It's no question that outer space has fascinated mankind for centuries, and space is often synonymous with Houston, home to Johnson Space Center and Mission Control. Beginning with NASA's own Space Center Houston, museums and organizations around the city are celebrating the anniversary, from special events and commemorations to exhibitions and world premieres.
The official Space Museum in Houston is one of only a few places in the world where visitors can see a Saturn V rocket, an Apollo capsule that was actually flown (Apollo 17), see and touch rocks brought back from the moon by Apollo astronauts and sit in the gallery of Mission Control where the famous words of the Apollo 11's touchdown were first heard. Space Center Houston also offers behind the scene tours that let the visitors glimpse into the lives of astronauts.
"Facing Mars" is a United States premiere featuring interactive stations that encourage visitors to "walk on Mars," test and launch rockets, "fly over" the Martian landscape and consider the ramifications humans face in their quest to reach the Red Planet. I believe that this innovative exhibit focuses on the real challenges of sending human explorers to Mars. With nearly 30 experiences, "Facing Mars" combines a range of hands-on with compelling artifacts such as a rare Mars meteorite from West Africa and stunning imagery to engage participants in the physical, psychological and scientific challenges involved in journeying to Mars.
It seems to me, that even I could become a rocket scientist for the day and explore the challenges of aerodynamic stability. Just imagine experiencing what it is like to "walk on Mars" at a station that subtracts 60 percent of your weight to simulate Martian gravity. Additionally, visitors may examine some of the potential psychological and emotional stresses that astronauts may face on their journey, studying how contagious emotions can be and discovering where their own personal threshold lies. There is also an actual size model of the Mars Exploration Rover on loan from NASA until Sept. 2, 2009.
And then starting on Sept. 27, 2009, through Jan. 10, 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston will have an exhibition entitled, The Moon: "Houston, Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle Has Landed." It pays tribute to the achievements of the Apollo space missions, placing the unforgettable pictures of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the context of the age-old fascination with earth's closest neighbor. The exhibition provides an overview of 500 years of fascination with the ever-
changing phases, yet an ever-constant image of the moon. There will also be at least 30 works of art on view, from an exquisite 15th century Madonna whose virginity was compared to the immaculate surface of the moon to romantic moonlit landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich and groundbreaking treatises on the moon including Galileo Gaelilei's Sidereus Nuncius of 1610 as well as 17th century telescopes and other scientific instruments, moon gloves and maps.
It was President John F. Kennedy who fostered the establishment in 1961 of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973) and created Houston's aerospace industry. However, the space industry suffered greatly in 1986 after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch. The recession of the late 1980s also saw a sharp plunge in Houston's major oil economy. Since that recession, Houston has focused on aerospace and health care, biotechnology and reduced its dependence on the petroleum industry and gained a reputation for excellent health services. Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions and NASA's Space Center where the Mission Control Center is located.
As a matter of fact, my late husband had open heart surgery and an artificial aortic valve replacement in Houston more than 30 years ago by Dr. Denton Cooley. The two well respected and outstanding pioneers in cardiovascular surgery at that time were Houstonians Dr. Michael DeBakey of Methodist Hospital and Baylor University and Dr. Cooley of The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Hospital. They both are world-renowned surgeons but bitter rivals until 2007 when DeBakey was 99 and Cooley was 88 years old. They finally ended their feud in that year and continued their spectacular careers.
Copyright by Marcia Abramson
