were programmed in Cocoa, Apple Inc's own programming language for their Macintosh computer platform. [16] Since 2018, the space center has used the Thorium open-source starship simulator platform, developed by a former volunteer.

Private donations paid for the simulators, while the school district pays the salary of the center's director. 181 volunteers and part-timers help to operate the simulators. [17]

Staff

The space center's only full-time employee is the director. Flight directors, set directors, and supervisors are part-time employees.

Stageworks

Stageworks is the content creation group of the space center. This is where the space center's mission visuals and props are created. Volunteers and staff who are proficient in the creative fields are able to be selected to create different aspects. These aspects could be created by the use of Blender, Affinity, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and other programs.

Programs and camps

The space center offers a variety of programs that provide varying mission lengths and experiences. Continuing the educational aim of the space center, there are field-trip programs for school classes that provide education about science, space, and teamwork/leadership. These programs also offer educational experience missions on the simulators. For the general public, there are also private missions and summer camps. Private missions are available to be reserved in 2 lengths: 2.5-hour and 5-hour missions. [18] These time blocks include time for briefing and training in preparation for an actual mission on the simulator. The space center also used to have overnight camps starting on Friday nights and ending on the following Saturday mornings: all missions were "paused" for the night, campers slept at the space center overnight, and then missions were resumed in the morning. These missions however, are no longer available. They also had Super Saturday camps that provided the same missions as overnight camps but occurred during the day on Saturdays. The Leadership Camp is made for an older audience of ages 15–17. It differs from the other summer camps in that the whole camp is a campaign and every mission is part of a bigger picture. A Leadership Camp may not be flown every summer due to the amount of planning that goes into it, since it runs through multiple days. Summer camps usually happen in one day with a variety of activities from missions to classroom activities and planetarium shows. [19]

Oven Ghost

At the space center, there are multiple rumors about a "ghost" that have floated around the years. In the old building, when unexplained problems arose, staff would pray to "The Victor, the Lorraine, and the Magellan Ghost". [ citation needed ]

When the new space center was under construction, an oven was found around 20 feet under the playground. Once the new space center opened, hauntings would occasionally occur, where lights would flicker or doors suddenly closed. These happenings were attributed to the "Oven Ghost". [ citation needed ]

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References

  1. "Christa McAuliffe Space Center - About". Archived from the original on 2010-02-12. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  2. Press, Lehi Free (2018-03-22). "Space Education Center creates memorable learning experiences". Lehi Free Press. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
  3. Milken Family Foundation. "Milken Educator Awards. 1998 Award Winner, Victor Williamson" . Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  4. "The Christa McAuliffe Center". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  5. "The Troubadour: The School District has issued the Following News Release". 24 October 2012.
  6. Williamson, Victor (2012-10-24). "The Troubadour: The School District has issued the Following News Release". The Troubadour. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  7. "The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center Reopens for Private Missions". 4 May 2013. Retrieved 2014-10-23.
  8. Williamson, Victor (2020-05-05). "The Voyager Sails into the Twilight. Celebrate the Passing of a Friend". the Troubadour. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  9. Williamson, Victor (2018-10-07). "The Troubadour: Farpoint Becomes Renaissance Space Academy. Supernova is a Hit With an Internationally Known VIP at Telos. The Voyager's Serious Upgrades. Veteran Flight Directors Have a Home. A Space Center in England?! From the Archives: Josh Enters the MTC. Lorraine Houston's Car Vandalized. Theater Imaginarium". The Troubadour. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  10. Jeremy Twitchell (2006-07-11). "Space center is shining star. Popular program at school in Pl. Grove marks its 15th year". DeseretNews.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
  11. "Volunteers for Space". Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  12. "American Fork 'Super Teens' get national plaudits". Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  13. Evans, Natalie (10 July 2006). "Utah County children get space experience". heraldextra.com. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  14. "Rocky Mountain fifth-graders blast off for annual space trip" . Retrieved 2007-05-03.[ permanent dead link ]
  15. "School kids navigate through space" . Retrieved 2005-07-25.[ permanent dead link ]
  16. "Apple Developer Connection - Cocoa". Apple Developer Connection. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  17. Sharon Haddock (2005-05-12). "Phoenix shuttlecraft ready to take flight". Deseret News. Retrieved 2007-03-23.
  18. "Private Missions". Archived from the original on 2010-02-06. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  19. "Camps". Archived from the original on 2010-02-12. Retrieved 2010-01-29.

40°21′54″N111°44′03″W / 40.3651°N 111.7343°W / 40.3651; -111.7343