From: oneil@aio.jsc.nasa.gov (Graham O'Neil)
Subject: Houston, Space Center has landed
Followup-To: sci.space
Summary: New visitors and education center at JSC a smash hit
Keywords: Hands on, Space Flight Education, IMAX
Organization: NASA Johnson Space Center
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 14:39:23 GMT

What I did on my Columbus day holiday.  I went to Space Center Houston
for a preview.  Space Center Houston is the new visitors facility for
Johnson Space Center (JSC).  It contains 4 separate display
participation areas inside and a tram stop for guided tours of JSC
facilities.  In addition, there is a great gift shop, a food court,
and an upscale dining area called ``Silver Moon Cafe.''

As you pass the ticket entrance, you enter the Space Center Plaza,
which is mostly empty space with a full scale shuttle mockup nose
protruding.  The shuttle mockup is the only area, I didn't get a
chance to checkout.  An astronaut said it was comparable to the
training mockups in building 9.  There is also an Manned Maneuvering
Unit (MMU) trainer mounted on an air bearing floor.  They have about 5
or 6 demos an hour with participants selected from on-lookers.  After
strapping you in the chair, you are given a sequence of 6 tasks to
complete on a satellite servicing part task trainer.  Mounting of the
hand-controllers and their use have a feel similar to that of an MMU
on the large air-bearing floor [although without any cross coupling].
Obviously, stabilization and attitude hold are easier than in the
3-dimensional case.  For the kids in the crowd [over 8], this was the
big hit, however, they could only select about 1 in a 100 volunteers.

On the left hand side of the MMU trainer is ``The Feel of Space''
area.  This has a mockup of the Space Station Freedom Habitation
module with cutaway viewing by a gallery seating about 150.  They have
a well paced program talking about living in space and the
transformations required for everyday routines.  They try to pick a
youngster from the audience and walk them through sleeping, showering,
meal preparations, and cleanup activities.  The show runs about 45
minutes and is given hourly. There is some variance from one show to
the next.

For hands-on excitement, this area is number 1; it also has the video
games.  These are free and represent a chance to learn while playing.
There are 3 basic game motifs; an overview of the shuttle systems, an
orbital rendezvous and satellite retrieval mission and a chance to
take the stick of the shuttle in the heading alignment cone at 10 Kft
and grease it in for a landing [right :-)] at Kennedy Space Center
(KSC).  It is probably not too difficult, they explain the Heads-Up
Display (HUD) symbology and show you what the flight path should look
like.  However, the only person who got a landing that could be walked
away from had about 50 missions in the Systems Engineering Simulator
(SES), and my 9 year old son wound up chasing the guidance display
diamond, flying inverted on an outbound course, stalling and failing
to recover.  At least in the hot washup, the instructor only said,
``That was different.''

The Space Center Theater area is an IMAX theater with a 25 minute film
running called, ``To Be an Astronaut.''  I give it about 4.5 *s.  Well
worth the wait.  In addition to standard IMAX audience grabbers, the
film was also interesting, because they used a mix of real people
doing real work and actors to boost the dramatic entertainment value.
The screen flashed through many interesting vignettes including work
on the vomit comet, a sequence of Weightless Environment Training
Facility (WETF) shots, a mission simulation and scenes from a real
mission.  The wait was not really much of a problem, because the
waiting gallery has an exhibit of space suits and a few words about
the astronauts who wore them.  Along one wall is a set of crew
photographs for the STS missions.

The Starship gallery has some of the old building 2 museum exhibits
and a movie, ``On Human Destiny.'' The movie was fun, exciting and
stirring.  The scene and narration of 51-Lima was so powerful and
poignant that I had to pause a moment before explaining to my son what
was happening.  After seeing the movie, you exit to the exhibits. I
know these were over in building 2, but they sure didn't look this
good.  The first part of the display hall was a great overview of
history, technology innovation and impressive artistic design.  The
Skylab trainer module was closer to the Smithsonian exhibit in this
incarnation than it was in building 5.  It was nice to walk through it
again to get a feel for living/working conditions and size. A vault
with a replica of the moon rock lab and a moon rock you can touch led
into an area with Apollo displays and equipment.

The Mission Status Gallery has a set of canned programs showing what
happened today in space, what progress is made for the next mission,
etc.  This came the closest to being a disappointment.  One of the
kids and my wife nearly fell asleep.  The biggest news about space,
NASA or even JSC local wasn't really touched on.  There was no mention
of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter entry, no status on Mars Observer,
Galileo, Ulysses or the joint missions with the Russians.  The crew
said that once things got rolling, there would be more real time
insertions, and better planning on presentation of space activity
status.

We didn't go on the tram tour, but there are two routes possible.  One
goes to the control center at building 30 for a walk-through of Mission
Control Center (MCC).  The other is a facilities tour and includes the
SES, WETF, and the station and shuttle mockups in Building 9.  No one
was able to explain how all these would be conducted so as not to
interfere with business.  There is a viewing gallery along one wall of
Building 9 with the station and shuttle mockups, but I haven't seen
anything comparable with the SES and WETF, although they are
constructing an addition to the building.

The admission is $8.75 for adults, $5.25 for children, school groups
with advance arrangements have free admission for the students.  The
center is wheelchair accessible [except for the MMU trainer].

A great job was done by NASA, Manned Space Flight Education Foundation
[the owner and operator] and the Disney Imagineering team.  There is
considerable education content for almost any education level or age.
Even the most jaded of space junkies will find something to tickle
their imagination, rouse their curiosity, or maybe just turn them
green with envy.  In fact, the families of the astronauts, employees
and contractors at JSC all had a great time and most didn't want to
leave [long lines and all].  For something they live with and must
have seen several times in the old setting, I think this level of
interest says a lot about the good times and the learning experience
at Space Center Houston.

The food is definitely more expensive than at the Building 3 cafeteria
and the gift shop items are about $.50 to $2.50 higher in price than
the last time I checked.  However, the range of material in the gift
shop is so much wider, it is difficult to believe.  The only things
missing were shuttle mission T-shirts and coffee mugs, although they
had many attractively design generic shirts and mugs with space themes
on them.  The selection of books was slightly better than the average
Walden Books, hopefully it will get better.

Contact information:  (713) 244-2105 or (800) 972-0369
Space Center Houston
PO Box 580653
Houston, TX 77258-0653

Open 7 days a week from 0900 to 1900 except Christmas starting on 16
October 1992.  Allow about 4 to 6 hours for the entire tour.  Put it on
your calendar if you come within a few hours travel of Houston.

graham










-- 
Graham O'Neil    oneil@aio.jsc.nasa.gov      GONEIL@nasamail  
Lockheed  2400 NASA RD 1 Houston, TX 77058  (713)333-7197
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