About Space Academy - CRV Space Flight Simulator

The climax to Space Academy is an entirely new form of motion simulator, in which the audience experience a sensation as close to weightlessness as we are able to create on Earth in Earth's gravity.

The door to the experimental CRV (Crew Return Vehicle) is open and the audience is strapped into their seats.

From this point onwards they will experience an amazing journey; the force of a launch as it presses them down into their seat and subsequently the amazing lightness of being as they leave the earth's pull. Through the two windows they will actually see the International Space Station as their craft is manoeuvred into position by the shuttle arm. Towards the end of their flight they will undergo the re-entry manoeuvres, just as they are felt by astronauts, until eventually there is a certain amount of relief at being back on terra-firma.

Our storyline revolves around the "Crew Return Vehicle" (or CRV). This is a generic term applied to the vehicle constantly attached to the ISS for an emergency crew return. As of today the venerable Russian Soyuz is used as the CRV but, apart from its age, this vehicle has two limitations:

To move forward NASA has designed the X-38, an experimental vehicle much like a small shuttle, which has the astounding ability to return to earth entirely autonomously. Provided an escaping crew can pull themselves inside and close the hatch the vehicle will do the rest for them.

1. Time-on-orbit is limited. After every 6 months it must be replaced (and it's on these "taxi" trips that wealthy individuals are often seen to go along for the ride, in a private arrangement with the Russian Space Agency).

2. It can only carry 3 people and the ISS is designed to accommodate 7.

It achieves this by deploying (and then releasing) a series of parafoils in the latter stages of descent, all controlled automatically. The perilous ride and the extremely varied forms of motion make this an ideal subject for our storyline!

Many of the more clever aspects of the X-38 have been designed and manufactured in Europe. Whilst the X-38 is under US government funding threat, it may well be that the CRV eventually used on the ISS will be an entirely European vehicle. At the moment this is uncertain.

Either way, our storyline revolves around a ride aboard a passive vehicle which will be carried up to the ISS aboard the shuttle, attached to the ISS and then released to return to earth. The themeing within our vehicle is thus generic and our storyline will be valid for many years to come.

Unlike motion simulators used purely for entertainment, our CRV employs 8 elements to tell the story:-

1. Real communications between Houston, the Shuttle and the ISS - made available to us by NASA.

2. Simultaneous commentary on what's happening to us - provided by the commentators from NASA TV.

3. Genuine sound effects from contemporary space flights - as advised to us by astronauts from NASA, ESA and the Russian Space Agency.

5. Two windows, both visible from each of the four seating positions, showing partially real imagery and partially computer generated images of the completed ISS.

6. A brand new type of motion simulator, unique in the world, which simulates both the extra "G" felt during a launch and the reduced G felt during space flight.

8. An "onboard monitor" as used by all spacecraft today to select a camera angle from which to view what is happening to, and around, their own craft.

At the end of the experience gravity re-exerts itself on the soles of the feet during re-entry until finally, with a bump, the CRV lands back on earth and Houston sends a greeting now that the audience have arrived back safely.

To one side of the White Room is a disabled simulator where people who are unable to leave their wheelchair can view the whole experience in a specially themed area.