The kids and I went to the National Space Centre in Leicester recently. There were quite a few interesting exhibits there, but the highlight was about human spaceflight. There are a series of interactive exhibits intended to simulate preparations for astronauts working at a lunar base. Sage has been learning about the Apollo 11 flight to the moon, so the timing was excellent.
River drove the low-gravity simulator to get a feel for what it would be like to pilot a ship in low gravity situations. There was also a simulator for controlling the space station’s life support systems, operating lunar mining equipment, and packing supplies into the rocket. The highlight, though, was the roller coaster-like ride that launched from the moon base to explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, wearing 3-D glasses. We landed pretty hard on Europa, but we made it!
We also watched an interesting video about stars in the planetarium and wandered through the exhibits displaying space suits, rockets, engines, and other paraphenalia.
It was a nice day out and we all enjoyed the museum.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 am
You guys have such cool adventures! When I first saw the photos on Flicker, I thought maybe you had made a trip to the US without telling me–I didn’t have any idea there was such an amazing space center in the UK! Do you think you will be astronauts! Love, Grana