Visitors can get an in-depth look at what lies beyond planet Earth and learn more about the science behind the universe with two new space-themed exhibits open at Discovery Cube Orange County in Santa Ana.
Artemis Adventures, which allows visitors to experience what it’s like to drive a lunar rover, and the Solar System Encounter, which features high-definition images from space, both aim to teach patrons about space exploration through interactive, hands-on activities.
“Here at Discovery Cube our mission is to make learning fun,” said Cherie Whyte, vice president of marketing. “Not only do we provide all of these amazing elements where you can learn about the world around us, but we do it in a way that kids can explore, touch and feel.”
In Artemis Adventures – a nod to NASA’s current Artemis program, which aims to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by the end of the decade – an exhibit invites visitors to imagine what it would be like to eat, sleep and travel while living on the moon.
A few feet away, visitors can follow in the footsteps of astronauts who explored the moon during NASA’s Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early ’70s by driving mini remote-controlled lunar rovers across a detailed model of the moon’s surface.
Guests may venture out even further in the Solar System Encounter, a popular returning exhibit that features a colorful, large-scale model of the sun, planets and other objects at its center.
Here, visitors may participate in space-themed experiments, find out what they’d weigh on other planets, and – new this year – view images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provided through a collaboration with James Bullock, an astrophysicist and dean of UC Irvine’s School of Physical Sciences.
Cindy di Avani, education manager for the Discovery Cube, said space is a popular topic among students served by the organization, and the new exhibits provide an engaging way to teach visitors about…
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