Audio By Carbonatix
FRI, 6/13
Carl Sagan once said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” At the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the time is now, and the place is the new Space Odyssey exhibit, which opens at 9 a.m. today. “Science is the creative exploration of the world and universe that we all share,” says Raylene Decatur, president and CEO of the museum. “We’ve taken a very hands-on and immersive approach. Through live programming, we’re able to engage you with the contemporary stories of space exploration.”
The $50 million exhibit is extremely interactive. Visitors can pretend they’re astronaut cadets at a mission briefing, build a star and watch its life cycle, or try docking a model of a space shuttle on the moon via remote control — not as easy as it looks.
“Space is a very dynamic subject; there are several launches each month, new milestones being discovered all the time,” says Dr. Laura Danly, chair of the museum’s Department of Space Sciences. “We’re trying to bring space stories to life. Something static on the wall can’t tell you what happened yesterday, what’s coming up tomorrow. We can, because we have a very flexible infrastructure.”
By far the most far-out component of Space Odyssey is the Mars Outpost diorama, a life-sized re-creation of an actual Martian canyon, where you can make your own crater, pilot a digital probe or ask questions of the space-suited performers carrying out “research” on the rocky landscape. “The goal is to excite people about space in a new way,” says program director Vince Wolfe. “We’ve created a very unique learning environment where we’re able to update everything very quickly as new information becomes available.”
And you can’t have a space exhibit without a planetarium show. The DMNS is also unveiling its recently renovated Gates Planetarium, which uses new, all-digital technology developed by the museum to blast you into galaxies far, far away. “It’s like you’re sitting on the nose of a rocket traveling through the cosmos,” says Wolfe.
General admission to the museum is $9 for adults and $6 for kids ages three to ten and seniors sixty and over; Gates Planetarium ticket prices range from $4 to $8. Visit www.dmns.org or call 303-322-7009 for further information. — Julie Dunn
Suiting Up
