Illustration by Clint Bolduc.
Whitaker Center visitors only have to walk down one flight of stairs to be blasted into space.
The arts and science center in downtown Harrisburg is hosting “Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience” until the end of the year. The exhibit, one of the largest in the center’s 24-year history, allows guests to explore their childhood space fantasies through real-world experiments and artifacts.
“This exhibit allows guests to experience life as an astronaut training on Earth, in the International Space Station and beyond,” said Kristin James, the center’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) curriculum manager.
The exhibit includes videos from NASA explorations, featuring commentary from astronauts. Visitors can see artifacts such as the helmet and gloves worn by Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. They can take a whiff and experience space station smells or sit on a space shuttle toilet (no smell enhancement included.)
“Encouraging youth to get excited about, and inspired by, space is important,” James said.
The space station section of the exhibit features a full-scale mock-up of the Destiny Laboratory, which was attached to the International Space Station in 2001. Visitors enter a rotating faux lab and experience the sensations astronauts feel every day. The module also features audio and video testimonials from NASA astronauts.
Another interactive exhibit gives guests the opportunity to determine which components of a shuttle should be operating at different times while conserving the equipment’s limited power supply. Guests can slide an arm into an astronaut’s glove and compare their mobility using Earth and space atmospheres.
Other components of Whitaker Center—the PNC Innovation Zone Purposeful Gaming Studio and Select Medical Digital Cinema—also feature special space programs in conjunction with the exhibit.
Whitaker Center hired James two months ago, and the timing of her arrival led to the perfect launch. For the past five years, she has served as a NASA “solar system ambassador.” The program works with volunteers across the country to share the science and excitement of NASA’s space exploration missions and discoveries.
She also spent three summers working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., an astronomical facility that discovered the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930.
“Space is the next frontier,” James said. “There is a lot we don’t know about space and, with stuff we don’t know, there comes a lot of opportunity.”
James and other Whitaker Center officials believe that space holds many untapped resources. Exhibits such as “Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience” are vital to highlighting NASA’s successes and generating energy for its future.
In the 1960s, NASA astronauts were household names. John Glenn dominated the national news in 1962 when he became the first American to circle the Earth. Americans were glued to their television on July 20, 1969, with the first moon landing.
Sixty years later, those names are still recognizable, much more so than astronaut Frank Rubio, who became the astronaut to spend the most consecutive days in space (371) on Sept. 27, 2023.
James believes Rubio’s accomplishment should not be diminished because he achieved it during a time when the national media are less focused on NASA missions.
People of all ages can learn about space’s past, present and future through “Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience.” Some interactive exhibits are simplistic, while others are challenging.
“Our educator team spent 20 minutes trying to solve one ourselves, and we ended up dying,” James said. “These are questions we don’t know the answers to without interacting with the exhibit.”
Whitaker Center is located at 222 Market St., Harrisburg. “Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience” is included with tickets to the Harsco Science Center. For more information, visit www.whitakercenter.org.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
