NASA touches down at State Fair; Science Museum hosts Journey to Space

Call it one giant leap for the Minnesota State Fair.

The Great Minnesota Get-Together features extraterrestrial items this year, including a moon rock, with NASA and the Science Museum of Minnesota’s exhibits at the North End Event Center.

“NASA Lands at the Fair for the First Time,” a program highlighting the future of space travel and exploration, will coincide with Journey to Space until Sunday.

Members of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland will be at the fair for the first four days. Mike Lammers, an Albert Lea (Minn.) High School graduate and deputy chief flight director at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, was there on opening day Thursday talking to fairgoers.

“It’s cool that people are interested in what we do at NASA,” Lammers said. “You come back and people think that it’s impressive that you work for NASA, and it’s because I grew up here.

“There are good schools and good universities here, and they’re attractive to tech industries like space.”

The fair exhibits include a look at the evolution of spacesuits and a moon rock from the 1971 Apollo 15 mission. While most of the spacesuits are models or replicas, the one Russian suit was worn by American astronaut Shannon Lucid on a shared mission.

“It is an accomplishment in itself to know that that rock traveled over 260,000 miles back from the moon,” Hartenstine said. “They’re priceless national treasures, and having that available to share with the public is a really cool experience.”

Just remember: Look, but don’t touch the priceless moon rock.

Another section of the exhibit allows Minnesotans to “put themselves literally in the shoes of NASA professionals,” Hartenstine said. The section focuses on the roles at the space agency outside of the astronaut corps.

The NASA team is prepared for thousands of visitors, and the exhibit is set up at the end of the Journey to Space exhibit. Fairgoers must enter the Journey to Space exhibit first, but can walk through it to get to the NASA section faster.

The Minnesota-built, immersive science exhibition Journey to Space is finally home after a decade of traveling across the country. The exhibit showcases what it’s like to visit the International Space Station and will be at the State Fair for all 12 days of festivities.

The exhibit includes two robotic arms that allow visitors to try to move objects like they would in space — one of the best features for Science Museum project leader Sarah Ilse. She said she hopes it will engage people’s curiosity.

“There are a lot of exhibits about space that are really more about that past. This exhibit really focuses on more on what we’re currently doing and what the future holds,” she said. “That allows for visitors to imagine more and think about what it would be like.”

Several videos and models for all ages are part of the exhibit, including many narrated by Suni Williams, the NASA astronaut who was stranded in space for nine months.

Only 300 visitors will be allowed in at a time. Steve Anderson, manager of traveling exhibits at the Science Museum, said his team has organized space for a line to form outside. Anderson, who’s managing the exhibit, said he’s excited to see Minnesotans’ reactions.

“It’s nice to see people being exposed to the science and seeing all of the technology and possibilities,” he said. “Watching kids play on these exhibits is absolutely thrilling to me. It’s one of the best parts of my job.”

Amber Stevenson, the Science Museum’s senior director of traveling exhibits and exhibit sales , said Journey to Space is also meant to challenge people. It ends with questions for fairgoers, including asking whether the government should continue to invest in human space exploration and if they would choose to go to Mars.

Stevenson said she hopes the exhibit helps bring space to Minnesotans in their communal backyard.