Southeast hosts space exploration exhibit

The first thing a visitor to the SPACE: Dare to Dream exhibit may notice is the noise. President John F. Kennedy's face fills a TV screen in the entrance as asks, "But why, some say, the moon?" Rumbling can be heard from down the hall where a Saturn V prelaunch rocket stimulation is in process. Chirping and nature sounds fill a semicircular room where the presentation "Forest of Dreams" is played.

The exhibit is the latest at Southeast Missouri State University's Memorial Hall and focuses on space exploration. Much of the exhibit features hands-on displays.

"If no one had dared to dream, we wouldn't be where we are. We had to reach out and go where no man had gone before," said Dr. Ernest Kern, a professor at Southeast and the director of the NASA Educator Resource Center.

A guest first passes through an "ancient cosmology" exhibit featuring cave man drawings, Aztec calendars and early maps of the world. From there they can enter the "Forest of Dreams," where two fake trees fill the room and leaves line the ceiling. Lights resembling stars glow through a sheer curtain as a narrator describes the importance of space discovery.

In addition to feeling the rumble of the Saturn V, visitors can watch the rocket's launch on TV monitors and hear controllers discussing navigation. They can also see what astronauts on Apollo 11 would have seen as they landed on the moon, view timelines, watch a video about the future of space travel and listen to a broadcast of Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds".

Additionally, a presenter imitating Galileo talks to visitors and explains how people used to believe the planets revolved around the earth, not the sun.

Students visiting can try identifying foods served in space, touch a tire from a space shuttle, and get an idea of the difficulties weightlessness presents.

"Most kids don't realize how hard it is to work in a weightless environment. Unless you anchor yourself, a person using a screwdriver would spin, not the screw," Kern said. Visitors can simulate this by sitting on rotating chairs and feeling resistance while trying to spin a large valve.

In the NASA exhibit room, there is an Apollo spacesuit, a rock from the moon, space shuttle models and space-related items belonging to Linda Godwin, an astronaut and graduate of Southeast.

SPACE: Dare to Dream has been on tour for five years.

"We are very fortunate to have this. It was a luck of fate," Kern said.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123