With space enthusiasts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight this year, the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan is turning its attention to the future. Can we colonize Mars? Are lunar base camps possible? Is there life on Jupiter's moon?
Those and other questions are the basis for a new exhibit, running Nov. 19 through Aug. 12, dubbed "Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration."
Rather than just displaying space artifacts, the exhibit ponders what we might encounter on future spaceflights, and how we might survive on distant planets. Visitors walk through rooms that explore lunar colonies, near-Earth asteroids, visits to Mars, and Jupiter's moon, Europa. In addition to some of the exhibit's standalone interactive components, meanwhile, the museum has put together an iOS app that lets visitors collect virtual symbols as they explore.
"If money weren't a factor, many of the things in the exhibit could be done in our lifetime," Mike Shara, exhibit curator, said during a Tuesday press preview. Ideally, humans will be able to expand "beyond the 'womb' of Earth," in the years to come.
Beyond Planet Earth
Explore the future of space exploration.
One of the great questions is whether there is life on other planets and whether that life is "made of the same stuff as us," Shara said. "We'll only know by going there."
Despite the end of NASA's shuttle program this summer, Shara stressed that space exploration is alive and well. "We don't want kids to think the space age is over," he said. "The future really is here."
Space colonization is inevitable, said Michael Novacek, senior vice president and provost for the museum. "This exhibit is meant to feed that conviction," he said. It offers up "plausible, if expensive" ways to get there.
The exhibit kicked off earlier this week with a public laser art installation, created by artist Tim Otto Roth, that visualizes the data captured by the Hubble Space Telescope's spectrometers. It will run through Sunday, Nov. 27.
The app, meanwhile, is available for the iPhone, fourth-generation iPod touch, and iPad 2. Download it at amnh.org/apps and use it to activate 11 augmented reality icons through the exhibition. They unlock animations and let visitors share images via email, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as access a site with space-themed links.
The exhibit includes seven components:
- History: A look back at space history, from the Vostok 1 space capsule and the Hubble Space Telescope to the Mars Rover.
- Solar System Theater: The video presentation introduces visitors to the possibilities of future manned and unmanned space missions.
- Returning to the Moon: Explore a possible lunar base in Shackleton Crater, as well as a space elevator that could be used to transport mined materials.
- Asteroid!: Walk through a tunnel with a 3D recreation of the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa and a spacecraft that collected samples from it in 2005.
- Journey to Mars: See a full-scale model of Curiosity, the 9-foot-long Mars Science Laboratory Rover and see a prototype of a sleek new space suit as you walk through a diorama of the Martian surface.
- Outer Solar System: See what it would take to go even further into space—Jupiter's moon Europa.
- Beyond Our Solar System: The exhibit ends with a look at what's next—"exoplanets" that have been detected only by NASA's orbiting Kepler space telescope.
The American Museum of Natural History is located in New York City on Central Park West, between 77th and 81st Streets. It is open daily from 10am to 5:45pm and is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Suggested general admission is $19 for adults, $14.50 for students and seniors, and $10.50 for children.
Future Space Capsule
In the future, astronauts might head to the International Space Station, the Moon, or even to asteroids and to Mars in a space capsule like this one currently being built for NASA by a team led by Lockheed Martin. (Image: AMNH\D. Finnin)
Russian Helmet
This enamel-coated helmet is an original prototype of a helmet intended to be worn by cosmonauts (the Russian term for astronauts) on the Moon. By 1969, the top-secret Soviet manned lunar program was in disarray, and the program was later cancelled.
Vostok Capsule
On April 12, 1961, Soviet fighter-pilot-turned-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. Flying in a simple spacecraft, the Vostok 1, Gagarin orbited the planet once during his 108-minute flight. (Image: AMNH\R. Mickens)
Lunar Sample Bag
You can't exactly stuff moon rocks in your pocket. Astronauts stored samples in a bag like this one.
Mars Meteorite
This piece of hardened lava came from Mars. After being knocked off the Martian surface by an asteroid or comet, it drifted in space for millions of years, until it reached Earth and fell to the ground as a meteorite. (Image: AMNH\D. Finnin)
Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope diorama re-creates a crucial moment in 2009, when astronaut John Grunsfeld installed the new Wide Field Camera 3, the device that currently captures many of Hubble’s most amazing images. (Image: AMNH\R. Mickens)
Beyond Planet Earth App
With an iOS app, users can activate 11 augmented reality icons through the exhibition. They unlock animations and let visitors share images via email, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as access a site with space-themed links (Image: AMNH\D. Finnin)
Beyond Planet Earth App
The app is available for the iPhone, fourth-generation iPod touch, and iPad 2.
Lunar Base Model
A small-scale model of what a lunar base might look like.
Bigelow Moon Habitat
Made with walls of reinforced fabric, expandable spacecraft like this model by the private space company Bigelow Aerospace—shown here in one-third scale—may one day house astronauts on the Moon. (Image: AMNH\D. Finnin)
Lunar Elevator
If humans do set up a base on the Moon, we would eventually need a way to get materials to and from the Moon’s surface. Spacecraft have to travel 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) per second—faster than a speeding bullet— to launch off the surface of the Moon. A lunar elevator that would carry humans from the moon towards a space station where they would catch a ride back to Earth could sharply reduce that effort and expense. (Image: AMNH\D. Finnin)
Liquid Mirror Telescope Interactive
Like all liquid mirror telescopes, this model relies on a a mirror that forms when a special liquid spins smoothly at a constant speed. The telescope reflects and focuses light toward a target, forming an image.
Mars Explorer
Beyond Planet Earth visitors can fly around Mars and zoom in on cavernous craters, massive volcanoes, and vast valleys with Mars Explorer, an interactive console that debuts with this exhibition.
Sleep Tight
Does this look comfortable? This diorama shows how astronauts would have to sleep.
Welcome to Mars
Welcome, the Red Planet awaits.
Test Yourself
Could you survive life on Mars? Take the test.
Curiosity Rover
Museum goers walk past a model of Curiosity, a rover scheduled to launch in late 2011 and reach Mars in August 2012.
Mars Rover
A closer shot of the Mars Curiosity model.
BioSuit
This "astronaut" is wearing BioSuit, a form-fitting next generation spacesuit prototype by MIT aeronautics and astronautics professor Dava Newman.
BioSuit
These suits are made up of a tight, stretchy fabric made of spandex, nylon, and a new, patented polymer that replaces compressed air, making them lighter and more maneuverable. The suits maintain pressure even when torn and are custom-fitted using a laser scanner.
"Try On" a BioSuit
Visitors to the exhibition can take their photographs in a model of a BioSuit on the surface of Mars.
Terraforming Interactive Table
A multi-user interactive “game” will give Beyond Planet Earth visitors the task of “terraforming” Mars, transforming its cold, thin-aired surface into something more akin to Earth.
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