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Not many people go into space. In fact, out of the approximated 7.4 billion people in the world, under 500 have been considered out-of-this-world people, and only three of them are currently in space! These 500 extraordinary people aren’t aliens—they’re astronauts!
“What is space like?” As staff, we overhear this question a lot in our exhibit, Beyond Spaceship Earth. But as an astronaut, it’s one of the toughest questions to answer. We’ve pulled a few of our favorite responses from astronauts to give us land-dwellers an idea of what space-life is like:
“Of course living in space is very different than on earth—the way you eat, the way you clean up in the morning, the way you sleep—you don’t want to just float around sleeping until your hair gets sucked into a fan! You have to control everything. You can’t even lay a pencil on a table and have it stay there. So everything is different. ”
- David Wolf on weightlessness
“It’s a mix of the transcendently magical and the deeply prosaic. It can be crowded, noisy, and occasionally uncomfortable. Space travel—at least the way we do it today—isn’t glamorous. But you can’t beat the view!”
- Marsha Ivins, on space travel.
“‘Awe’, I think, is one of those words you have a better understanding of once you see it, too. I felt like using the word “awesome” was totally appropriate…”
- Nicole Stott on seeing Earth from space
“It’s like a fireworks show going on—and you’re looking at it from the top”
- Shane Kimbrough on seeing cities and storms from Earth
How The Children’s Museum Let’s You Experience Space Travel
In our exhibit, Beyond Spaceship Earth, visitors can use their senses to relate to the above quotes. Beyond Spaceship Earth boasts an immersive International Space Station (ISS) experience, an Astronaut Wall of Fame, and the Schaefer Planetarium and Space Object Theater!
- The ISS experience allows visitors to discover and experience facets of an astronaut’s life—eating, drinking, sleeping, experimenting, and spacewalking!
- The Indiana Astronaut Wall of Fame displays Hoosiers who have made a huge impact on space-travel.
- Lastly, the Schaefer Planetarium shows visitors some of the greatest spectacles in space history.
Our Extraordinary Scientist-in-Residence, astronaut Dr. David Wolf, sums up the Beyond Spaceship Earth experience nicely, “You will feel like you’ve entered the Alice-in-Wonderland life of space.”
Hear more from David Wolf on how the Beyond Spaceship Earth exhibit is bringing the feeling of space to museum visitors here on Earth.
Photos courtesy of NASA.
