Visitors to the Thomas Alva Edison Kiwanis Science and Engineering Fair in Fort Myers, Fla., will travel millions of miles without ever leaving the city when they come on board NASA’s interactive “Vision for Space Exploration Experience.”
Scientists young and old will experience a visual journey to the moon and Mars, discovering what it would be like to live and work on our closest planetary neighbors. The exhibit will be at the science and engineering fair in Fort Myers Jan. 27-28 followed by a stop at the Imaginarium Hands-On Museum Jan. 30-Feb. 1.
The NASA exhibit begins its stay during the Edison Festival of Light, the annual three-week celebration of inventor Thomas Alva Edison, who made his winter home in Fort Myers. The exhibit will be at the Discovery Village in Centennial Park adjacent to the science and engineering fair in the Harborside Event Center Jan. 27 from 1 to 8 p.m. and Jan. 28 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
After the fair closes, the exhibit will move to the Imaginarium Hands-On Museum Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day. The museum features interactive exhibits exploring physics, meteorology and zoology, including live animal programs. With the addition of the NASA exhibit, visitors can venture off the surface of Earth to explore other planets.
Housed in a 53-foot-long trailer rig, the Vision for Space Exploration Experience is designed to share with space enthusiasts NASA’s goals to return to the moon and travel to Mars and destinations beyond.
Visitors who enter the Vision for Space Exploration Experience will begin their journey surrounded by stars and planets. Surfaces of the moon and mars will encompass the “space voyagers.” Holographic video screens create floating images, allowing visitors’ hand motions to “control” and create bases for human life on the planets.
While taking the exhibit “journey,” visitors will learn about technologies now being investigated and developed by NASA and its partners in industry, academia and other government agencies. Attendees also will learn how tomorrow’s lifestyles will change as NASA develops advancements in power, computer and medical technologies, communications, networking and robotics. In addition, visitors will see how other advanced technologies will increase the safety and reliability of space transportation systems, while also reducing costs.
For more information about NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration, visit:
For more information about the Edison Festival of Light, visit:
