3 April ‘09
Friday
We’ve been told so many times that we shouldn’t leave this area before visiting the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The drive up to Huntsville has almost become commonplace, we’ve driven it so much, but we are really looking forward to the Space and Rocket Center. Pulling up to the FREE parking lot, we passed by a large parking area that was set aside for 18 International teams that were here to race their “Moon Buggy’s”.
Friday
We’ve been told so many times that we shouldn’t leave this area before visiting the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The drive up to Huntsville has almost become commonplace, we’ve driven it so much, but we are really looking forward to the Space and Rocket Center. Pulling up to the FREE parking lot, we passed by a large parking area that was set aside for 18 International teams that were here to race their “Moon Buggy’s”.
All the “buggies” were to quickly transport 2 people, one male and one female, through a ½ mile obstacle-coarse that ran through and around the Rocket Park. The Moonbuggy race was inspired by the actual lunar roving vehicle project. The original lunar rover was successfully built by NASA’s Marshal Space Flight Center here in Huntsville. The Moonbuggy Race challenges students to design and build a human-powered vehicle, and in meeting the challenge, they will learn how to deal with real world engineering problems. After entering the main building, we were told to follow the winding staircase to the displays on the second level and then return about an hour later and go over to the IMAX Theater for our showing of Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon. As soon as we rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, we found a Saturn V rocket hanging 10 feet over our heads...IMPRESSIVE !!!
There are 2 more outside, but this one…WOW !!! You’re really up close and personal on this one. Strolling under the Saturn V we studied examples of the engines of the Saturn V
and other rockets that have launched to space from around the country. We also entered into the Quarantine trailer that was used after the first moon landing. It was nothing more than a 24 foot Airstream that had its wheels removed, but was also 4 times larger than the capsule that the 3 astronauts has to live in during their space journey to and from the moon. The time arrived a lot quicker than we thought it would for us to head over to the IMAX, but over-all we did see and digest most of what we wanted to on this floor. As I wrote, our movie was “Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon”. We’ve had a chance to see a lot of IMAX presentations and this one rates towards the top of those we’ve seen…it was really good. Now with the Saturn V display area behind and the IMAX movie finished, we head over to the GAMES and personal entertainment area… We contemplated going on the G-Force Accelerator which spins you up to 3 times gravity but we had already had that experience at Disneyland, so we opted for the Shuttle cockpit trainer. We sat in the cockpit of the shuttle, took the “joy-stick” in hand, and landed the Shuttle at Edwards Air Force Base, California…
