NASA HQ News: NASA Brings Moon and More to Visitors at COSI Science Festival

April 29, 2019
RELEASE 19-034
NASA Brings Moon and More to Visitors at COSI Science Festival
A visitor is immersed in space through a virtual reality tour and learns about space communications.
A visitor is immersed in space through a virtual reality tour and learns about space communications.
Credits: NASA/Tyler D. Fairchild

NASA will host a range of activities and demonstrations, including a virtual reality chair and Oculus Go trip to the Moon, at the COSI Science Festival Wednesday, May 1, through Saturday, May 4, in Columbus, Ohio.

NASA’s exhibit will be in the atrium of the COSI building, located at 333 W. Broad St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT May 1-3, then move outdoors to the Green Area for the Big Science Celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 4.

Festival attendees can explore science, flight and space exploration through NASA’s hands-on, interactive exhibits and activities, including:

    a virtual reality chair, where visitors can get a sense of what it might be like to sit on the surface of Jupiter’s frozen water moon Europa while watching a video about NASA’s planetary missions; 
    three activities that demonstrate how sound travels through the air, how humans survive at high altitudes and the altitudes where objects fly;
    an Oculus Go demonstration that will take visitors on a trip from Earth to the Moon, and explore space communication with NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite; and,
    a model of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and infrared camera, and interactive demonstrations.

Eric Smith, chief scientist for NASA’s Webb Telescope Program, will discuss the telescope’s unique technologies and take questions from the audience beginning at 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 3, in the planetarium of the COSI building.

Media interested in interviewing NASA experts at the science festival should contact Carlos Gomez at carlos.r.gomez@nasa.gov or 216-870-4135.

NASA is charged to get astronauts to the Moon in the next five years with a landing on the lunar South Pole. When we go to the Moon this time, it will be to stay. And then we’ll take what we learn on the Moon, and go to Mars.

Learn more about NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach at:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/moon2mars/

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