By Christie Bender
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) announced today tickets are now on sale for the newest traveling exhibit, Be the Astronaut, opening June 16. Visitors will experience what it is like to be an astronaut including the challenges and excitement of spaceflight!
Visitors take command of futuristic space vehicles, chart their course to the Moon, Mars and beyond and land and explore highly detailed digital re-creations of actual places in the solar system built using data from NASA space probes.
Be the Astronaut teaches STEM based content via a fusion of the physical exhibit with state-of-the-art video game technology. Visitors have their own crew of virtual experts throughout every stage of the exhibit. These digital characters will help visitors learn what’s needed to fly a spaceship, pilot a lander, and drive a surface rover — then will be there as visitors climb in the simulators to actually perform these feats, in a thrilling narrative adventure that spans the solar system.
“Through STEM based hands-on activities that are scientifically verified by NASA experts, this exhibit let’s our community travel to space from right here at the Grand Rapids Public Museum,” said Dr. Stephanie Ogren, Director of Science at the GRPM.
Tickets are now on sale for Be the Astronaut, and can be purchased by visiting grpm.org/Astronaut or by calling the Museum’s front desk at 616-929-1700.
Admission to Be the Astronaut is $12 for adults, $7 for children, $9 for Kent County resident adults, $4 for Kent County resident children, and $2 for all Museum members! Tickets include general admission to the Museum.
In each space capsule, a monitor serves as the ‘windshield,’ giving visitors a first-person view of their adventures. Touch-screens and an industrial-quality joystick put visitors in command.
During missions, the entire cockpit comes alive with animated lighting effects, game visuals, and sounds that make visitors believe they are astronauts. Special companion robots will move about the hall and interact with visitors.
The focus of the exhibit is on the concepts common to all space flights and invites visitors into a futuristic storyline as the framework to communicate these ideas.
The experience is scientifically verified by experts at NASA for accuracy and feasibility.
This exhibit will run from June 16 through Sept. 16.
Be the Astronaut was designed and produced by Eureka Exhibits, LLC. – A NASA Space Act Agreement Partner Company.
Be the Astronaut is sponsored by The Steve & Amy Van Andel Foundation, Meijer, David & Carol Van Andel Family Foundation, STAR 105.7, BDO USA, LPP, Chris & Kim Branoff, Cascade Engineering, Jim & Barb Haveman, Lacks Enterprises, Inc., Williams Kitchen & Bath and Holiday Inn Downtown Grand Rapids.
This exhibit is brought to you by the citizens of Kent County and the voter approved millage.
