NASA’s Driven To Explore Exhibit At Schenectady Museum July 12 & 13

NASA’s Driven to Explore Exhibit at Schenectady Museum July 12 & 13 Features Rare Chance to Touch a 4 Billion-Year-Old Moon Rock Brought Back Aboard Apollo 17 and Much More!

Capital Region residents will have the out-of-this-world opportunity to touch a moon rock brought back aboard Apollo 17 when NASA’s Driven to Explore mobile exhibit makes a stop at the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 12 and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, July 13.

The Schenectady Museum presents NASA’s Driven to Explore Exhibit in partnership with the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST). The mobile, multi-media exhibit immerses visitors in the story of NASA. Visitors will learn why we explore, discover the challenges of human space exploration, and see how NASA provides critical technological advances to improve life on Earth. The exhibit includes imagery and audio and visual technology to connect visitors with the space program, highlighting advanced human research that will ensure safe and sustainable future missions, and next-generation vehicles and surface systems destined for use exploring beyond low Earth orbit.

As part of this unique exploration experience, visitors have a rare chance to touch a 4 billion-year-old moon rock brought back aboard Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon in 1972. The moon rock is one of only eight lunar samples in the world made available for the public to touch.

“The Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium is proud to partner with NASA on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) initiatives like the Driven to Explore exhibit,” said Schenectady Museum Curator of Collections & Exhibitions Chris Hunter. “We are honored NASA chose the Museum as host site for this traveling exhibit. Being able to actually touch a 4 billion-year-old moon rock is an amazing way to excite people about astronomy and complements our existing programs and exhibits.”

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Museum is offering special Planetarium Shows powered by the GOTO Chronos Star Projector, a state-of-the-art star machine that lets visitors see 8,500 stars on the Planetarium dome, close to the actual number of visible stars in the night sky. During these live shows Planetarium Educators will highlight the astronomical phenomena you can see in the current night sky.

In addition to seeing a special Planetarium show, visitors can also spark their imaginations with science activity stations throughout the Museum provided by Schenectady Museum and CMOST Educators, and other collaborators. And, thanks to a loan from CMOST, visitors will be able to see a prototype of the moon boot used by NASA for the historic Apollo 11 mission, which landed man on the moon for the first time in July of 1969. Moon boots developed for NASA missions featured silicone rubber soles made possible by Momentive, then known as GE Silicones.

“CMOST is thrilled to participate in the NASA Driven to Explore exhibit by helping to provide special science programming and by loaning the Moon boot prototype designed for NASA for the historic Apollo 11 mission from our collection,” said CMOST Interim CEO Deborah Onslow. “The Moon boot prototype was donated to CMOST by Momentive Performance Materials, Inc., then known as GE Silicones, which is a heritage company of Momentive Performance Materials, demonstrating our local connection to the Moon landing. The NASA Driven to Explore exhibit represents a great chance for residents of the Capital Region and beyond to discover and explore science.”

In addition to the Mars Rover prototype and Hubble Space Telescope photographs that are currently on display in the Museum’s galleries, there will also be special space artifacts on display for this event only. Visitors can view a display of space-related photographs on loan from Momentive as well as the Schenectady Meteorite.

Visitors will be able to extend their stay at the Museum with a variety of food available for purchase on site. Space ice cream will be available in the Museum shop as well as food from the following Capital Region vendors: Annabelle’s Café, Bette’s Cupcakes, Fast Trax ice cream & kettle corn, Manhattan Exchange and Maria’s Peruvian Delights.

The Museum parking lot will be limited to handicapped parking only on event days. Drivers are welcome to drop off passengers at the Museum parking lot entrance. Parking is available at the following locations: Zion Lutheran Church (153 Nott Terrace); Days Inn (167 Nott Terrace); Holiday Inn (100 Nott Terrace); Union Graduate College (lot entrance off Liberty across from Denny’s); St. John the Evangelist Church (lot behind church on Eastern Parkway, just east of Nott Terrace); and College Park Hall on the Union College campus (450 Nott Street, just east of Erie Boulevard) with the Union College Trolley running from this lot only to the Museum and back.

NASA’s Driven to Explore exhibit at the Schenectady Museum is open Thursday, July 12 from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday, July 13 with last admission tickets sold one hour before closing. Planetarium shows will be offered 12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. July 12 and 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 13.
Admission to the exhibit is $5 for children; $6.25 for seniors, and $7.50 for adults; add $2 for Planetarium Show. The Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium is located at 15 Nott Terrace Heights in Schenectady. For more information, please call 518.382.7890 or visit www.SchenectadyMuseum.org.

Founded in 1934, the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium is the only science center in Tech Valley offering a multimedia experience for visitors of all ages. In addition to the Suits-Bueche Planetarium, which has the only GOTO Star Projector in the Northeast, the Museum houses the GE Photograph collection, with more than 1.6 million prints and negatives; an archival collection with more than 3,500 cubic feet of historic materials; and more than 15,000 objects relating to the history of science and technology. The Museum also offers FETCH! Lab, with hands-on activities patterned after the popular PBS show FETCH!, in collaboration with WHMT.

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