American Dynasty

The Telos Discovery Space Center is part of Telos U in Vineyard, Utah.  TDSC was started by Dr. Ryan Anderson. As a teenager, Dr. Anderson volunteered with me in the original Starship Voyager in the 1990's.  That's where he caught the "Space Center" bug. He grew up, went on to university, graduated with his doctorate degree and has several letters behind his name, some of which I've no clue what they mean but I'm absolutely impressed.   Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., LMFT, MedFT Co-founder, Telos U Executive Director, Telos Discovery Space Center. Advisor, Dimension X Ryan has been a good friend to the Space EdVenturing community by supporting our work at The Space Place and working with James Porter on Dimension X - a new system of ship controls to take us into the 23rd century. I asked Ryan to write a Troubadour post updating us on the innovative work he and his staff are doing on the Starship Hyperion at Telos.   The Hyperion, Telos Discovery Space Cent...

Space EdVenturer are always on the hunt for gadgets and props to outfit our simulators.  Recently I found a few cool pieces on Amazon that caught attention.  While made for other purposes, these gadgets will make cool additions to the Starship Voyager at The Space Place. The Wall of Light This beauty jumped right off the page and into my Amazon cart. I call it the Wall of Light.  This small gadget is blindingly bright and comes with a phone app that allows for a gazillion different colors and patters.  I'm thinking of lighting up an entire gym with alien landing party colors, or perhaps a semi darkened hallway.    The Medical Scanner After looking at this product, how could you go back to just using the Star Trek tricorder? Think of the endless possibilities this prop could be used for.   Improving our starship simulators so our students and patrons have a more realistic experience is what we do. And that is just what I found Bracken Funk, The Spa...

James Porter and Dad Perry in the Crow's Nest      For me, Saturday mornings start at Renaissance Academy's The Space Place for the 8:30 A.M. Coding Club.  Afterwords it's off to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove where I'm working hard to fill Tabitha Rick's shoes as the Center's new Outreach Coordinator.  Tabitha was so good at her job that the learning curve I'm facing seems, at times, overwhelming.  Thankfully Tabitha is always one phone call away and ready to help.  Occasionally her husband Matt will answer the phone as the Space Center's Help Line located in New Delhi, India (he has a convincing accent).       I had an 11:00 A.M. meeting with James Porter, the Center's director, to discuss a few upcoming department items. Afterwards, James invited me into the planetarium to watch a demo of the Space Center's upcoming laser show.  I finished the call with Tabitha, entered the planetarium, and found James ...

            I have nothing but praise to bestow on InfiniD Learning today.  In fact, this post will be a written testament to the genius of Skyler Carr, Casey Voeks, and everyone involved in the imagineering of their missions.  The reason for my praise is something that happened last Friday.  Let me tell an abbreviated version of the story.       Due to an error on my part, I left two of our Young Astronaut squadrons short their third mission / class rotation.  I occasionally make scheduling mistakes when mapping out dates and times to get all our 23 Young Astronaut and Voyager Club squadrons fitted out with their 8 meetings for the school year.  And because of one of those errors, I needed to have one team do a flight session and another team do a class session on the same day.  That's a no-no, due to the fact that I can't be in two different places at the same time. My solution was something we'd neve...