This just in:
As July 20, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps onto the moon, Americans everywhere can use this special day to educate younger generations about exploration, space, and American history and recollect their own memories of this pivotal moment in time.
The Museum of Science in Boston is offering an unusual opportunity. If you’ve ever wanted to ask Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin about what it was like to join Neil Armstrong as the first humans to walk on the moon, now’s your chance!
People of all ages are invited to email their questions to askbuzz@mos.org by July 16th at noon, and if your question is chosen, you will win the opportunity to call in you question to Buzz Aldrin live from the Museum of Science.
There will be a live NASA broadcast from the Newseum in Washington, D.C. from on July 20th 2 – 3 p.m. featuring a panel discussion including Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Alan L. Bean, Charles M. Duke Jr., space shuttle astronaut John Grunsfeld, and the deputy director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Laurie Leshin. The lucky winner of the “Ask Buzz” contest will ask Buzz his/her question first!
And at the museum itself:
Museum visitors can also climb inside the Apollo Command Module, explore the Lunar Module cockpit, and discover just how small the Mercury Capsule was! Beneath a vivid scale model of the moon, visitors can relive, or experience for the first time, the excitement of the lunar landing in the Museum’s “To the Moon” exhibit.Watch the first moon landing from the cockpit of the Lunar Module and check out the hatch Armstrong and Aldrin used. Climb inside a newly-renovated full-scale model of the Apollo 11 Command Module featuring sights and sounds from Apollo missions. Visitors can also explore a timeline of human spaceflight firsts, artifacts (including pieces of the moon), items that went to the moon, mission details, and more.
The Museum will offer a special one-day show at the planetarium on July 20th, The Moon: 40 Years From Apollo. The show explores the moon’s past, present, and future as we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and humankind’s first step on another world. The show will play three times on July 20th: 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.
The planetarium will feature another show, Journey to the Edge of Space and Time, which examines our efforts to understand the cosmos and shows how ideas that were once considered wild are now the building blocks of new knowledge.
The Museum’s Omni Theater will also present a film in honor of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, 3-D space show, Fly Me to the Moon. This light-hearted film follows three teen-aged flies that sneak on board the Apollo 11 to travel to the moon.
In the exhibit hall, two Museum exhibits will educate visitors on the moon and other aspects of space. The Welcome to the Universe exhibit introduces the exciting adventure of astronomical discovery through hands-on activities, 3-D models, computer activities, and historic artifacts. People can learn about the history of stargazing, constellations, phases of the moon, changing seasons, and sundials.
Museum-goers can experience the moon phases as they sit with their head as the Earth, and a model of the moon revolves around them.
A second exhibit, Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists, will reveal what we know, don’t know, and think we know about one of the world’s greatest space mysteries.
The Museum is also offering a live presentation, Mission: Space, that will educate guests about current and future missions to space, including the Constellation missions to the moon and the search for life on Mars.
Visitors can also read poetry inspired by this momentous event in science and engineering and submit your own lunar haikus to mail to: arts@mos.org. Your haiku may be featured in the exhibit!
Lastly, on July 25th, Boston University scientists will describe CRaTER (Cosmic Ray Telescope for The Effects of Radiation), their contribution to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The next step in returning humans to the Moon, possibly for months at a time, the LRO is mapping the Moon, looking for water and landing sites and measuring radiation levels. This will take place at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. in the Gordon Current Science & Technology Center.
