In an era when NASA routinely gives us full-color photos of exotic space phenomena, museums are hard pressed to match that excitement. In the Mars exhibit, you get a shot at running a full-sized model of the Mars Rover across a simulated landscape. Built by a Salt Lake City firm that made its name building flight simulators, the StarRider system uses six computer-driven projectors to illuminate a dome above your seat. The images it generates allow you to fly by a black hole or through a supernova. Adler's newly renovated sections open to the public Dec. 26.
Visitors make their choices on armchair controls, eventually finding what they seek.
These StarRider trips are as close as most of us are likely to get to real space travel. It's a metal sphere 12 feet across, with holes punched in its sides. You walk in and light shines through the holes, which are supposed to look like stars. It doesn't look like much in this technologically advanced age. But the old Adler was enough, when I was 12, to whet my appetite for science - just as the dynamic new Adler will inspire today's curious kids to dream of the stars.