Journey to Space

Climb into a rocket and blast off into space. Experience a virtual trip to the International Space Station. Before you go, check to make sure you have the right stuff by investigating how low gravity will impact your muscles and reaction time and how you will react psychologically to being in space. After reaching orbit, experience weightlessness, dock with the Space Station, and conduct experiments there to explore chemistry, fluid physics, materials science, and medicine in a micro-gravity environment. At the end of your tour, climb into the new Orion Crew Vehicle, which will use a combination of rockets, parachutes, and airbags to return you safely to Earth.

After your tour, try science experiments designed to explore chemistry, fluid physics, materials science, and medicine in a micro-gravity environment.  Try burning a candle in zero gravity.  Experiment with water and oil to see how they flow.  Compare the geometry of fast-growth crystals under normal and micro-gravity.  Observe the growth of cancer cells in low-gravity environments.  Interview scientists who design these experiments to find out how the results will be used.

Project Summary

Journey to Space will be a large-scale, national touring exhibition that simulates a journey to the International Space Station, allows visitors to explore the physical properties of low gravity environments, and introduces some of the engineering and technology that makes it possible to live and work in space.  The goals of the project are to introduce the Orion Crew Module, to give museum visitors a memorable experience that conveys to the greatest extent possible what it is like to be in space, and to increase visitors' awareness and understanding of the systems engineering required to support living and working in space.  The exhibition will reach an audience of more than 3 million adults and families and more than three-quarters of a million teachers and students over a six-year North American tour.

The project will consist of

1. a four-part simulation of a journey aboard the Orion Crew Capsule to the International Space Station;
2. a tour of a rotating full-scale mock-up of the ISS Tranquility module;
3. a set of interactive exhibits about the engineering and technology NASA has developed to enable humans to live and work in space;
4. a set of exhibits about the physics of low and microgravity environments and the effects of these environments on chemical reactions and biological tissues;
5. a large-scale, high-concept, live demonstration show about low gravity physics;
6. a website that will support free-choice investigation of related STEM topics, refer visitors to NASA public education projects, and link Journey to Space topics to relevant national education standards in science, mathematics, and engineering; and
7. a two-year youth program for underserved teens in collaboration with the Saint Paul Public Schools that will result in a three-day Celebration of Space Exploration Chautauqua aimed especially at underserved families in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
   

The exhibition will tour to twelve major science museums across North America and reach upwards of three and a quarter million families, adults, teachers, and students over six years.

Journey to Space preliminary proposal June 25, 2009
Journey to Space NASA proposal September 10, 2009

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