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Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

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Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#21

Post by FiatLuxDave »

_bsldld wrote: post #18
FiatLuxDave wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live down the road from Kennedy Space Center, and it has a fairly large scale :). It is also quite commercial, or rather the 'theme park' part of it is. By scaling, I presume you mean to spread, similar to a franchise model. Or do you mean a single park which grows really big? A little more detail about your vision might help. Most of these kind of places have either a 'draw' or a 'museum' model. Ones which have a…

> By scaling, I presume you mean to spread, similar to a franchise model. Yes, that is what I meant. > KSC for example has rocket launches and moonshot facilities which are quite unique. Translating this uniqueness across different location is what is required. And this doesn't seem to be happening. And that is what I am trying to find out whether mini-space-related projects, AR, VR and MR can help. > Museums are gre…

The problem with a unique facility is that there really can be only one... although it sounds like you are thinking more of a unique experience. I think it might be helpful to your project to look into the financials of places like Chuck E. Cheese or Dave and Busters. These places provide fairly unique fun experiences while having a lot of investment into entertainment equipment. And yet they are able to make money, which makes it scalable.

Good luck with your project! Where in the UK are you thinking of building it?

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#22

Post by kleer001 »

Science based edutainment facilities are a well established business venture.

Best to talk to established ones if you don't want to lose your shirt reinventing the wheel.

Here's one of the oldest:

https://www.exploratorium.edu/about-us

Here's another one:

https://www.thetech.org/

Unless you've already done so?

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#23

Post by _bsldld »

brudgers wrote: post #20

A theme park sounds like an excellent way to make a small fortune. With the caveat that you start with a large fortune. The problem is it's a real-estate play in an area that is subject to changing public tastes and the ups and downs of changing economic cycles. The long surviving theme parks are the front end for larger organizations. Universal Studios in Orlando. Sea World as marine mammal research centers. And of…

> The long surviving theme parks are the front end for larger organizations. Universal Studios in Orlando. Sea World as marine mammal research centers. And of course Disney's lands and worlds.

The plan is to work in collaboration with large organisations who have interest in the out come of this type of activity.

> Do you have enough money to survive an event like the pandemic?

Event like the pandemic is the best time to start a business that takes some time to setup.

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#24

Post by _bsldld »

kleer001 wrote: post #22

Science based edutainment facilities are a well established business venture. Best to talk to established ones if you don't want to lose your shirt reinventing the wheel. Here's one of the oldest: https://www.exploratorium.edu/about-us Here's another one: https://www.thetech.org/ Unless you've already done so?

> Unless you've already done so?

No, I have just started. Ideating and talking to people.

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#25

Post by _bsldld »

FiatLuxDave wrote: post #21
_bsldld wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By scaling, I presume you mean to spread, similar to a franchise model. Yes, that is what I meant. > KSC for example has rocket launches and moonshot facilities which are quite unique. Translating this uniqueness across different location is what is required. And this doesn't seem to be happening. And that is what I am trying to find out whether mini-space-related projects, AR, VR and MR can help. > Museums are gre…

The problem with a unique facility is that there really can be only one... although it sounds like you are thinking more of a unique experience. I think it might be helpful to your project to look into the financials of places like Chuck E. Cheese or Dave and Busters. These places provide fairly unique fun experiences while having a lot of investment into entertainment equipment. And yet they are able to make money,…

> Where in the UK are you thinking of building it?

Cornwall

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#26

Post by neversaydie »

_bsldld wrote: post #16
spazx wrote: post #14

The Christa McAuliffe center has a neat spaceship simulation where students perform different crew roles onboard, doing different hands-on scientific tasks. I went in 6th grade on a field trip, and my job was capturing (a computer mini-game), reassembling (it was like snap circuits), and relaunching the probe. Is this something like your idea?

> Is this something like your idea? Yes, part of it will have elements of this. But it cannot be limited to just education as lot of kids get bored easily. So it will have some element of gamification and entertainment.

Just in case you're not already familiar with it - there's a niche sub-genre of games called "bridge simulators" that involve co-operative team play on a simulated starship bridge. Each player taking a different crew station (sensors, navigation, weapons, that sort of thing), plus a commander running the show - they all have to work together to complete "missions".

It's basically a game version of the bridge scenes you see on sci-fi shows like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica.

Artemis Bridge Simulator is probably the best known one (though quite long in the tooth at this stage), there are a few others like Starship Horizons or Empty Epsilon.

This community should be a good source of info on the topic: https://bridgesim.net/

They're sometimes used for educational and team-building purposes too - e.g. those "space camps" popular in the US that other users have mentioned here.

This one in particular seems geared towards that use case: https://thoriumsim.com/docs/overview

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#27

Post by _bsldld »

neversaydie wrote: post #26
_bsldld wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this something like your idea? Yes, part of it will have elements of this. But it cannot be limited to just education as lot of kids get bored easily. So it will have some element of gamification and entertainment.

Just in case you're not already familiar with it - there's a niche sub-genre of games called "bridge simulators" that involve co-operative team play on a simulated starship bridge. Each player taking a different crew station (sensors, navigation, weapons, that sort of thing), plus a commander running the show - they all have to work together to complete "missions". It's basically a game version of the bridge scenes y…

Thank you for the info and links! This is very helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#28

Post by kleer001 »

_bsldld wrote: post #24
kleer001 wrote: post #22

Science based edutainment facilities are a well established business venture. Best to talk to established ones if you don't want to lose your shirt reinventing the wheel. Here's one of the oldest: https://www.exploratorium.edu/about-us Here's another one: https://www.thetech.org/ Unless you've already done so?

> Unless you've already done so? No, I have just started. Ideating and talking to people.

Excellent! It'll be a journey.

Here's a few lists of some more people to bother :)

(I've haven't checked every single link, so...)

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/sci.html

https://www.museumplanner.org/worlds-top-10-science-centers/

https://wegowithkids.com/worlds-best-science-centers-with-ki...

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#29

Post by _bsldld »

kleer001 wrote: post #28
_bsldld wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless you've already done so? No, I have just started. Ideating and talking to people.

Excellent! It'll be a journey. Here's a few lists of some more people to bother :) (I've haven't checked every single link, so...) https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/sci.html https://www.museumplanner.org/worlds-top-10-science-centers/ https://wegowithkids.com/worlds-best-science-centers-with-ki...

> Excellent! It'll be a journey.

Yes, it will be.

> Here's a few lists of some more people to bother :)

Thank you very much for the links!

Going through some of the links on these pages, it got me thinking in what way I can build a project that will reach maximum students. One of the shortcomings of the present projects is that students have to visit these places(which is not possible for many students). It would be more useful if it was the otherway round i.e. there was a way to bring the project to the students. It is an interesting problem to solve.

Re: Ask HN: Is building an edutainment space-themed park a good idea?

#30

Post by kleer001 »

_bsldld wrote: post #29
kleer001 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent! It'll be a journey. Here's a few lists of some more people to bother :) (I've haven't checked every single link, so...) https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/sci.html https://www.museumplanner.org/worlds-top-10-science-centers/ https://wegowithkids.com/worlds-best-science-centers-with-ki...

> Excellent! It'll be a journey. Yes, it will be. > Here's a few lists of some more people to bother :) Thank you very much for the links! Going through some of the links on these pages, it got me thinking in what way I can build a project that will reach maximum students. One of the shortcomings of the present projects is that students have to visit these places(which is not possible for many students). It would be…

>It would be more useful if it was the otherway round i.e. there was a way to bring the project to the students.

Why do you think that?

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