The Starship Chinook demonstrates Artemis at Calgary Maker Faire

On Saturday May 14, 2022, some of the crew of the USS Chinook attended Calgary Maker Faire. A Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue for these "makers" to show hobbies, experiments, projects.

The USS Chinook agreed to attend and demonstrate the Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator. Artemis is a multiplayer co-operative spaceship simulation game that is designed to be played between three and eight players over a local area network. Each player uses a separate computer that provides a different spaceship bridge station.

The CO rendezvoused with 2 upstanding crew members at the BMO loading dock to unload the Artemis equipment into the Maker Faire site; transporters were down so unloading had to be done the old-fashioned way.

Once the shuttle was parked and fees negotiated and paid to the local Ferengis, the CO returned to where the display was busily being set up; the rods and curtains for the backdrop of the display that the CO’s church has lent to the USS Chinook.

Setup was soon complete, and it was time for some serious gaming!

In about an hour Artemis was up and running but serious network issues prevented the consoles from talking to each other. The CO diagnosed that the DHCP server had frozen and was not giving each console its own IP address, which is much like your house having an address so that your mail gets to you.

To solve this, the CO put on his Chief Engineers hat and set the IPs manually and one by one the bridge stations came online, soon tests were being run to make sure everything worked.

Then they set to work putting smiles on peoples faces.

On Sunday May 15, a different crew joined the CO and the two of them put on a good show for the remainder of Maker Faire.

Dean from Roots2STEM thanked the crew for coming a few times during the weekend and expressed his appreciation for him having us at the event.

Then all too quickly, it was pack up and load out time.

Thanks to everyone who helped, without the assistance of the crew that attended, this show would not have gone forward.