Visitors will have the rare chance to touch a piece of a moon rock this week in the new NASA Driven to Explore trailer at the University of Kansas.

Driven to Explore offers a look at America’s program to return humans to the moon and travel beyond. The exhibit will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, April 13, and Tuesday, April 14.

The centerpiece of Driven to Explore is the opportunity to touch a lunar rock sample picked up on the moon and brought to Earth by the astronauts of Apollo 17, including KU’s first astronaut, Capt. Ron Evans. The almost 4-billion-year-old rock is one of only seven lunar samples in the world made available for the public to touch and feel.

As NASA celebrates the 40th anniversary of the first human lunar landing mission, Driven to Explore allows visitors to see models of the new rockets and spacecraft NASA is developing and to learn how and why America will return to the moon. The exhibit also details the accomplishments of the space shuttle and the International Space Station.

For more information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

For information about the Apollo 40th anniversary, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/