Think Disneyland’s “Star Tours” meets Provo’s Get Out Games.
Just ten miles away from BYU campus, an outer space adventure awaits. The Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove, UT offers an immersive Star Trek simulation where students and Trekkies alike can experience their own space mission with a crew of six to fifteen friends, all on the set of a futuristic spaceship. In the CMSC, participants are more than just passengers. They have two to five hours to overcome a series of intergalactic obstacles using scientific, mathematical, and teamwork skills in order to complete their mission.
“One group of kids may do something…in a very unique way, and then another group of kids may think of another solution to solve the problem in that way,” explains Matt Ricks, an ECE student who has spent years volunteering with the center.
The Space Center fleet has been hosting missions for nearly thirty years. Alpine School District teacher Victor Williamson brought it to life in 1990, and ever since, directors, students, and actors have continued to bring outer space to the Wasatch Front. This is where Matt comes in.
“When I first started at the Space Center, I was a volunteer – a lot of acting, participation in the simulation,” Matt told the department. But it wasn’t long before he moved on to the technical side of things.
“For the whole simulation you have RGB lighting that needs to take place, and sound effects. For audio design, there’s visual as well as the TV and video system with all the different inputs that need to go into it. There’s the actual computer programs where you look like you’re operating the controls of the simulator and the spaceship, voice changing modulation, everything. So there’s a lot that goes into it.”
During his years at the space center, Matt learned how to design, build, and program space simulations. After a two-year mission of a different variety in Mexico, Matt returned to the space center and jumped right back in, helping to build and maintain systems as a volunteer. A tutor at the center taught him how to program, and Matt enhanced his knowledge by taking classes at BYU. The logic and computer skills he learned on campus enriched the space center in turn, as Matt has been able to provide a new wealth of knowledge of logic, electronic circuits, and programming microcontrollers.
Recently, director James Porter asked Matt if he could share his knowledge, and Matt began teaching others how to do the simulations.
It won’t be long before the Star Trek simulations begin a new season, if you will. The CMSC is preparing to build a new center, and this one will be even better. “Right now, there is a little bit of architecture that they’ll be learning—good placement and how to view a 3D world in a 2D space. We’ve also experimented a little bit with VR, so we actually put the models of the ships into a headset so we can look around and gauge the field that way. Primarily, it’s building props, maintaining switch panels, as well as programming.”
Matt’s future is looking bright as well. He wants to continue to add to the scientific world, and after graduation, he plans to work with integrated systems – this time, to improve cars.
One thing is for certain: for Matt or the Christa McAuliffe Space Center, the sky will never be the limit.