Project Mustard

Just uploaded my build of the project Mustard space plane to the outworldz server, so please feel free to download a copy for your virtual world project. Project MUSTARD (Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device) or MUSTARD, was a 1960’s design concept from the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) able to place payloads of up to 5000lb (2,300 kg) into low earth orbit and stood some 118 feet  (36 m) tall. The unique feature of the space plane was that each stage was piloted and so able to land on a runway and be used again. The project was finally cancelled however in 1970.

The build is in three parts, the launch pad , launch tower and space plane. I would recommend that the launch pad is rezzed and positioned first followed by the launch tower and finally the space plane.

If you have any questions, IM Skipper Abel or visit Spaceport UK for look around a similar version in Second Life and please see accompanying CC licence, enjoy.



UK Rocket History

Britain is believed to be at the beginning of a new space age. From the late 1940’s until the early 1970’s Britain remained at the forefront of rocket technology. The three builds of RTV1, Skua and Petrel werehighly successful examples of the research vehicles devloped during the period.All three builds are now available for download ar openworldz

 

ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation) was established to provide a European satellite launch facility. ELDO members were Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia. The design was for a three stage rocket named after the Greek god Europa. Of the eleven planned launches ten actually took place.
The Europa-1 rocket measured some 31.7 m in length and weighed in at over 110 tons, able to carry a payload of 1000–1200 kg into a 500 km orbit. With Britain’s Blue Streak forming the first stage, Coralie made by the French formed the second and with the final stage provided by Germany.

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions, IM Skipper Abel or visit Spaceport UK for a test launch in Second Life enjoy.

The Observatory at Greenwich UK

I have uploaded my build for the 28 inch refractor housed at the Greenwich observatory to the outworldz.com site. The telescope itself  was made by Sir Howard Grubb of Dublin 1893. The instrument, which by the way is still in place and the building open to public view; well worth a visit if you are in the area at any time. The refractor is the largest of its type in the UK and remains one of the largest in the world. The build comes as two uploads, the observatory itself and the telescope assembly. The spiral staircase is a little on the tight side for movement and so I would recommend that upon entering the building you zoom the camera in close to your avatar. The telescope assembly should be placed on the second floor which is in the dome area.


If you have any questions, then contact Skipper Abel in Second Life.

The Old Gasworks

My build of the old gas works is now available at the outworldz site. The build downloads as a zip file made up of a number of folders each having separate components, in this way you can include all or some, plus have the option to use separately, they include:-

Coal Shovel
Coal Trolley




Furnace block
Gasometer
Gas works compound
Gas works office
Pipes
Tool shed

The office block has two floors connected by a staircase and I have included transparency effects on windows, however I have not included any office furniture. The build circa 1930-40 and was used as part of a sim project for my students.

I have included a CC license for this, please feel free to download and use, any comments welcome, enjoy. Should you have any questions then IM Skipper Abel in Second Life


Bye for now

Virtual ships

My builds of two coastal steamers recently uploaded to outworldz seem to be growing in popularity. The  SS Southern Star coastal steamer  shown here, is a medium size cargo carrier vessel circa early 20th century. If you are building a dockland scene at your sim then you may find this is a useful asset. The boat will rez as two separate object, so once they are in-world simply align and link.

The North Star form the same period is a smaller build and will rez as a single object. I used both of these vessels as part of my own dockside feature in one of my recent sims produced for Foundation Degree students.

Please feel free to visit the outworldz site and download a copy and if you have any questions, then contact Skipper Abel in Second Life and please see accompanying CC licence, enjoy.

AI bot for C#

Having read the book Robot Proof recently by Joseph E. Aoun that looks into the implications for Higher Education in the age of Artificial Intelligence, I decided to break with my tradition of posting prep notes for the coming academic year on our vle and create a conversational agent using the Pandorabot platform. My students can access the bot either from the web and below you can see a screen shot of the page.

Or meet-up with the agent, Tether Gistnut in SecondLife, by the way the name is an acronym if anyone would like to have a go a cracking it. The image below shows my landing point in SecondLife with the teleport board just to the right.

Just touch on the board and you will be transported to Tethers space station on the planet Mars, you may like to try and have a conversation about that.

Once you are there, get close enough and Tether will home in for a chat. One of the great advantages of the virtual world here is that you will a 3D persona of the bot and you can be with others in the conversation. You will also find that Tether is able to offer short video tutorials for C# that display on the media screen. This is proving to be a fun and popular implementation, so do feel free to teleport over and give the facility a try. If you have any questions then please IM me Skipper Abel in SecondLife. Bye for now and enjoy.

Carbon Free 2018

My virtual world project for level 5 students was named Carbon Free, so no real surprises on what is likely to be required here. The project requirement is to create a desk to application written in Java that will simulate the electrical consumption of a small residence that is powered from renewables.  As with the presentation of all my virtual world projects the purpose for me is to see how the environment can be structured and presented in such a way that it produced a viable pedagogical ly sound solution. As with earlier ventures I have made use of Note boards notecards, interactive simulations and activity logging to a MySQL database.

On arrival a series of four numbered note boards explain the task and how to proceed with the simulations; note rotating carbon molecule was purely aesthetic.

At this point students are made aware that there are five renewable energy types hey need to understand and these are:- Water turbine, wind turbines, Solar cells, solar collectors and wood burning stoves, though this last category seems to have dropped from inclusion recently. While each of the builds is powered by a combination of renewable energy resources, there will be a particular notecard based tutorial accessed through a picture in each of the builds. 

The image here shows the eco warrior’s solar pod; as with all the builds you can purchase scripted versions at Slmarketplace or free unscripted versions at Openworldz. The pod is powered by a wind turbine, solar cells and a solar collector. 

The screen shot below taken inside the pod shows a number of domestic appliances some of which are switched on (green messages) while other are switched off (red messages); an appliance can be switch on or off by simply touching. 

On the wall of the pod a power monitor can be touched on that will report on the consumption of appliances, the power available and carbon saving and this is data that students are able to use as a means of verifying their own simulated results.

The tutorial that can be accessed in the pod is for a wood burning stove shown in the image here. Touching the picture will dispenses a note-card that explains the physics and then poses a question to be solved; each question has randomised values so students will receive a unique version.

Once the question on the postcard has been solved then the postcard is dropped into a postbox outside each of the builds.

The virtual world learning project ran for a week and the six participants clocked up close on 600 transactions, a busy and as far as I can tell very successful time.