Community Corner
NASA Funds Hi-Tech 3-D Exhibit At Aquarium
Planet Earth will be the focus of futuristic displays to premiere in 2013 in three American cities, including Long Beach.
The Aquarium of the Pacific will be among two other educational facilities nationwide to host Our Instrumented Earth exhibits on high-tech 3-D spheres in collaboration with NASA, which is funding the project, officials annouced last week.
The space agency awarded the $331,000 grant to Long Beach’s aquarium to oversee construction there as well as at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and NASA’s Goddard Visitor Center in Maryland, near Washington D.C.
The exhibits are expected to be completed in 2013, the same year that NASA is facing federal budget cuts. While changes in funding may have have an impact on future space exploration, it isn’t stopping NASA from launching educational missions right here on Earth.
“The program will focus on how satellites and other observing systems contribute to our understanding of how Earth is changing and what those changes may mean to humans,” said Aquarium of the Pacific president Dr. Jerry R. Schubel, on the aquarium’s web site.
A six-foot diameter globe called the Magic Planet will transport viewers around the world and beyond by displaying NASA satellite images on the spherical screen, according to a news release on the aquarium’s web site.
The Earth’s rotation, monitoring systems and climate change will all be explored and enhanced with the use of multimedia equipment so technologically sophisticated that the project requires assistance from scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and the University of California, Irvine to construct.
The educational endeavor will also promote STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) learning and career choices for underprivelged youth, with part of the grant going to outreach programs at OMSI, according to a news release.
The project comes amid extensive budget cuts to NASA that if passed by Congress, will reduce funding to the space agency by more than $59 million in 2013 to $17.7 billion, a bare bones measure that has prompted the creation of a petition requesting that the government at least double NASA’s annual budget.
While missions to Mars may be curtailed as of next year, along with the agency’s vision “to reach new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind,” NASA, in partnership with the aquarium, is ensuring visitors and residents of Long Beach will still have a chance to explore Our Instrumented Earth.
For more information on the upcoming exhibit, click here.