Space Probe

What happend to Space Probe

Original post

Does anyone know what happened to the Space Probe? I heard that they tried to sell it, but that no one was interested in it. There was a ride broker who was shoppping it around, but they were not able to genertate a lot of interest.
Is it safe to assume that it was scrapped if that was the case?

Comment 1 – Marto

Subject: What happend to Space Probe
Please don’t tell me that the scrapped it. That would be very sad

Space Probe lift cable snap

Original post

Any one know anything about a Space Probe lift cable snapping?
The cabin was still held up by another cable. As it fell the snapped cable badly cut a girl who was on the ride?

Comment 1 – Wazza

Subject: Re: Space Probe lift cable snap
Yeah I remember it pretty well. People were not that badly hurt at all. I am still trying to workout how that girl had her foot cut off when the similar thing happened in America. I think that once they managed to get the busted cable out of the way, they used the gun and manually released the cabins and because they were not that far up the tower they fell only about 10 metres before they hit the brakes.

Comment 2 – Bussy

Subject: Re: Space Probe lift cable snap
The subsequent media coverage lead to the name being changed from Space Probe 7 to Space Probe.

Bussy

SWR-FM Broadcast from Space Probe 7

Original post

In late 1995 a new symbol rose from the ground at Australias’ Wonderland – "Space Probe 7".
SWR-FM approached Wonderland and gained a handshake agreement to install some temporary equipment and conduct a test.
One limitation was the type of antenna they could use, they were limited to using a Co-Linear (Whip) type antenna so as not to distract from the "look" of the probe. A few weeks’ later the heavy equipment was hauled up 75 metres inside the probe by the technical team, installed and switched on in November 1996.
SWR-FM coverage was dramatically improved, especially in the Blacktown CBD. Only a few months later, the failures began. One by one the transmitter, RF amplifier and UHF receiver failed and then failed again and again atop the damp, corrosive environment of the tower. Every failure meant a 75m climb straight up with a heavy piece of gear in tow. As a result SWR was often reduced to low power transmissions from the probe.
Throughout 1997 the problems sapped and wasted time for the technical committee. The problem needed to be fixed. In September ’97 the committee spent 10 hours one night hauling up new enclosures for the equipment and re-installing it in a safer, more permanent fashion in the hope that the problems would be solved. Instead the problem became the management of Wonderland itself who claimed that the alterations had not been authorised, when in fact they were – months before. In the intervening time the management of Wonderland had changed no less than eight times.
The temporary deal was over.. and SWR was off air again.
Here are some pics.

Inside the probe, climbing up to the top..

At the top, under the hat, on the walkway above the cars.

Looking Straight down from the walkway.

SWR-FM Broadcast Equipment in the top of the probe.

Comment 1 – mnemo

Subject: Great pics wls!!.. and I’ve a
Great pics wls!!.. and I’ve a bit of Audio trivia for you.
In the pic of the TV monitors in the lower right hand corner theres a speaker.. but the blurred thing below it is a speaker as well. There were six pairs of these either side of the cabins which replayed the infamous ‘countdown’. The speaker in focus is a Martin C15 – and I still reckon its the loudest 5" speaker I’ve ever heard.. the thing below it is a Sub-woofer made by Canon (as in Canon camera’s..?!). It was a weird find at the time and I don’t actually remember how we came across them.. but they were a 10" speaker in a quadrant shaped cabinet. Not very efficient as I remember but sure looked the part. We also used them in the ‘Pre-show’ room that riders were ushered into from the third tunnel of the entrance.
The C15’s were also used in the ‘launch pad’ but were configured in six stereo pairs around the pad.. and there were three Martin Subs hidden behind the corner facades. The SFX for the pad was driven by an Akai S720 sampler. Custom software triggered the various sound samples via MIDI. This allowed us to delay the samples across each pair of speakers and produce a sound-scape that travelled 360 degrees around the pad. In the system tests before the opening we measured SPL levels at around 115dB. Pity we weren’t allowed to run it that during ops
Cheers RN

Comment 2 – wonderland

Subject: Re: SWR-FM Broadcast from Space Probe 7 (with pics)
speaking of audio, what have you to say about this mixer, it was mounted in the space probes control room

Comment 3 – mnemo

Subject: What do I have to say !?!
I says……Whooaa.!!…. does that photo brings back some memories…!!!!
Plenty of trivia on this if you want it..so here goes. The pic shows one of the two Soundcraft 16:8:2 mixers that were mounted on the wall – due to lack of floor-space. The mixer in view ran the Launch Pad and ‘Top Hat’ audio. The mixer not in view was to the left of the pic and it was controlling the three Tunnels and the ‘Pre-Show’ room. Also not in view was the equipment rack to the right of the pic. It housed the 6 PC’s that replayed the ‘7 News’ footage that was supposed to take the rider thru the whole experience – check this for more info Space Probe 7 Delphi Developer
This rack also had the Launch Pad amplifiers and Akai sampler. The PC monitor in the lower right of the picture was patched via a KVM to the PC’s – for resetting the damn things .. which almost never/daily/repeatedly happened….gotta love windows not.
The box at the top left of the pic is the mixer’s power supply and below that is a series of mounting blocks that distributed the audio and power to the speaker boxes in the tunnels.
You can just make out the aluminium side panels that were fitted to the mixers. They actually hinged up above the mixers to allow them to be raised up parallel to the roof. During construction there was a 6 foot long ‘window’ cutout between the Launch Pad and the Control Room so the engineers could see the Cabins and communicate to the Operations panel without leaving the room.
Great ride.. great theming.. pity it was all bypassed in the name of bums on seats..
Cheers RN