Category: Away Missions

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Away Team Report: (2012.0519) Maker Faire Bay Area

There is no better place to study what Earth civilians are making and creating in the 21st century than at Maker Faire—a two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. Ensign MacKinnon and myself, Ensign Sloan, beamed down to the San Mateo Events center where the 15th Annual Maker Faire was behind held.

First duty was seeking out the Tesla stage for a demonstration by ArcAttack! of using Tesla Coils to create music. It was a symphonic orchestration using electricity, the likes of which we often see in our space exploration and I was pleased with the representations these civilians concocted. We recorded some of the music created in the demonstration to bring back to the ship and share with our fellow officers. Additionally the center that contained the Tesla Stage was very dark and contained many glowing things, so it appealed to our inner teenage selves.

As a cyberneticist I was quite fascinated by the robot area, which was very primitive compared to the androids and robots of our time, but very fun to interact with. Some of the models we encountered: R2-D2 and other Astromech droids, Wall-E, a Class M-3 Model B9 Robot, and a Dalek. The Dalek was quite terrifying as it notified us of its wish to EXTERMINATE us. We blinded it with our camera flash and made our exit before it could accomplish this task. As we continued our study of the faire, we encountered a native android performing a tribal dance to music, which Ensign MacKinnon joined in on.

There was also a section of the festival dedicated to Steampunk, which contained a lot of metal, steam, fire and quaint devices. There were many different models of computers, and many areas where faire goers could create their own crafts and devices. We sat down for a lecture given by Mike Estee on The Laws of Paper Robotics. Mike has been creating cardboard robots, and cardboard-copters in the past year and shared what he has learned, and encouraged others to partake in this cheaper way to create robots. In another area we happened upon magnificent models of ships created out of LEGO pieces, one of which was a formidable weapon that the Federation would never approve of, called “The Deathstar.”

We saw many inventions involving electricity and many inventions involving fire. All in all the festival was so packed with inventions, demonstrations, and amusement that it was impossible to see it all in one day. We reported back to the ship before the Faire closed that day, and will definitely be returning again next year.

-Ensign Amy Sloan
Cybernetics Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

(Above: Ensigns Jesse MacKinnon and Amy Sloan are ‘exterminated’ by a Dalek)

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Away Team Report: (2012.0223) Academy of Sciences – ‘Robots!’

Yep, we went again. At this rate, I’m starting to think that we should just re-name the USS Loma Prieta’s ship’s bar to “the Academy”. Our ‘bar’ would be like Ten Forward, the arboretum, AND the holodeck combined. Best ship’s lounge ever, amirite??

An away team lead by myself, Capt. Zach Perkins, and accompanied by LtCmdr. Tom Hesser, Lt. Samantha Dolgoff, En. Cindy Bee, and En. Kristin Koperski beamed down to the luxurious landing pads of the California Academy of Science to survey their impressive array of artificial lifeforms and various other automated works of art.

Lt. Dolgoff and I first rendezvoused with Admiral David Nottage of the USS Golden Gate, and together we attended an in-depth holographic simulation and briefing on NASA’s 21st century robotic missions to explore Sector 001. Afterwards, we re-grouped with the rest of the USS Loma Prieta crew for a bite to eat at the Academy’s mess hall. The crew proceeded to sample some fine Earth beverages until our servos were sufficiently ‘lubricated’ to proceed with our survey.

Our first discovery was a set of robots made out of household items, like kitchen dish brushes, which were thoroughly amusing. We again encountered the same pre-Borg spheres that we had discovered during our previous Academy away mission (this time they threatened us with an eerie electronic cry of “EXTERMINATE!!!”), as well as an R2-D2 style droid made out of a discarded Heineken mini-keg, and even a pair of small spider-like robots that seemed intent on trying to mate with our shoes.

Before the evening concluded, we learned that the Academy of Sciences would soon be hosting a Night Life celebration for Yuri’s Night, on April 12th, which is a global celebration Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. We immediately knew that this wouldn’t be the last time the Loma Prieta paid a visit to the Academy…

~Capt. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Away Team Report: (2011.1117) Academy of Sciences – ‘Into Space’

Chief Engineer’s Log: Having successfully traveled back into the early 21st century, we arrived at the California Academy of Sciences, and the crew of the USS Loma Prieta split into teams to examine various aspects of this historic building which. By the mid 22nd century, this bastion of scientific wonder was relocated to make way for the construction of Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy.

Leading the Engineering team, and accompanied by Ensign Cindy Bee, we proceeded to examine future engineering technology as it applied to space travel during the early 21st century.  Our attention was drawn to the NASA table containing the Kepler project. The Kepler project, or just “Kepler”, is NASA’s first attempt to find class M planets outside our own solar system.  At this point in Earth history, the only manned space exploration has been to the Earth’s moon.

Using a specially designed, very sensitive, wide-field telescope called a photometer, Kepler seeks to detect planets that can support life, by detecting light from nearby stars that is periodically blocked by orbiting planetoids.  Kepler was launched into orbit around the Earth’s sun (Sol) on March 6, 2009  and functions as a very precise light meter. Data from at least three transits of a planetoid must be collected in order to ensure that it is indeed a planet orbiting the given star. Transits occur when the orbit of a planet is along our line of sight to a star. These transits can last from a few hours to about half a day and happen once per orbit.

Once enough data has been collected, scientists can determine both the planet’s size and its orbit from the transits. The planet’s size determines if you could have a life-sustaining atmosphere. Knowing the orbit and type of a star, scientists can determine if the planet is in the “HZ” of that star. The HZ refers to the “habitable zone” and is the range of distance from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface.  With the current understanding of carbon-based life, water is required for the chance for life to develop on a planet outside our solar system, at least life similar to our own. Of course, finding such a planet does not guarantee that it will support life, but this is the first step that NASA has taken to determine this without resorting to further manned missions within the galaxy.

Kepler is pointed at a rich star field in the Cygnus and Lyra regions of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and continuously monitors more than 100,000 stars to look for planets.  In the early 21st century, the world was still using a system called the Internet to communicate and store information. By current Starfleet standards, the system was laughably inadequate. Using this medium, information regarding the project could be found at the internet address of http://kepler.nasa.gov. It is amusing to note that Starfleet crews have visited thousands of class M planets in its history, and one has to wonder if the Kepler project had detected any of those beforehand. Upon completing our research, myself and Ensign Cindy Bee concluded our reports and went in search of synth ale, however it hasn’t been invented yet so we had to drink a regional version of beer instead. I have to say, programmers for the replicators and manufacturers of synth ale should really come back in time and get some samples of beer so that they can more closely duplicate the flavors. If only the Academy had been dispensing whiskey, now that would’ve been a wonderful history lesson.

~Lt. Tom Hesser
Chief Engineer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Away Team Report: (2011.1113) Rendezvous at Comic Con Austin

The past few months on assignment in the Texas Nebula have been quiet and lonely. Much to my enjoyment, I was notified that the USS Navras and other Starfleet vessels of Region 3, would be rendezvousing in Austin for Wizard World Comic Con 2011!  I immediately grabbed my communicator and contacted Crewman Natalie Raff to ask her to join me for what was to be an interesting away mission.

Not having the foresight to don 21st century attire, we were immediately spotted before even entering the building and made to pose for pictures.  Upon entering we were amazed at the amount of people and creatures that had traveled from distant star systems to congregate at Wizard World (kind of a small world btw).  Apparently some had even traveled through time, as we were told by a pair of “Storm Troopers” that they had come from a distant galaxy long, long ago.  Their technology wasn’t quite as advanced though as they could only travel at “light speed” instead of warp.  There was even a fellow who claimed to be a god named Thor, but when faced with a phaser to his head he admitted to his mortality.  There must have been some major disturbances in our timeline because there was even a picture of a Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise set up at one of the booths.

We couldn’t allow ourselves to be distracted by any of this as our primary mission was to make contact with the USS Navras crew.  We searched high and low and were about to contact the Loma Prieta to report a failed mission, when I spotted Fleet Captain Reed Bates, the Region 3 Coordinator!  We were both very happy to run into each other in such a strange place. Fleet Captain Reed informed me that the Navras crew had ended their away mission early and headed back to Dallas for debriefing.  She also wanted me to let the Loma Prieta know that if they’re interested in conducting some war games that they would like to engage in a round of ARTEMIS!

Having verified the whereabouts of the USS Navras we decided to explore the other cultural aspects of Austin.  We found ourselves wandering the streets of the East Austin Studio Tour where artists, painters, sculptors, and other craftsmen were showcasing their work.  We even ran into a gentleman with the same last name as me who had a painting that looked strangely similard We discovered a most interesting piece that displayed a cutaway of an internal combustion engine with moving piston and rockers. Such a quaint mode of vintage transportation.

After the art tour we were asked by some of the locals to join them at their favorite watering hole.  The bartenders welcomed us with open arms and even invited me behind the bar to act as guest bartender!  We ran into a couple of young ladies who apparently had been in contact with the Vulcans as they greeted us with the Vulcan sign for prosperity. After a night of heavy celebration it was time to call the mission a success and end the night with something called an “Irish Car Bomb.”  This may have led to climbing things and making silly faces, but I honestly don’t remember.

In conclusion, Ensign Jolly would like to highly recommend that the USS Loma Prieta embark on a away mission for next year’s Wizard World Comic Con in Austin.

~ En. Micah Jolly
Security Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4