School

Here’s my article for issue 4 of The Oredigger:

Recreation and Wellness Center: Campus Development Off To A Good Start

Andrew Ferguson

The much anticipated Recreation and Wellness Center is in its final phase of conception. The transition from concept to reality began on October 13th when the winning bid for an architecture firm was announced. Sink, Combs and Dethlefs will now work with the school to hire a general contractor who will oversee the construction of the Center. If all goes according to plan, construction will start soon after school lets out in May, beginning with the demolition and relocation of the McBride House, the Minority Engineering Program house, the Outdoor Recreation Center, the Senior Design House, and the old Sigma Kappa house.
There have been some concerns regarding the historic significance of some of the houses,
especially the old Sigma Kappa house. However, Harold Cheuvront, Vice President and Dean of Students, noted that "none of the buildings in the block are classified as historical landmarks nor are they eligible to be." Despite the legal status of the houses, there are still some concerned citizens who would like to preserve some of them. In an effort to accommodate that request, Cheuvront responded that "if the city would move them to a vacant lot owned by the city, we [Colorado School of Mines] would of course be willing to sell them a house for a dollar or something like that."
Construction of the Recreation and Wellness Center will cause a partial closure of Maple Street to vehicular traffic and the complete closure and conversion of 16th Street, between Maple and Elm, into a pedestrian walkway. Approximately twelve short months later, the newly built Recreation and Wellness Center will be finished.
The Center is mostly a response to student demand for more sports oriented activities. Currently, over 85% of CSM students participate in some form of sport; the new Recreation and Wellness Center will expand the range of physical activities and hopefully increase the amount of student participation as well as provide the opportunity for much needed socialization activities.
The Center will include several basketball and volleyball courts, a running track, a
climbing wall, locker rooms, weight/fitness room, racquetball/handball courts, an aerobics
and yoga room, and several offices that will house the Outdoor Recreational Center and
the Intramurals and Club Sports office.
Total cost of the complex, including demolition of the old housing and furnishing of the new
facility will cost around $18 million, $6 million less then originally budgeted. The difference is due to lack of state provided funds; the extra $6 million would have been used for an aquatics facility. However, there are still plans to construct the aquatics portion at a later date and the design of the Recreation and Wellness Center will allow for easy integration between the Center and the pool.

Here’s my article for the third issue of The Oredigger:

The boundary of space is internationally recognized as 100km above Earth. On a clear Monday morning at Mojave Airport, the first FAA license Spaceport, Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne took towards the black sky. This was SpaceShipOne’s second flight within a two week time span that allowed it to capture the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. According to the X Prize website, xprize.org, the contest is “modeled after Orteig Prize won by 25 year old underdog, [sic] Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris….After Lindbergh’s flight, passenger travel in the U.S. increased 30-fold.” The X Prize is “an international competition that will award a $10 million dollar cash prize to the first team that:

1. Privately finances, builds and launches a ship
2. Carries three people 62.5 miles (100km) up into the atmosphere
3. Makes two successful flights within two weeks (same ship)

There were thirteen different teams from 6 nations. In the last year, only US based Mojave Aerospace Ventures (SpaceShipOne), LLC, and Canada’s DaVinci Project Team were in serious contention. However, on June 21st, 2004, Mojave Aerospace Ventures made it clear they wanted the prize, saying in a press release “[u]nder the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne reached a record breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn astronaut wings.” Only six days later, Mojave Aerospace Ventures officially gave its 60-day notice for the X Prize, planning their first launch on September 29th, 2004.

In a press release issued shortly after successfully completing the first flight, “At 8:13 this morning PDT, SpaceShipOne (SS1) coasted above the 100 km altitude point and successfully completed the first of two X-Prize flights. The peak altitude reached was 337,500 ft. The motor was shut down when the pilot, Mike Melvill, noted that his altitude predictor exceeded the required 100 km mark. The motor burn lasted 77 seconds – 1 second longer than on the June 21st flight. Melvill was prepared to burn the motor up to 89 seconds, which indicates significant additional performance remains in SS1.”

This leads back to the morning of October 4th. A short press release on the X-Prize website noted: “SpaceShipOne and Mojave Aerospace Ventures, LLC. team reaches over 360,000 feet to win the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE…Brian Binney, who piloted the flight, was released from it’s mothership White Knight at 50,000 feet early this morning. Binney continued into space breaking the August 22, 1963 record by Joseph A. Walker who flew the X-15 to an unofficial world altitude record of 354,200 feet.” The prize was won.  The future of commercial space flight is finally here.

To learn more about SpaceShipOne, visit
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/

To learn more about the Ansari X Prize, visit
http://www.xprize.org

To learn more about the author, Andrew Ferguson, visit
http://www.andrewferguson.net

We were up until about 2am working on the Oredigger. It was pretty cool. I completed 3 pages, which was 1/4 of this issues pages. I also found out that as News Editor, I get paid! How cool is that? Depending on how well we do, I could get over $500! That’s soo much money! Awesome. Anyways, as always, here’s my article. It’s sort of an unofficial part 2 to my last article. My next one should be on the new Wellness Center.

User security will not be an issue in CSM�s new Blackboard Bb Transaction System (BTS). George Funkey, Manager of Information Services at CSM, made it very clear that Mines is very careful with user data. Colorado School of Mines will be ensuring the security of user data with BTS by using the Windows version, rather then the UNIX version. One of the key differences is the use of encrypted TCP/IP data in the Windows version versus the less secure use of the RS-485 protocol in the UNIX version of BTS. All transaction systems will be encrypted and isolated from the rest of the Mines network. The few non-transaction/non-encrypted systems that do exist will be even further isolated and will certainly be carefully guarded.

Unfortunately, all the services planned for BTS will not be immediately available. Instead, various sections of the system will be successively rolled out as each feature is implemented and tested. Funkey was still able expanded on the way BTS will function when it is eventually all completed.

Each user will be issued a new ID card that contains a barcode, magstripe, and a proximity chip. Users previously assigned CWID number will also be imprinted on the card. To meet ADA requirements, at least one entrance at each building will have a proximity card reader to allow authorized users access after hours. However, most other buildings will use less-expensive magstripe readers to authenticate users at entrances.

The magstripe on the card will also be used to pay for items and services at vending machines, campus laundry mats, the campus bookstore, the C3 store at Mines Park, and several copy machines in the library. The funds will be subtracted from users account just like a debit card. However, unlike a debit card, users will only be able to add money to the card. Only when a user ends their tenor at Mines will they be allowed a one-time withdrawal.

Users will also be able to logon to a secure website and few their transaction history and even add funds to the card from a credit or checking account. Future plans are in the works to expand the usability of the ID card to the Downtown Golden area where users could use the card to pay for items at authorized establishments.

Funkey also indicated that the original mid-November rollout date will likely not be met due to lack of response in a search for a Card Manager. Funkey is hopeful that the card will be rolled out by the second semester, but offered no guarantees, saying, �we’re not going to put it together wrong. And if it takes a few more months, well then, it takes a few more months�but it will make life a lot more convenient for everyone�it handles money, it handles access, it handles a lot of secure things.”