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The
Main
Deck
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"The
Presentation"
All guests of The
Space Place are treated to a "Special
Presentation"....
You enter a darkened
room, guided only by the glow the light saber you're carrying.
As door closes, you are plunged into total
darkness. Within seconds you hear a soft, musical 'chime' and the
familiar voice of Captain James T. Kirk: "Space, the final
frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year
mission..."
Still in total
darkness, Goosebumps are now forming as your anticipation
builds. Captain Kirk finishes: ..."to boldly
go where no man as gone before!" At that exact moment, the
music shifts to the dramatic Star Wars main title, as a variety of
systems jump into action.
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Panels illuminate, arch lights in the walls and ceiling flicker to
full brightness. The red circular lights in the floor invite
you to step up to the main deck and plot your course through the
universe of stars ahead of you. |
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Is this a
movie set? An amusement attraction? No this is a room, in the
lower level of our home. A room that we transformed into a
starship. Actually this room is a playroom for our young
children and their friends. ( "Yeah... right dad." )
Over two years
in the making, the creation of "The Space Place" has been an
adventure in itself. Sometimes the construction was 'laid back' and
casual, other times it was extremely frustrating as we came up against a
few "situations".
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| With some very
understanding spouses and oodles of creativity, we unveiled The Space
Place, Christmas Eve 1999. |
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"The
Same Budget as Disney"
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| You might be
interested to know, when we built the Space Place, we had the same budget
as Disney! |
| Disney's = " no budget." ($$$$$) |
| The Space Place = "NO budget" ( $0 ) |
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| Seriously,
most of the The Space Place came from odds and ends found at local surplus
stores. It was always fun to find something that looked unique, then
figure out how it could 'fit' into the design. For example, look
closely at the chairs: you'll see a 'modified' office chair. (Which
were donated from a local business.... NO materials were obtained through
dumpster diving!) |
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| As we got
deeper into the project, we were always sketching or photographing
'common' items in an attempt to find more 'space material' for the
room. |
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Star Trek
or Star Wars ?
You
might think, because we built a "Starship" in our lower level,
we're HUGE Star Trek fans. I'd say we're more "Sci-fi enthusiasts".
If you
are a Star Wars OR Star Trek "purest", you may be a bit confused
when you spend some time in the Space Place. You'll note the panels
have the look of the LCARS control panels used in the Star Trek
series.
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Then you'll look at the red illuminated circles on the three
steps and realize that they are directly from Star Wars: Empire Strikes
Back. We didn't attempt to maintain continuity. Sorry, if we
offended any 'major' fans! |
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Sleeping
Pods
To the right
of the Main Deck are two sleeping pods. The original design had
automatic sliding 'doors' that would raise and lower using motors and a
series of pulleys. We actually had one side functioning, but
scrapped the idea when we decided it was too dangerous. Safety is
ALWAYS the prime directive!
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Sleeping
Pods for Small Space Travelers!
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Escape
Pod / Shuttle Craft
On the left
wall, along the floor, you'll find a small door that leads to an
"escape pod". This is actually the area of our home that
goes below the stairs. It's quite large and doubles as our
"Storm / Tornado" shelter. Don't laugh, we do have tornados
in Minnesota! A few years ago, our home was damaged in a small
tornado... The Space Place ...was unscathed! |
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Click
Here to see The Main Deck Construction
(Off Stage)
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Back
to The Space Place Index |
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