Over the past few weeks of summer, the crew at ENP has been hard at work presenting many wildlife and nature education programs to hundreds of campers at local summer and day camps – it has been so rewarding and so much fun! It has also been wonderful to have the SS NaSA PoD supporting and augmenting our programming efforts – it is a wonderful piece of engineering that is making all the awesome possible!

It has been so busy over the last several weeks that we have not had much time to work on the few remaining tasks needed to complete the PoD, between our full-time jobs and all the programs there is just not enough time in the day. Now that our summer programming schedule is winding down and all the campers are returning to school, we will have more time to concentrate on the remaining tasks – but first, a few photos from the first summer with the SS NaSA PoD!

It was a wonderfully busy summer of nature and wildlife conservation education, science communication, and solar power and there is much more to come!

However, along with the educational fun, we did have one issue that we had to deal with since it was directly related to the health of our animal ambassadors when they are residing in the PoD – we were forced to replace the PoD’s air conditioning unit when it failed in early July. Without climate control, the interior of the PoD could become overheated and/or saturated with high humidity leading to health concerns for our education animals as well as we human animals that sometimes reside in the PoD…and the Victron solar-electronics systems.

So, on July 4th weekend Jim and I set out to replace the old air conditioning unit and after much “MacGyvering” by me and custom fabricated woodworking by Jim – the new AC unit is now in place and working perfectly, the animals are climate controlled, and the interior of the PoD and its solar-electronic support systems are dry.

In keeping with my tradition of being totally transparent with all our nonprofit projects that many of you have supported – I have made a detailed video of the entire air conditioner replacement process. After the introduction of the problem and the job description, most of the video is produced in time-lapse mode so as not to bore you with this several hours long project. I must admit that for many people I would predict that a video about replacing an air conditioner is not what most would call engaging viewing – but it is interesting what we had to do to make this work. That being said, if you are the type of person who likes the process as well as the product then this video will hopefully interest you.

Also during July, we took one day off to gather with family and friends for a picnic. At the same time, I took this opportunity to give the PoD and its new AC unit an overnight camping test so I packed up the PoD and the pup and headed over the mountains to a small creekside RV park in the tiny town of Maggie Valley just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The PoD and its new AC unit worked perfectly and we never had to plug into the nearby electric service since the solar array fully covered all power needs – so awesome – and the pup and I had a great time visiting with everyone. That’s me and my awesome dad Lee cooking fish for everyone.

Our little old pup Tange just loves to camp!

THANK YOU to everyone who has supported and is continuing to support this most unique environmental outreach education project – we are eternally grateful for your most generous support. You are all the greatest of heroes!!!

This amazing outreach education project will serve to inspire and educate all the curiosity seekers who discover it. But to do this right – we do still need your support. The next steps in working toward the completion of the PoD are outlined below and will most likely occur in the following order:

• Installing the microscope station – it will be on order soon and will be fully outlined in the next update!

• Installing the telescope – yes, I said telescope. The PoD will have a telescope available for special “sky party” night programs!! This telescope will use a special camera* to connect to the PoD’s flatscreen monitor to allow large groups of people to view all the awesome from the cosmos that surrounds our pale blue dot of a planet. More on this later.

• Painting the PoD and installing appropriate decals/insignia.* (updates in the next update)

• Stocking the field guide library.

• Updating the curtains/cushions with an appropriate theme.

• Installing the 120/240 Volt “shore power” service.

• Installing the composting toilet.*

*These are our remaining needs. If you are interested in assisting us with a donation of these final items and/or the support needed for us to be able to complete this project – please do contact us directly or feel free to donate via the links below.  

Please consider supporting this project via the donate link on our website or our GoFundMe page:  www.gofundme.com/lets-build-a-mobile-outreach-classroom

If you do choose to assist us in making this project a reality, this unique mobile classroom will greatly benefit the nature, environment, and wildlife conservation education, evidence-supported science, reality, common sense, and renewable energy awareness education for all our outreach program participants in the WNC region as well as our wonderful students at Trails Carolina and Trails Momentum who will benefit from the unique wonders it will contain while they are in class and in the field on expedition. 

We will be sure to share any and all updates in posts on this blog, in our end-of-year newsletter, and on our YouTube channel so please consider subscribing to stay up to date on this wonderful project.

The SS NaSA PoD and the Mighty Bolt EV (our primary outreach vehicle) are owned by ENP (501c3) and used primarily as the ENP company outreach vehicle and mobile outreach classroom for ENP and our education partners Trails Carolina and Trails Momentum.  They will be powered and fueled primarily with cleanly-generated electricity provided by the ENP/Trails student-built classroom solar array and the SS NaSA PoD’s rooftop solar array. They will both serve as outstanding teaching tools for our Trails students and ENP outreach program participants.

If you have read this far here’s something interesting and cool – the PoD can charge an electric vehicle! Out of curiosity, I plugged the Mighty Bolt EV into the PoD and it charges without any issues! This is not only free solar-generated fuel for the car but it is also a great thing to have in case the power ever goes out all over the area. Even better – when the PoD is complete it will be able to provide power from its solar array-battery storage system to our house if we ever have a long-term power outage – so very cool!!

I hear you asking “what are the orange cones for?” The answer: until we install a fence/railing they are there to warn people of the steep drop-off between the upper and lower driveways.

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