Saturday, August 16, 2008

Lost in Space






Photos 1 and 2: Space scenario at Spaceport Bravo, January, 2007
Photo 3: Chey's Communication Satellite
Photos 4 and 5: Recreation at Whimsy Kaboom Space

Written 14 August, 2008

Lost in Space

A long while ago, back when we were newlynotweds, Sweetie and I visited Spaceport Alpha. It’s a wonderful place, and I highly recommend it.

Some several hundred meters above Alpha (or maybe Bravo) there was a giant black sphere. It was featureless outside, but inside was a star field, a giant earth and moon, and a spacecraft that gave every appearance of being in earth orbit.

It was spectacular—but it doesn’t seem to be around any longer.

Since it’s no longer around, I decided to recreate it. I hung a 100-meter sphere in the sky 300 meters above Whimsy Kaboom (Sweetie talked me into replacing it with a 150-meter sphere; it’s humongous!), put a rotating field of stars on its inner surface, and stuck up a 20-meter Earth and 10-meter moon. And then I built a spacecraft—my first, not counting Sputnik-1. And presto! We were in space!

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