The International Spaceflight Museum

By Bisyl Shuftan

 In Spaceport Alpha is one of the better-known science-themed places in Second Life: the International Spaceflight Museum. According to the notecard provided, the place was founded sometime in late 2005 and has been ad Spaceport Alpha since "early 2006," with the Spaceport Bravo sim added in 2007. Kat Lemieux is the co-founder and chairman of the group that maintains the location.

Near the entrance are a number of flags, Each is from a nation that launched something into space. The music stream has a number of space-related songs, such as "The Eagle has landed."

The Spaceflight Museum is full of rockets. But not far from the entrance, there are two you can take up: a Gemini rocket and a Space Shuttle.

Gemini is the smaller of the two, and can seat up to two people.

Just click, select "board," and type "+blastoff."

And it's a rocket ride into space!

It isn't long before the sky goes black and you seeing stars. Your destination, the space station. But there's another way to get there.

 You can board the Shuttle Atlantis for a ride to the Space Station as well.

And we have liftoff!

The Shuttle docks directly with the Space Station.

 But you can also board the Shuttle, undock, and return to the surface.

 But reentry can be a little hot. Good thing the shuttle is covered with heat-insulating tiles.

And the Shuttle comes in for a landing, though far away from where you boarded it.

There is a ride back to the launch site.

And you can resume your looking around from where you were.

The Spaceflight Museum is best known for it's ring of rockets.

The V-2 rocket was technically the first rocket to make it into space in 1944. When the Americans used it as a "bumper" or first stage of a combination with their WAC, the US finally got into space as well.

The Soviet space program achieved a number of firsts with it's rockets. Their R-7 Semyorka was the one that got Sputnik, the first satellite into space, in 1957. The Vostok-K would launch Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, in 1961.

China got a later start in it's space program than the US and Soviets/Russians. But their rockets have been getting bigger and better, as well as their goals.

There are others, such as SpaceX and India.

In the middle of the circle of rockets is the theater area, which is often used for live events. When the shuttle was flying, people would gather here for launches and landings.

Underneath the ring are a number of exhibits such as the Apollo Moon lander, Mars landers, and more.

Spaceport Bravo has fewer exhibits than Spaceport Alpha. But some are bigger.

 The Vehicle Assembly Building in the Kennedy Space Center is one of the largest buildings in the world. It takes a building like that to make a rocket like the Saturn V used in the Apollo launches.

There isn't much about the Saturn V that isn't small. From the launch tower ...

To the mobile launcher platform, this thing is simply massive.

Nearby, the capsule that held the three astronauts on Apollo launches.

Spaceport Bravo has one of the two gift shops.

There are globes of the Sun, the Moon, and each of the planets except Uranus, due to it's weird axis of rotation.

As we mentioned earlier, way above the ground and accessible by rocket (and teleporter) is the space station.

But there's more up there to see.

You can also see exhibits of the various planets, such as Saturn and it's massive rings.

 Uranus never seems to get much respect due to the juvenile jokes about it's name, but it's unique due to it's extreme axial tilt that places it sideways.

When the Spaceflight Museum was first built, Pluto was considered the ninth planet. But when Eris, a Kepler Belt object far beyond it's orbit, was discovered to be slightly larger, astronomers decided there had to be a change. So Pluto ended up being "demoted" to the newly created status of dwarf planet, which includes Ceres which had once been considered the largest asteroid.

The Mars exhibits included a look on the surface.

South of Spaceport Alpha is Explorer Island. It is not part of the Spaceflight Museum, but is it's own science education area. It has a number of exhibits. But this is for another story.

On a final note, the Spaceflight Museum is supported by donations, "operated by a US 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit charity, incorporated in Texas as ISMuseum." Besides buying things at the gift shops, you can also donate to help keep it afloat.

After all these years, the place continues to educate, and fascinate, and used as an example to newcomers as what great places are in Second Life.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/48/78/24

Bixyl Shuftan

NOAA Island - Virtual Weather

I first reported on NOAA Island in March 2008 for Second Life Newspaper, set up by the The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the government agency in charge of research of the oceans and weather. The Meteroa sim, about a year old at the time, was interesting then, and three years later still has much to offer those wanting to know a little more about meteorology and oceanography.

To get there, just type "Meteora" on your map and teleport over. The sim will automatically place you in the entry point. Just north of the entrance is the Real-Time Weather map. A map of the United States (save Alaska and Hawaii) shows the temperature and cloud cover & rain over the country. The map is not static, but updated as conditions change about every eight minutes, the data recieved by NOAA.

South of the Weather Map is Science on a Sphere, which contains a hologrpahic display sphere viewed from inside. To the east is the Tsunami simulator. Activating it, a siren goes off, and under the surface the ocean floor shakes. This is followed by the water drawing away from the beach, then a massive wave crashing down and wrecking the nearby buildings. This is probably one of the more entertaining places on the island, and I've seen at least one youtube poking fun at it.

To the south is the Sea Life area, where one can take a sub to observe plant and animal life, a hydrothermic vent, and a cave. To see inside the cave though, you need to either exit the sub or pan around in. The southwest corner of the island has the glacier simulator. Activating it, the hillside (and anyone standing on it) get encased in ice, and the water level nearby drops.

The northwest part of the map has the Hurricane Plane Ride and the Weather Balloons. By grabbing a balloon, or getting on the Orion hurricane hunter plane and taking off, one can fly up to see the hurricane high up in the air near the island (or you could just fly up their on your own).

Both the submarine and hurricane plane can be quirky. The first time I used the plane, somehow it got it’s tail caught in the hangar and would not move further. When I tried it more recently, it took off normally, then in mid-flight near the hurricane, it vanished, leaving yours truly to free-fall into the water below. The sub was stuck in the docks when I got there, so couldn’t use those either.

What has changed since March 2008 is the sim now has some neighbors. North of Weather Island, one can take a look at an Alaskan port and go on a virtual crab fishing trip. To the west is Okeanos, or NOAA Second Island. There, one can go on a survey vessel, clean on oil spill, study algae blooms, and look at coral. There was also an archeology dig. Curiously, there were some purple "streamers" nearby, but I didn't find out what they were for. South of Okeanos is the Second Earth sim, which offers a gigantic globe.

To the east of Meteora is Energy Island, which had what looked like a supercollider wraped around the place. Strangely, the Island was blocked from entry. There was, however, a smaller floating island overhead with a few exhibits. Why the main island would be blocked to most if the purpose of the place is education is unclear (though probably one can work in a joke about government agencies).

Despite those small flaws, the NOAA region can only be considered first class, even after a few years. It is a must-see for any Second Life resident even remotely interested in science.

To get there, head to Meteora (176, 160, 27). You can also find it in the Destination Guide.

Bixyl Shuftan

Mars Institute Island and the SEEDS Project

Mars Institute Island is a work in progress, just like the real-life Mars exploration project. The Second Life site is located at Mars Institute (127, 128, 27). It’s a good place to visit if you are in the mood to see a serious rendition of exploration of the Red Planet. Modular buildings are being constructed for study, lectures, work, and living. The Spartan buildings, with their tinted violet windows and airlock doors, have a genuine feel to them. A clear glass building is an auditorium. The barren, rocky terrain looks authentic, too.

According to its notecard, the Mars Institute was created to establish an independent nonprofit organization whose purpose is to advance the scientific study and exploration of Mars. They emphasize high quality, peer-reviewed research and share their knowledge and experiences of Mars exploration with students and the general public worldwide. The RL Mars Institute is found on the web at http://www.marsinstitute.info/ .

The Second Life site is owned by Kenji Aero, and many of the structures have been developed by Selenus Bracken. According to his profile, Selenus is a RL British scientist who is living in Canada. The real-life Mars Institute has been incorporated as a non-profit corporation in both the U.S. and Canada. It was founded by many scientists, including Marc Boucher, Charles Cockell, Pascal Lee, Stephen Braham and others.

This site has great potential, especially since NASA is planning to launch an exploration of Mars later this year. The RL landing on Mars is expected in August, 2012. A six-wheeled rover, Curiosity, will be used to explore and gather rocks. One can easily imagine a SL version of Curiosity.

The site next to the Mars Institute is the SEEDS Project, located at The SEEDS project, EDAKent (79, 216, 24). This site continues the space exploration theme, but its emphasis is on sustainable communities in space. The site has crops, a fish farm, duckweed and algae ponds, and a floating greenhouse.

Through the use of notecards and other devises, the site asks important questions about how people will be able to live and thrive in remote space stations. It raises social and psychological issues, as well as similarities and differences between space colonies and small communes.

Together, the Mars Institute and the SEEDS Project offer Second Life residents an informative and interesting way to learn about space exploration.

Space Destiny Island Sim Closing Down March 1

Checking out Daniel Voyager’s Blog, I read about a science sim that I hadn’t heard from in a while: Space Destiny Island. One of the “Sci-Lands” sims, it is a great sim with places that both inform and entertain. Unfortunately, it is about to vanish from Second Life.

Porting in at the LM given for Space Destiny (85, 94, 24), a short distance to the south is the Liyana Hall, which offers a sign and notecard explaining about the sim, and has a small picture gallery with a few exhibits. Also hear the entrance is a display explaining about the Sci-Lands in general, along with flags of the countries of people whom sent donations to help pay for the sim. Down a trail to the west is the Solar Hazard Research Center, which explains sun-related dangers such as solar flares. Over looking it on a hill is a planetarium.


Going east of the entry point across a bridge, one will find Sustainable Communities, which explains a little about how certain skills familiar to 19th century pioneers and the Amish will prove useful again to planetary colonists, notably the need to be self-reliant with just the resources at hand. The Midrivers Project Space Center discussed health and well-being in space, mentioning of the “vibrating dumbbell” on TV commercials, saying its origins were in the space program. It also mentioned Tuna Oddfellow’s Odd Ball, saying the psychological effects the show has on some people could prove useful for researchers looking for drug-free ways to relive stress and homesickness on astronauts. North of that on the coast were displays of aquaculture (farming in the ocean), and “Sea-steading” - structures for living and research built over the ocean like oil rigs.

The northeast part of the sim is Skylon, it’s huge rocket plane visible on the map. Here one will find exhibits on aircraft and ariel science, as well as a flying carpet to take you around. Down the east coast are exhibits on space stations and rockets. In the southeast corner of the sim is the Study Centre for Food Production in Controlled Environments. There, one will find exhibits on agriculture in space, notably a centrifugal force chamber to simulate gravity in a space station (plants don’t get dizzy). There was also a link to a Youtube of the University of Arizona’s CEAC Lunar Greenhouse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Dbh0nvh-4).

Just down a path west from the Food Production Center is a recreational area with lounge chairs and dance floor. Looking around, I found a notecard with a LM to a Trek roleplay area over the sim (157, 207, 2048). Going there, I found a Trek space station: Outpost 17. Looking around, I found a dispenser that could manufacture phasers, datapads, and Starfleet uniforms: gold, blue, and of course red. While there, I ran into two members of the RP, Flea Habilis and Yoiko Hax. “We've about two days left,” Yoiko explained, “Still not sure exactly what's gonna happen to our station here. ... At least everything's backed up. Even a lower prim version -just- in case. ... I feel worse for everyone on ground level. As many times as Space Destiny seemed to change direction, they all preserved.” Their RP was also known as Space Station Hideki.

Exactly why the sim is closing was not explained, though they did say everything was being set up on Opensim, with people invited to contact Silviana Jenvieve (Dr. Jenny Oliver in RL). So those able to go to Opensim will still be able to see it. For those who can’t, Monday February 28 is the last chance to see this educational sim.

Once again, the entrance is at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Space%20Destiny/85/94/24

Source: Daniel Voyager's Blog

Bixyl Shuftan