Got my fingers crossed for a successful Orbiter demonstration...

[jimblah]

I've been looking at the simpit forum ever since I discovered Orbiter ~90 days ago. I demonstrated Orbiter 2010 by Dr. Martin Schweiger for four faculty members here at Sacramento City College (one of four junior colleges in the Los Rios Community College District). I spoke with one in Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Computer Science. We have transfer agreements with major universities everywhere including UC Davis and UC Berkeley.

We currently have the Lusk Aeronautical building here at City College where students work with nearby Executive Airport overhauling aircraft engines, etc. By speaking with other faculty members I've learned that Lusk is slated to be remodeled into something else and the Aero division is being relocated to a hangar at McClellan Air Force Base. They already have a "simpit" with no motion simulation. I've heard it's running "older" flight sim software on a Mac. A friend of mine who use to be a student here now works for the district as an electronic service technician. I'm riding out to McClellan with him to meet with the Director of the Aero Division after Spring Break to give him my "Orbiter Presentation." I can do it on this crappy laptop if they don't have a pc to demo with my flash drive. I'm taking both just in case. The flash drive install has richer textures for higher end hardware.

I've been to our electronics department here at City College. We have more than enough resources to fabricate everything in house except for a 6 dof motion simulation platform. I've priced several on the web ranging between $20,000 and $30,000 US.

The Aero Division has a budget. Any shortfalls could be made up through fundraising. I have fundraising experience with police and fire benefits. When I worked for Bank of America I collected over $2,000,000 in one year on charged off visa and mastercards using two computer workstations and two phones averaging 200 calls a day. Large sums of money are just pixels on a monitor to me.

This is a worthy cause. I know there's no guarantee of success, but I have to try. Anyone reading this with prior experience in this type of experience is encouraged to provide me with feedback that will help facilitate this noble "Endeavor."

 

[Donamy]

I have no prior experience on this , but I am in the process of constructing a mock-up space station module, that will be brought to elementary and middle schools, to teach the children about space. But, what I really need is some ideas on how to raise funds to get computers and LCD screens for it. (Yes it will use Orbiter).

 

[jimblah]

I have no prior experience on this , but I am in the process of constructing a mock-up space station module, that will be brought to elementary and middle schools, to teach the children about space. But, what I really need is some ideas on how to raise funds to get computers and LCD screens for it. (Yes it will use Orbiter).

First address the demographic environment you're in. Are you in a large city with industry? Are there aerospace contractors nearby, tech manufacturers? You need to identify what sectors of the community your project can appeal to during a fundraising effort. Than you have to determine the most cost effective way to reach them while maximizing dollars raised. You could get a group of kids together and have a car wash every saturday for the duration of the summer and raise ~$2500, or you give me a phone with the right information and I could raise $10,000 by noon. Raising money for education is much easier than debt collections. You won't be getting rejected if someone doesn't donate, they most likely will simply not be in a position to. Large numbers of small donations add up, and fewer donations in large amounts are more efficient.

I recently helped a high school student government vice president raise funds for school projects. We sent out 1000 mailers and followed it up with a student body telethon and generated $10,000 in 30 days.

If I needed hardware, before I decided to raise a dime I'd contact local businesses in the community (Especially large corporations) and ask to speak to someone at the corporate office about the possibility of supporting the local community with badly needed educational materials that can't be met under current budget circumstances. Wait till your speaking to the right person before you fully disclose everything about your fund raising effort. He or she will be the one qualified to make a decision on behalf of their company, not people lower down the ladder. Offer to place the company's logo somewhere. Try to get the PTA involved. Not only do they have a lot of experience raising funds in your community, but being identified with them will lend credibility to your effort.

If you can give me some more specifics, I might be able to think of something not listed here.
:thumbup:

 

[jimblah]

Update

Before I drive out to McLellan AFB, I'm pricing 6 dof motion platforms. I've posted questions to the OMP support forum. Up to 100 students can spectate from anywhere in the state. Some significant progress seems to have been made running Orbiter via wine. In time some of those students spectating could be running Linux or Mac OSX. I've also been approached by one faculty member who wants to help me apply for a "mini-grant" to cover the cost of the motion platform.

 

[Donamy]

Thanks for the reply, unfortunatly your post slipped passed me. I have a friend who has been doing rocket camps, talks on space and I even constructed a very modest shuttle cockpit mock-up. That he uses for school programs. This newer ISS module is made out of pvc tubing and makes it alot easier to transport. The main module is just about complete, but it needs computers and monitors to make it really wow, by using Orbiter as the Earth views and ISS views. I just don't have the funds or support from my spouse to tackle that end of it. Time is also a problem, since I have a real full-time job to pay the bills.

 

[jimblah]

The mini-grant thing...

Thanks for the reply, unfortunatly your post slipped passed me. I have a friend who has been doing rocket camps, talks on space and I even constructed a very modest shuttle cockpit mock-up. That he uses for school programs. This newer ISS module is made out of pvc tubing and makes it alot easier to transport. The main module is just about complete, but it needs computers and monitors to make it really wow, by using Orbiter as the Earth views and ISS views. I just don't have the funds or support from my spouse to tackle that end of it. Time is also a problem, since I have a real full-time job to pay the bills.

I've never applied for an educational grant of this nature before. I've successfully applied for financial aid in the past and received grants but that was to further my own education. According to the faculty member I'm working with these 'mini-grants' can total 10-20k. As a student applying for the grant, she will also sign the application to verify that the funds will be earmarked for the school district and designated for this project. They must have a mechanism to manage the funds after they are disbursed until we purchase the needed equipment. Then any budgetary shortfall can be raised through other means. This is an entirely new source for fundraising for me.

I intend to document the entire process here. I even intend on submitting any educational materials we produce such as documentation, scenarios, vessels, etc. to the forum to be used as examples or for download as the forum sees fit. This will also include any pertinent information regarding equipment or hardware suppliers we deal with, cost analysis, etc. Not as advertising, but knowledge that may prove useful to others pursuing a goal like this.

Once again, it will be entirely up to the forum how they manage this info.

Thank you for posting here. Feel free to PM me or send me an email if you like. Anyone willing to introduce children to the wonders of spaceflight deserves my appreciaition and respect.
:thumbup:

 

[Hielor]

Honestly, if you want to take on a project this complex, you'd be better off just running Orbiter natively in Windows rather than via Wine.

Sure, it's fun and educational for yourself to work on getting it running via Wine, but in this case your goal is to make a simpit, not run Orbiter on Linux. You'll save yourself a lot of time and trouble and end up with a higher-quality final product if you eliminate that extra variable and just run it directly on Windows.

 

[jimblah]

I agree with you

I value your judgement and experience a great deal Helior. You've corrected me in the past and offered your insights. Time and time again I've continued to pursue my own notions only to confirm your advice. I know I can count on you not to sugar coat but give me a direct answer. This is extremely valuable to me. Ultimately that kind of feedback can save me time, money, and headache.

Please see this thread:

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=21975&highlight=multithreading

The screenshot of the DG in flight is news to me,and proof as well that the playability of Orbiter on Wine can improve in leaps and bounds beyond even my hopes and expectations in just a month or two. I've been to Bugzilla since I read MeDiCS response, to try and and find some explanation. There are no recent bug report submissions, certainly not in the number I was anticipating, and not to the degree of quality I was gearing up to. I can't confirm these results myself. We don't run a native linux desktop any where on campus. We vm slackware, but that's a mootpoint. I'm taking drastic measures to put together a quality machine in the shortest amount of time. For starters my custom Jackson guitar is in the pawn shop.

This project with the college district is going to take time, a couple of years won't surprise me. I've already identified a District IT support employee that I've known for ten years and already supports equipment at the Aero Division for LRCCD at McClellan AFB who can fill my shoes in the event I get sucked out of an airlock. He's already run Orbiter on his own initiative and has questions! He should be joining the Forum some time next week.

I will be thrilled if the simpit 'only' runs windows. But I don't want to count out a wine-based alternative just yet. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

The wine-based alternative would only be for student spectators. If I'm willing to migrate back to Windows to run Orbiter and for Addon-Development for quality's sake, so should they if the alternative doesn't materialize.

---------- Post added 04-30-11 at 01:34 AM ---------- Previous post was 04-29-11 at 06:47 PM ----------

This is not intended as an advertisement, but rather an indication of Orbiter's range of applications. Orbiter easily scales from a portable 4GB flash drive all the way to a full blown museum exhibit. I'm also relieved to find a provider with Orbiter experience in this regard so quickly. For someone with limited Orbiter experience such as myself, working with faculty posessing less than two weeks exposure to Orbiter, this could be an invaluable source in making a final decision. In the event the Forum wishes to edit this post, I have already expressed my total submission to their wishes. I have copied this email in it's entirety.

From: Mark <[email protected]> Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 6:09 PM
To: james whittamore <[email protected]>
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Hi James,

This sounds like a very interesting project and I'm very family with Orbiter. For the past few years we have been working on a space exhibit for museums called the Gemini Project which would use Orbiter as the software. You can see our concept art here:

http://www.inmotionsimulation.com/gemini/

I also use to teach Aerospace in college back in the 90's so your project is a great fit for us. I also built the first full-scale Space Shuttle simulator when I was teaching college in Houston. I'm sure we can help you with the motion platform. Feel free to call me when you're ready to move forward and we can discuss the details and cost estimates.

Regards,
Mark Barry
928.759.0631 (office)
928.925.7152 (cell)

I'm doing my best to push start this project. In the event it starts to really take off, wouldn't it be awesome if a veteran like Tex could fly in and serve as a consultant? Especially if the District was willing to pick up the cost? I could easily argue that the outlay would be offset by increased efficiency during the planning and implimentation phases. Hmmm...

Just went through the link to the museum exhibit. This is no hustle. They claim to have worked with the 'developer' of Orbiter and link to the Orbiter Home page.

 

[jimblah]

Time to reevaluate

I took a two month sabbatical for personal reasons. A project of this magnitude in scope should take a year, maybe two. The last time I spoke to anyone at Los Rios Community College District, they were thinking about possibilities. I now have relevant hardware to demonstrate with. Next week I'll go back and determine if this idea still has any merit. Ultimately this is for the school district not me personally. If I discuss OMP I will sell it as Windows clients only. 100 machines anywhere in the state.

 

[RisingFury]

If I understand this correctly... 100 clients connected to OMP same server at once?

I'll end in disaster. It was tried with 128 clients on UT a few years back and it never go over 40. Sever couldn't handle it and crashed. UT's actually designed for multilayer, Orbiter isn't...

 

[jimblah]

100 clients

I'm sorry I wasn't more specific, clients as spectators only; according to face I think. Without a *nix client which I now believe to be too problematic to impliment at this time. I want to finish my little airstrip for my first addon in a timely manner.