New space exhibition and planetarium show
On 24 November 2016, the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne opened the new space exhibition. A few days later, the planetarium show «Out there» celebrated first worldwide premiere. Both the exhibition and the show have been made possible thanks to the support of NCCR PlanetS.
EURECA Satellite. (Image: Guido Schwarz)
Among the speakers at the opening of the new permanent space exhibition on Thursday, November 24th, were Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, the American ambassador to Switzerland Suzan G. LeVine, Urs Frei from the Swiss Space Office, and the Maxon Director General, Eugen Elmiger. Nicollier said in his speech that the theme of space travel is not only a matter of the brain, but also of the heart.
After the prominent guests pushed the red button together and triggered a symbolic rocket launch, the audience went on a first exploration tour through the exhibition.
Exciting information and fascinating objects
There are exciting information and fascinating objects to see on the given parcours. In a first section the history of space travel is worked out with texts, pictures, film documents and objects. A fantastic object is the reusable research satellite “Eureca” which is hanging in the air. The satellite has been deployed in space by Claude Nicollier in 1992. It was brought back to earth several months later.
In the section “Space Race”, the visitors can see the solar wind experiment of the University of Bern which flew to the moon in 1969 with Apollo 11. In the following section “Rocket Engineering” impressive rocket models and an original rocket engine from the 1960s can be seen.
A physical experience is the huge Space Transformer, a walk-on cube that revolves around its diagonal axis. Inside you can see how it feels when the celing turns to be the floor. The huge room is completed with original objects from the personal property of Claude Nicollier.
If you do not have enough, try the multi axis trainer or look at the mockup of an ISS module in the “Space Activities”.
Rosetta and CHEOPS
The visitors then leave the earth orbit and reach deep space through a Mars landscape with detailed rover replicas. Here you also can find out more about the comet mission Rosetta and the space telescope CHEOPS, the first ESA mission under Swiss management.
In the last section, called «Time & Space», the audience is confronted with the size of the universe and sees some atomic clocks that are important for space travel.
World premiere «Out there»
A few days after the opening of the space exhibition, the new planetarium show “Out there” celebrated world premiere. The show about exoplanets explains in a clear way how people have wondered since a long time whether there are other worlds and other forms of life in the universe. The show tells the story of the discovery of the first exoplanet by Swiss astronomers and shows which earth and space bound instruments are used to search and explore.
Great support by NCCR PlanetS
The new space travel exhibition and the planetarium show “Out there” have been created thanks to substantive financial and content support from the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS.
Guido Schwarz also played a key role in the ideas and implementation proposals for the exhibition. The space travel expert and founder of the Swiss Space Museum is also part of the communication and outreach team of the NCCR PlanetS.
https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/en/museum/space-travel/spaceflight-mission
https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/en/planetarium/out-there
