TASK

Create an exhibit that will engage 5th graders and encourage them to see themselves as part of the future of spaceflight.  

DRIVING QUESTIONS

  • How can we excite 5th graders about careers in spaceflight and emphasize a wide range of career paths?
  • How can we make sure girls feel equally seen and heard?
  • How do we approach the topic of space travel without being too speculative or making grand promises

DESIGN SOLUTION

Based on site analysis and client input, the team created a circular area comprised of modular wall units, each one of five key stations: What we Eat, How we Travel, What we Build, How we Live, and Where we Live.  These stations each address areas in which emerging technology is being imagined, prototyped, or adapted for space. Further, they feature a diverse cast of role models who have careers in the space industry.  A geometric dome hangs above the central learning space, and serves as a canvas for video projection.  Displays can be easily updated as the museum sees fit.  Like the station names, exhibit content uses the fundamental 6W’s to prompt young audiences to respond by asking their own questions as they discover what opportunities and challenges spaceflight holds.

My Role: Member of the How We Travel Team

​My Responsibilities: Elevations, perspective renderings, signage

PROJECT INTENT

The How We Travel section of Space for All aims to introduce 5th graders, the target audience, to commercial spaceflight as part of our not-so-distant future, and the men and women working in the emerging industry.  It emphasizes preparation for travel, a familiar concept for people of all ages, but places it in a context most have never encountered: outer space.  They will see what new considerations arise when travel is taken outside of Earth’s atmosphere.

Interior dome and seating

Wide view of exhibit structure- the walls are easily movable, and can be rearranged or removed completely via the hangar doors to make space for museum events. 

ELEVATIONS AND PERSPECTIVE DRAWINGS

Media Wall-Displays content about 3 companies who have been leading the charge toward suborbital spaceflight: Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and Space X.  The cubbies are all highly visual, though viewers can interact with each of them in different ways, whether they are immersed in a VR tour or observing parts of the New Shepard rocket light up with corresponding information.

Artifact Case-Features space-flown objects from Blue Origin’s New Shepard Space Shuttle.  We felt displaying physical artifacts in this exhibit was essential to helping visitors form a closer connection to the vast reaches of space. 

Packing Activity-Encourages 5th graders to envision what they would want to take with them to space while teaching them, through decision-making and consequence, about the differences between packing for intergalactic travel vs for Earth travel.

SIGNAGE DETAILS

WALL OF SPACE INDUSTRY LEADERS

Those under the dome will be surrounded by real men AND women whose careers intersect with the future of space exploration.  The goal with this display is for visitors to see the kinds of jobs that exist in the space industry and to realize that there is a diversity of folks involved.  

Professor Tim McNeil’s Narrative Environments class

Spring 2019 

Status: Conceptual & approved for construction/implementation with funding from NASA