The exit from the theater ended up putting us right into the Destination Station exhibit, about the ISS (the one we got to preview a couple weeks ago). We looked at a few things we missed during our first visit, including this glove used during extra vehicular activity (space walking!).
It looked like the glove would be a pretty good fit for CJ?
The kids also answered some ISS trivia on a touch screen. (They scored 100 percent!)
From there, we went to another new exhibit at PSC, "Imaginate," which is a multi-activity exhibit designed to introduce visitors to skills and attitudes it takes to innovate. It tests people's observation and questioning skills and risk taking mettle.
One of the things the kids did was play with touch screens that let them swap out face parts. At the top of the post, you see Annabelle's 'before' photo. Here's her after.
One of the things the kids did was play with touch screens that let them swap out face parts. At the top of the post, you see Annabelle's 'before' photo. Here's her after.
Yowza. I think I like her before MUCH better.
CJ gave it a go, too. Here's his 'before' ...
His after is downright frightening!
He was quite pleased with it. :)
There were a couple of displays about flight, including one where a computer predicted your wingspan.
The kids also experimented with paper airplanes, gears, friction, sound, illusions and more. One exhibit was all about innovations, including ferrofluid, which was invented by Stephen Papell of NASA in 1965. It was an innovative way to move fluids in space, using magnets to manipulate the iron-oxide enriched liquid.
The kids had lots of fun trying to get the ferrofluid to make the porcupine shape above.
And, of course, we can't have a trip to Seattle Center without the obligatory Space Needle shot.
HISTORY LESSON: Today the kids test drove a new-to-them history-oriented game, "Mission US." It's an in-depth, interactive multimedia game, with animation, narration, sound effects, text and more.
There are two missions to choose from. The kids both opted for Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” It put them in the role of Nat Wheeler, a printer’s apprentice in Boston in 1770. During their adventure, they encounter Patriots and Loyalists, and when conflict escalates to the point of the Boston Massacre, players are faced with choosing where their loyalties lie.
The second mission is “Flight to Freedom,” where they player is a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky who is navigating her way to freedom in the North.
There are two missions to choose from. The kids both opted for Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” It put them in the role of Nat Wheeler, a printer’s apprentice in Boston in 1770. During their adventure, they encounter Patriots and Loyalists, and when conflict escalates to the point of the Boston Massacre, players are faced with choosing where their loyalties lie.
The second mission is “Flight to Freedom,” where they player is a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky who is navigating her way to freedom in the North.
CJ and Annabelle each spent well over an hour playing their roles and learning about revolutionary times in America. CJ, especially, loved the game, and wasn't going to be satisfied until he saw his mission through to the end.
MEANWHILE, AT NASA: We'll be on launch alert Thursday, when NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft-and-science instrument is set to launch.
Image Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin
Pictured here in a clean room at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Sunnyvale, Calif. Per NASA, "IRIS is designed to provide significant new information to increase our understanding of energy transport into the corona and solar wind and provide an archetype for all stellar atmospheres." Using spectrometry and imaging, it will trace the flow of energy and plasma through the chromosphere and transition region into the corona.
Here's a short video about the IRIS mission ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZ8EQKtSWQ
While we'll be following the launch's progress, it's definitely not a typical fired-from-the-pad endeavour. Rather, it's a mid-air launch! IRIS will get a lift into Earth orbit on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket. The relatively petite Pegasus is NASA's only winged launcher in NASA's inventory, and has launched 18 successful missions to date.
Photo credit: NASA, via Wikipedia
The Pegasus, with IRIS on board, will be carried to about 39,000 feet under a modified L-1011 airliner taking off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Once at the designated spot over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, the plane will drop the Pegasus to begin the launch.
More on IRIS here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/iris/index.html
NASA also recently released a new photo of the Orion crew module.
Image Credit: NASA
In the photo, NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Ricky Arnold step into the module hatch during a series of spacesuit check tests conducted on June 13, 2013, at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Hopefully sooner rather than later, the Orion crew module will serve as both transport and a home to astronauts during future long-duration missions to an asteroid, Mars and other destinations throughout our solar system.
On Monday, we watched long stretches of a 6-plus hour spacewalk by cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin . The two installed cable clamps, attached handrails and tested rendezvous equipment to help ready the International Space Station for installation of a new Russian laboratory module later this year.
It was interesting trying to read about the spacewalk on the Roscosmos Web site. We could understand a lot more after Google translated it into English for us. ;)
MEANWHILE, AT NASA: We'll be on launch alert Thursday, when NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft-and-science instrument is set to launch.
Pictured here in a clean room at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Sunnyvale, Calif. Per NASA, "IRIS is designed to provide significant new information to increase our understanding of energy transport into the corona and solar wind and provide an archetype for all stellar atmospheres." Using spectrometry and imaging, it will trace the flow of energy and plasma through the chromosphere and transition region into the corona.
Here's a short video about the IRIS mission ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZ8EQKtSWQ
While we'll be following the launch's progress, it's definitely not a typical fired-from-the-pad endeavour. Rather, it's a mid-air launch! IRIS will get a lift into Earth orbit on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket. The relatively petite Pegasus is NASA's only winged launcher in NASA's inventory, and has launched 18 successful missions to date.
The Pegasus, with IRIS on board, will be carried to about 39,000 feet under a modified L-1011 airliner taking off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Once at the designated spot over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, the plane will drop the Pegasus to begin the launch.
More on IRIS here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/iris/index.html
NASA also recently released a new photo of the Orion crew module.
In the photo, NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Ricky Arnold step into the module hatch during a series of spacesuit check tests conducted on June 13, 2013, at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Hopefully sooner rather than later, the Orion crew module will serve as both transport and a home to astronauts during future long-duration missions to an asteroid, Mars and other destinations throughout our solar system.
On Monday, we watched long stretches of a 6-plus hour spacewalk by cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin . The two installed cable clamps, attached handrails and tested rendezvous equipment to help ready the International Space Station for installation of a new Russian laboratory module later this year.
It was interesting trying to read about the spacewalk on the Roscosmos Web site. We could understand a lot more after Google translated it into English for us. ;)
Thanks for the lesson on Ferrofluid. Fascinating.
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