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The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the U.S.A. without an automobile

Focus on fast, safe, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit.

Vol. 6, No. 7, June 2013 ============== SPECIAL REPORT: SPACE AGE ATTRACTIONS =============

Illustrations from Smithsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center and Space Coast Area Transit (SCAT).

Spaceship at Udvar-Hazy Center, see p.5. Space Coast Area Transit’s Captain SCAT.

Public transit goes to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Human space flight and Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., are virtually

synonymous. Opening here on June 29 is a new 90,000-sq.-ft. home for Space Shuttle Atlantis

that tells the story of NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program. The space center is 27 miles south

of Melbourne International Airport, from where Greyhound buses go to/from Fort Pierce,

Orlando, Titusville and Vero Beach, with connections to Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm

Beach and points in-between. For more: www.kennedyspacecenter.com

Space Coast Area Transit (SCAT) buses stop outside the main terminal, near the Greyhound

terminal. Bus schedules are posted in the baggage claim area. Adult fare: $1.25. Senior: 60¢.

SCAT Route #1 buses run to/from Melbourne, Titusville and intermediate stops. SCAT Route

#21 bus circulates around Melbourne. Route #26 serves South Beach and environs, stopping at

Patrick Air Force Base, site of a USAF Space & Missile Museum. Route #1 buses go to Cocoa,

from where a #4 bus runs out to Cocoa Beach via Highway 520. In fact, the #4 bus route ends at

Cocoa Beach’s main intersection. Getting around Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral is easy on

SCAT’s “trolley” bus that runs along the beachfront. See: www.ridescat.com

Cocoa Beach Shuttle picks up at Melbourne Airport. See: www.cbshuttle.com

Cocoa Beach area taxi service is available at: www.cocoabeachtaxiservice.com

One-day round-trip tour from Orlando for $95 is offered at: www.TakeTours.com

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Aircraft carrier’s space pavilion opens in NYC July 10 The world’s first real spaceship, the shuttle Enterprise, returns to public view next month

inside a new Space Shuttle Pavilion at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York

City. The pavilion replaces a structure damaged last year by Hurricane Sandy. Visitors will walk

beneath the shuttle, or/and view it straight-on from an observation platform. Beside the space

shuttle, the pavilion contains a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. As visitors enter and observe exhibits,

they hear NASA Control and Enterprise astronaut conversations. There’s also a movie narrated

by actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock aboard the USS Enterprise of sci-fi fame.

Built around the USS Intrepid, a giant aircraft carrier, the museum’s exhibits include a

submarine and 27 classic aircraft, including a British Concorde supersonic airliner.

At Pier 86 on the Hudson River, at the foot of west 46th Street, you can get there by:

NYC Metro Bus: Ride cross-town buses west. M34 (34th Sts), M42 (42nd St.) or M-50 (49th

St.) to 12th Ave. and Hudson River. Intrepid is a short walk north from the M34 and M42. The

M50 drops off immediately in front of the Intrepid.

NYC Metro Subway: Ride the A, C, E, N, R, S, 1, 2, 3, 7 train to 42nd St., then walk or take

the M-42 West Bus to Hudson River (12th Ave). Walk North to Intrepid.

Mars’ future prospects aired at Kalamazoo museum What’s needed to put folks on Mars? At Kalamazoo Valley Museum, noted astronomer.

Benjamin Longmier and other Mars experts answered that question. They traced Earthling

speculation about Mars from ancient times to the present, then guessed likely future possibilities.

Success or failure on Mars depends on finding enough useful water there, said astronomer Harvey

Elliot. Mars historian Davis Strauss recalled 19th Century tales about intelligent Martians, and the

many 20th Century Mars vs. Earth sci-fi magazine stories, movies and TV shows.

The museum’s Challenger Learning Center contains replicas of an orbiting space station

and NASA launch-mission control center. Also here: a first-rate planetarium and 109-seat astro

theater with laser projection surround sound and computer graphics that can recreate the sky as

seen from any location within 300 light-years of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The museum is near Kalamazoo Transportation Center, where 15 Metro Transit bus routes stop, plus

Amtrak trains and Indian Trails and Greyhound buses.

Walk on Moon at Oakland, Calif., but Wed.-Fri. only

Try on a space helmet. Climb into a Mercury capsule. Land a lunar module. Even take a

simulated Moon walk. All this visitors do at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, Calif.

At an exhibit labeled One Giant Leap: A Moon Odyssey, they also learn how humans have

experienced the Moon from ancient times to the present day, plus plans for future exploration.

Another exhibit, Beyond Blastoff, lets them appreciate the exhilaration, adventure and

confinement of working and living aboard an orbiting space shuttle. They see real spacesuits,

spacecraft and astronaut food. They handle real astronaut exercise gear and space tools. This

provides them a glimpse of what it is like living in a space environment.

An exhibit named Destination Universe is a journey from our Sun to places light-years away.

Along the way, visitors see stars born and die, galaxies collide, nebulae galore. If nimble enough,

which Grampa isn’t, they even can crawl inside an astronomical “black hole.”

Chabot, founded in 1883, is well known for its astronomical observatories and large

telescopes. It also has a domed planetarium and movie theatre.

Public transportation to this museum is very limited. AC Transit Route 339 buses run only

Wednesday thru Friday between there and Fruitvale BART station. Trip takes about 25 minutes. Fruitvale BART station and Rockridge BART station each are about six miles away, making a taxi ride

feasible. For more: www.chabotspace.org

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============== SPECIAL REPORT: SPACE AGE ATTRACTIONS ============= Photo credits: Sky Skan and the Franklin Institute; American Museum of Natural History.

Scene from spectacular hi-definition 3D movie ‘To Space & Back’ at Franklin Institute’s Fels Planetarium shows lady using a smart phone to read stuff sent via satellite orbiting our planet. In the background are Philadelphia’s city hall and its distinctive tower. At right: Picture from ‘Journey to the Stars’ show at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City is of our sun exploding into a super nova 5-billion years from now.

Philly’s Fels Planetarium show brings space down to earth As the first men landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, Grampa’s 11-year-old daughter

watched them on a large TV screen in the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute in

downtown Philadelphia. She was one of a bunch of kids at a sleep-over at the institute that night.

To Space & Back is a stunning 28-minute movie currently being shown that uses that

planetarium’s cathedral-size dome as its movie screen. This tells a fascinating story of how

technology that was developed for space travel directly affects ordinary folks every day. A few

examples: maps and GPS directions, cordless drills, fire-resistant clothing, better tennis rackets.

Numerous inventions, innovations and discoveries are shown that spun-off space programs,

including breakthroughs in telecommunications, medical science, energy sources, water

purification, home insulation, etc., with the promise of plenty more to come.

“Space exploration, our greatest adventure, is having a big impact on our lives,” declares the

movie’s a narrator. “It is helping us to discover a universe of unimaginable scale and beauty, and

it is reaching down into our world and influencing the way we live.”

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s #33 bus stops at the Franklin

Institute’s front steps. A short walk down the street is a center-city station where SEPTA regional

railroad trains stop. Close, too, are subway stations of SEPTA’s subway-elevated and subway-

surface railway systems. For more: www.fi.edu and www.septa.com

Journey to the Stars at New York’s Hayden Planetarium Journey to the Stars at Hayden Planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History

in New York City is a spectacular show that takes its audience back 13-billion years into the past

to see the first stars born, and then transports them about 5-billion years into the future to view

our sun's eventual demise. The museum is easily reached via Long Island Railroad, PATH or

New Jersey Transit trains to Penn Station, and MTA Hudson, Harlem or New Haven

commuter trains to Grand Central Terminal. From there, take an uptown B or C subway train to

81st Street station. The museum is right there. The M10 bus stops there, too. The M104 bus

drops-off two blocks east of the museum. For more: www.new.mta.info

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Seattle’s Museum of Flight displays 150-plus air/space craft Seattle's Museum of Flight has spacecraft galore, including a Russian Soyuz craft that has

carried private tourists to and from the International Space Station now orbiting our planet. On

display are hundreds of space-related artifacts dating from the 1960s U.S.-Soviet competition

through the post-Apollo years 1975-2000 and right on up to present day spacecraft, including the

only Viking Mars lander on Earth. Among more than 150 air/space craft on exhibit: a NASA

shuttle trainer in which every space shuttle astronaut was trained, a World War I and II fighter

collection including the world's first (1914) fighter plane, the first Air Force One presidential jet

airliner, the prototype Boeing 747, a British Airways supersonic Concorde transport, and a super-

fast Blackbird spy plane. The museum usually is a half-hour ride on MetroBus #174 whether you

get on in downtown Seattle or at the other end of the line, which is Sea-Tac Airport.

For more: www.museumofflight.org and www.metro.kingcounty.gov

L.A. MetroRail stops within feet of science center California Science Center in Los Angeles has on display Endeavour, a space shuttle with

close ties to California. It was built nearby. There also are some nifty exhibits:

Humans in Space displays: (1) a spacecraft that carried into space a chimpanzee, paving the

way for future human spaceflights, (2) the actual Apollo capsule that docked with a Russian

Soyuz spacecraft in 1975, (3) the Gemini-11 capsule flown to the moon, (4) a spacesuit worn by

astronaut Thomas Mattingly during his Apollo-16 mission to the moon.

Mission to the Planets is another nice exhibit, displaying models of: (a) the spacecraft that

arrived at Saturn in July 2004 and sent a probe to Titan, one of its moons, (b) Explorer-1, first

U.S. satellite to successfully orbit, (c) the first NASA probe that explored the planet Venus,

(d) Viking Lander, first to land successfully on Mars, (e) Sputnik, first human-made object to orbit

Earth, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.

Located in Exposition Park, next to University of Southern California., you can ride there on

the MetroRail Expo Line. Get off at Expo Park/USC station. Museum advises: “Leave your car

at home. Take public transit!” For more: www.californiasciencecenter.org and www.metro.net

Sit on a space-station potty at SpacePlace in Pittsburgh What's it like to float weightless outside a spaceship? Find out at SpacePlace at Carnegie

Science Center, one of four Carnegie museums in Pittsburgh, Pa. Here, you can strap into real

astronaut gear and experience “zero” gravity" as you perform a typical out-in-space maintenance

task. Or/and you can operate a Micro-G Simulator used in actual astronaut training.

Here, too, you can examine closely full-scale replicas of that station’s modules, i.e., two-story

living quarters and workrooms. Maybe nowhere else on Earth can you sit on a Russian-made

toilet just like one on the International Space Station orbiting our planet. Grampa hears nobody

ever leaves the seat up on this potty. He plans to check out this exhibit to see why.

On a Living & Working in Space wall are: (1) a video astronaut answering questions, (2) a

genuine space suit, (3) a launch pad where you can blast-off a rocket, (4) you can activate a

miniature parachute, duplicating what space capsules use as they head to a splash-down.

At the science center is an old Zeiss star projector Grampa recalls from a long time ago.

During 1939 to 1991, it projected stars onto a big dome at Pittsburgh's old Buhl Planetarium.

From downtown Pittsburgh, aka Golden Triangle, there’s a free subway to the science center.

The subway travels through a tunnel under the Allegheny River. Get off at Allegheny station.

Many buses of Allegheny County Port Authority Transit, aka PAT, stop near a subway station.

Coming from north of the city, a PAT route 14 or 18 bus can drop you off at Allegheny station.

For More: www.carnegiesciencecenter.org and www.portauthority.org

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Houston space center focuses on kids and the past Space Center Huston is where NASA’s Johnson Space Center has its public exhibits.

Grampa has been there. It’s designed largely for kids. Lots of razzle dazzle. Unlike other NASA

visitor centers, it seems to glory in past NASA accomplishments, rather than exciting future space

exploration. Its prized exhibits are: (1) the podium at which President John F. Kennedy in 1962

announced the USA's intention to land men on the moon, (2) the historic Houston Mission Control

Center, (3) a space shuttle Explorer replica moved from Cape Canaveral, Fla., where it had been

on exhibit 18 years at NASA's Kennedy Space Center , (4) Apollo, Gemini, lunar rover, Mercury

and Skylab spacecraft, and (5) a 1960s-era Saturn-5 rocket.

The place is run by Manned Spaceflight Educational Foundation Inc.

Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Metro) #246 and #249 buses stop there

and at Eastwood Transit Center, an hour-long trip, connecting to Metro bus routes 40, 42, 66, 77,

88, 246 and 247. For more info: www.ridemetro.org and www.spacecenter.org

Space Shuttle Discovery. Man in space. Mercury Capsule. Astronaut quarantine room.

Really big Smithsonian air/space museum is in Virginia All items above and plenty more are at a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

that’s not in Washington DC. It’s in Chantilly, Fairfax County, Virginia, across the Potomac

River, 26 miles from the DC Mall museum. Named the Udvar-Hazy Center, it contains

hundreds of famous rockets, satellites, aircraft, etc. To name a few: the Discovery space shuttle,

Gemini VII space capsule; giant Redstone rocket, Apollo-11 crew quarantine unit, and 1940s-era

Autogyro, which as a small boy Grampa remembers seeing in Philadelphia. It has everything

you’d expect at a topnotch museum, including an IMAX theater, food service, and museum store.

The 750,000 sq. ft. facility is named for Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy, an aircraft leasing company

executive, who gave the Smithsonian $65-million necessary to have someplace to keep all the big

important stuff that can’t fit into the Air & Space Museum in downtown DC.

To get there, Grampa rode a #5A Metrobus from L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station in

downtown DC to Dulles International Airport and switched to a Virginia Regional Transit

#2 Dulles Connector bus direct to the museum. Bus fare was $3 and 50¢, or $7 total. Metrorail

riders also can transfer to a Dulles-bound Metrobus at Roslyn Metrorail station in northern

Virginia. Like a dozen or so DC-area transit systems, VRT buses accept Senior SmarTrip fare

cards. Bus runs hourly between airport and Dulles Town Center. VRT buses serve 11 Virginia

counties. For more: www.airandspace.si.edu and www.loudoun.gov

New Mexico Museum of Space History not easily reached Four floors of marvelous items pertaining to space, including a full-size Skylab mock-up, are

in this museum. Getting there via public transport isn’t easy. No airlines stop at Alamogordo, nor

do Amtrak trains. Greyhound buses do, as do many group tour buses. Alamo Shuttle Service

runs a van daily between Alamogordo and El Paso International Airport, 87 miles away. Z-Trans

buses run around town and to New Mexico State University just down the hill from the museum,

but not to the museum itself. For more: www.nmspacemuseum.org

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Denver air and space museum mostly winged stuff Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum at 7711 E. Academy Blvd. in Denver,

Colorado, holds many historic aircraft, but not much great space stuff. Located on what once

was Lowry Air Force Base, its space exhibits include: a sci-fi X-Wing starfighter that appeared

in Star Wars movies, and a space station module mockup built by Martin Marietta that was to be

an American-only space station, but never got into orbit, after NASA, Russia and Europeans

teamed up to build what’s now the International Space Station. Denver RTD #6, #65 and #73

buses stop near the museum.

For more: www.wingsmuseum.org and http://www.rtd-denver.com

Huntsville’s nickname is ‘Rocket City’ for good reason U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama, claims to have “the best space collection

on the planet.” Maybe. But it does display more military rockets than any museum anywhere.

There is so much stuff it’s impossible to intelligently examine all that’s worth seeing in one day.

Inside and outside are more than 1,500 rockets, missiles, spacecraft, etc. Admission price isn’t

cheap – $25 each for anyone age 13&up. Kids age 6 to 12 are $20 each. Under age 5 get in free.

Price includes museum and choice of IMAX or 3D movie, excluding feature length films.

Future exhibits will include the next generation NASA spacecraft and a Bigelow Aerospace

orbiting habitat for tomorrow's space tourists pictured in The Travelin’ Grampa last month. .

Huntsville is called “Rocket City” because folks there have developed and built numerous

rockets to carry payloads to targets and astronauts into space. It was at Redstone Arsenal next

door that former Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun helped the U.S. Army win its space

race against the U.S. Navy. Later, it lost its space race with the Soviet Union when the latter

successfully orbited in 1957 its Sputnik-1 satellite and in 1961 orbited cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Old saying: He who laughs last laughs best. Huntsville’s neighbor, NASA’s Marshall Space

Flight Center, is the birthplace of the powerful Saturn family of rockets that, between 1967 and

1973, carried 24 astronauts to the moon and back..

There’s no public transit from downtown Huntsville or the Huntsville Airport, but a Marriott

Hotel next door provides van service, as do Courtyard and other nearby hotels and motels.

Nine Huntsville Shuttle Bus routes operate in the city and suburbs Mon.-Fri. 6 am to 6 pm,

plus a free downtown “trolley” bus Fri.-Sat. 7 am to 2 am. The route #3 Shuttle bus goes to the

Space & Rocket Center. The #3 bus connects to other Shuttle bus routes. One-way adult fare is

$1. Senior fare is 50¢. Transfers are free.

For more: http://rocketcenter.com and www.huntsvilleal.gov

Left: Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center at Huntsville, Ala., contains items from NASA Apollo manned moon missions. Right: January 31, 1958 newspaper proclaiming the first American satellite placed into orbit by a locally produced Redstone rocket.

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Left: Astronaut Garrett Reisman, greeter at San Diego museum’s Space Day celebration. Center: Apollo 12 Command Module that orbited the moon 31 times in 1969 on display at Virginia Air & Space Center, Hampton, Va. Right: Aerial view of U.S. Space & Rocket Center at Huntsville, Alabama.

Astronaut greets San Diego museum Space Day visitors Visitors to the San Diego Air & Space Museum on its annual Space Day were greeted by

veteran astronaut Garrett Reisman. Beside two work tours on the International Space Station, he

flew on space shuttles Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis, plus doing three successful “space

walks” outside orbiting spacecraft. Reisman currently works for SpaceX, a private company that

has built its own spacecraft to fly people and cargo into orbit. “We plan to get to the point that we

can fly to the International Space Station with non-NASA crew by 2015,” he said. “So far, we’re

on schedule.” For more on SpaceX, see The Travelin’ Grampa, May 2013 issue, page 2.

Science, space and aviation history all unfold at this museum. Its collection of historic

air/space craft include: the only real GPS satellite on display anywhere, a real Apollo-9 command

module, and a flyable replica of a plane named the Spirit of St. Louis that American hero pilot

Charles Lindbergh flew in 1927 alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

Get there on a San Diego Metropolitan Transit System #3, #7 or #120 bus. Get off at

Balboa Park, where also are: Fleet Science Center, San Diego Zoo, botanical gardens, etc.

For more: www.aerospacemuseum.org and www.sdmts.com

Long awaited Hampton, Va., space gallery opens “Space Quest: Exploring the Moon, Mars & Beyond” is a big hit at a newly opened space

gallery at Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton, Va. Hanging here are wonderful models of

all the planets in our solar system. Jupiter is 10-feet in diameter and, though made of Styrofoam,

weighs 750 pounds. Saturn is 8½-ft.-diam. And weighs 450 lbs, plus 495 lbs of wings.

A unique feature is an Inter-planetary Travel Agency. You step on a scale here that activates

an electronic Travel Brochure Rack. From it, you select a “brochure” for any planet you’d like to

visit. An electronic “brochure” pops up, displaying what you need to known about that planet to

reach there and stay a while, such as travel time, what to wear, weight of your body while there,

etc. Until this space galley opened, this museum’s main attractions were its many historic aircraft

hanging from its 94-foot ceiling. Now, spacecraft on display include: Apollo-12 command

module, Gemini-10 hatch, Apollo lunar excursion module, Mercury-14 spacecraft, Lunar Orbiter,

and Mars Viking lander explorer.

The museum is convenient to Amtrak, Greyhound and Hampton Roads Transit buses.

For more: www.vasc.org and www.gohrt.com

… Did you read May issue of The Travelin’ Grampa featuring Space Travel? .

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USA’s pioneer spacecraft lab is in Pasadena, Calif. Far back as 1939, what’s now named the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, was firing

rockets spaceward. Then named Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute

of Technology, in the 1960s it began designing vehicles to land on the moon. Today, its robots

are exploring the surface of Mars. Two more set to go there in 2016 and 2020.

All its projects aren't so close to home as Mars and Earth’s moon. JPL missions include

probing the planet Saturn and operating Voyager spacecraft now exiting our solar system.

Located in Pasadena, Calif., its visitor center has about two dozen museum-style exhibits,

including a 17-ft. high life-sized replica of the famous Galileo spacecraft. A presentation entitled

Journey to the Planets & Beyond describes the JPL’s activities and accomplishments. Individual

and group tours of the JPL itself are available, enjoyable, enlightening, free of charge, start about

1-pm, and last about 2 to 2½ hours. Request for a tour should be made 3 months in advance.

Public transit between downtown Pasadena and the JPL include ARTS buses #51 and #52,

Gold Line #3 bus and a Foothill Transit Authority bus. Route #177 Metro buses get there too

early for the tour, the last one scheduled to arrive at 9:21 am, with the first #177 bus returning to

Pasadena at 3:40 pm. Los Angeles Metrorail’s Gold Line has several stops in Pasadena.

For more: www.metro.net and www.jpl.nasa.gov Photo credits: Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum; Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

L to R: Air & Space Museum and two of its zillion space-related exhibits; Metro Smithsonian subway station.

Washington DC Air & Space Museum has no rival Mention the words “air and space museum” and most Americans think of the one on the

Washington DC mall. Indeed, there is little doubt the Smithsonian Institution maintains

probably the largest collection of historic air and space artifacts anywhere. In this huge complex

are several major exhibits about space exploration. One details NASA’s man to the moon

missions. Another reviews the USA-USSR “space race.” Artifacts range from a World War II

vintage V-2 rocket to a Skylab space station visitors walk through.

Moving Beyond Earth is another. This tells about humans living and working in space.

Visitors experience flying on a space shuttle and orbiting aboard a space station, while experts,

sometimes real astronauts, discuss recent and future human spaceflight. Visitors see the Earth as

they would if on an orbiting space station.

Exploring the Planets reviews the history of planetary exploration, as seen by the naked eye,

through telescopes, and from sensational images and data gathered by spacecraft. On display is a

full-scale replica of the Voyager that traveled to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Inside the museum is Albert Einstein Planetarium, with several shows daily, including

spectacular trip-through-space presentations.

This museum is near Metrobus stops and MetroRail subway stations named L'Enfant Plaza

and Smithsonian, where trains of the blue, orange, yellow and green lines stop.

For more: www.airandspace.si.edu and www.wmata.com

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Chicago exhibits answer visitor questions about space How did Earthlings manage to land on the moon? Why did they almost fail to do so?

Who first ventured into space? How does someone dock at an orbiting space station? What is

being learned from rovers exploring Mars? …and from probes studying Saturn? Can you buy a

ticket to travel to the Moon? Answers to such questions are supplied by exhibits and staff at the

Henry Crown Space Center of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry that is so very

easily reached via public transportation.

Here, you can study an Aurora-7 Mercury spacecraft, and examine a full-scale model of a

Gemini spacecraft designed to reach a proposed NASA space station. At its big Omnimax theatre,

you can see a 3D movie titled Space Junk that tells about space debris that threatens the safety

of satellites, astronauts and our space-traveling grandchildren (see The Travelin’ Grampa, May

2013, p.14.). Don Kessler, space junk expert, narrates as the audience flies through space,

dodging mind-boggling collisions, natural and man-made, before going off to explore a meteor

22,000 miles above our planet.

To get there by public transportation from downtown Chicago, take a Metra Electric Line train

to 55th/56th/57th Street station, just two blocks from the museum’s north entrance. Turn left as you

exit the station. South Shore Line trains from Indiana also stop at the 57th Street station. Stopping

nearby, too, are CTA buses #2, #6 and #10. For more: www.msichicago.org/getting-here

Far-out ideas aired at Minnesota planetarium Colonizing the Solar System was the title of a recent Alworth Planetarium presentation

at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Minn. Besides viewing full-dome videos and

spectacular projections, the audience heard experts discuss space medicine, aerospace

engineering, astrophotography, and mining asteroids for their mineral contents. One speaker

described “hibernation” as a way humans might endure extremely long space travel missions.

Another suggested “terraforming Mars” to make it livable for Earthlings like you and me.

Duluth Transit Authority (DTA) route 11 and 13 buses stop near the museum.

Photo credits: University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics; Lockheed Martin.

You can have your name sent to Mars, but you must act fast A microchip similar to this one is now on Mars and contains names of 1,246,445 people from 246 countries, including visitors to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. Two chips like this are on the back of NASA’s Curiosity rover robot vehicle now exploring the surface of that planet. You can send your name there on NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft now being readied for launch to Mars. You can do so by sending your name by July 1 to: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/send-your-name/

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Photo credits: Sheep221, Wikipedia; NASA; Mike Russell.

Waterfront light rail line, left, goes to NASA Glenn Visitor Center in the Great Lakes Science Center, right, named for John Glenn. In 1962, he became first American to orbit Earth, and in 1999 at age 77 the oldest.

Ride Cleveland RTA to a walk on a Mars landscape NASA Glenn Visitor Center relocated from NASA’s sprawling Glenn Research Center

outside Cleveland awhile ago. It’s now downtown in the Great Lakes Science Center. Named

for Ohio native, senior-citizen astronaut and U.S. Senator John H. Glenn, it has three brand new

galleries reflecting the latest space-related events and trends.

Here, you can see what it’s like to travel, work and live in space, and what life might be like

for a future resident of Mars. You can see here, too, how astronauts currently live and work on

the International Space Station now orbiting our planet. Then, climb inside a replica of a Mercury

capsule that’s here, and later walk on a replica of a real Martian landscape.

Displays include a giant airbag Glenn Research Center tested before being flown to Mars to

help land robot rovers on that planet’s surface. Also here are: real moon rocks, stuff from John

Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission, and the actual 1973 Skylab 3 Apollo command module

NASA visitor center is one of several exhibition areas within Great Lakes Science Center

dedicated to: alternate energy, biomedical technology, an Omnimax theater, polymers and an

entire floor containing more than 100 interactive science related exhibits, plus a real Great Lakes

steamship named the SS William G. Mather, which itself is a floating museum.

This museum is reached via Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus

routes 39, 39E, 55, 55F, 77F, 239, the Waterfront light rail line, and B-Line trolley.

For more: www.greatscience.com and www.riderta.com

Craft at San Jose museum seek life on distant worlds The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif., aka The Tech, currently is featuring

NASA planetary exploration probes and a Kepler planet-hunting telescope spacecraft involved

with a search for Earth-size planets in solar systems adjoining our own. Such planets might

sustain life, perhaps even intelligent life. These exhibits complement a current Planetary Probe

Conference at San Jose State University. Senior gets $5 knocked off regular $15 adult museum

admission price, and $2 off regular adult $10 IMAX educational film admission. Better still,

senior can get into both for only $15 total.

Museum is reached by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus routes

23, 63, 64, 65, 81, 168, 180, 181 and DASH, and VTA Alum Rock - Santa Teresa and Mountain

View - Winchester light rail lines. VTA 180 bus connects to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)

train at Freemont Station. Folks coming on Amtrak, Caltrain, Capitol Corridor or ACE trains

can transfer to VTA light rail at San Jose Didron station. Get off to at the San Jose McEnery

Convention Center stop, walk east to Market Street, then north one block on Market to the

museum at Park Avenue. For more: www.TheTech.org and www.vta.org

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Space station gets once-over in Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle At the Pacific Science Center in Seattle this summer is Destination Station, a NASA exhibit

telling visitors about the International Space Station that’s run by five space agencies representing

15 countries. Seattle Metro buses stopping at the science center’s entrance include routes 1, 2, 3,

4, 6, 8, 19 and 24. This exhibit was at Arizona Museum of Natural History in Phoenix from

December to March, and at Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta in April and May.

Space travel popular topic in Atlanta this year

Destination Station and We Choose Space were planetarium shows earlier this year at

Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, Ga. This summer, the center features an Apollo space

capsule and an interesting video that knits together scenes from the entire launch sequence, plus a

very nice meteorite exhibit.

The museum is reachable via Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s rapid transit

rail system’s Blue Line. Until a few years ago, this was known as the East-West line. Get off at

Decatur station and take a MARTA #2 bus. You can walk there, but it’s a bit of a hike. If you

have a wheelchair, it better be powered, unless you have a strong teenager grandkid along.

MapQuest says it’s 1.57 miles. For more on We Choose Space read below:

Photo credits: NBC News; NASA.

Walter Cronkite, left, on July 20, 1969, watches as Neil Armstrong begins to step upon the moon, right. Pictures were taken by an automatic camera on a pole attached to the Eagle lander craft.

Walter Cronkite narrates We Choose Space planetarium show Narrating the We Cloose Space show are NASA astronauts Gene Cernan, Scott Parazinsky

and Tom Jones – and legendary TV journalist Walter Cronkite, with whom Grampa hobnobbed

every once in a while in Manhattan at business meetings and cocktail parties. Cronkite was part

owner of a publishing company that employed Grampa as an editor. An avid space exploration

fan, Cronkite broadcast the first moon landing on CBS-TV. When Neil Armstrong, first astronaut

to walk on the moon, announced, “The Eagle has landed,” newsman Cronkite stated quietly,

“Man on the Moon.” Then, he smiled, rubbed his hands together, removed his eyeglasses, and

exclaimed, “Whew! O’boy!” Silent for a moment or two, he then turned to his CBS-TV co-

commentator, astronaut Wally Schirra, and said, “Wally, say something, I'm speechless.”

The planetarium show is a joint creation of Houston Museum of Natural Science, Tietronix,

Home Run Pictures and Rice University. Funded by NASA, it tells all about the International

Space Station, and a possible future Moon base and human lunar colony.

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Space Age jewelry at Greenwich Village gallery

Space-related jewelry currently is featured at Forbes Galleries in New York City. Besides

jewelry depicting the moon, planets and stars, on display are beautiful items made from materials

that were developed for space projects, and even made from stuff from outer space. “The purpose

of this exhibition,” explains Elyse Zorn Karlin, exhibit curator, “is to document how the history

of space exploration has been reflected in our popular culture through both fine and non-precious

jewelry, and to showcase the beautiful and whimsical jewels that are being crafted today as

jewelers continue to ponder the mysteries of the universe.” Complete directions on getting there

by train, bus, subway, etc., are at: www.forbesgalleries.com

Take a tour of distant planets at Boston planetarium Future space-traveling tourists will have many planets from which to choose for their

sightseeing, based on current Hayden Planetarium shows at Boston’s Museum of Science.

These have fascinating titles like: Explore the Universe and Moons–Worlds of Mystery. One

entitled Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond Our Sun tells about hundreds of exoplanets

orbiting distant stars, many seemingly able to sustain life. “Discovery of exoplanets puts us one

step closer to the possibility of finding an Earth-like world,” says a show narrator.

Moons: Worlds of Mystery takes the audience on a journey through our solar system,

exploring its numerous moons and their volcanoes, geysers, ice-covered oceans, methane rain,

moons of their own, etc. Many exert considerable influence on planets they orbit, an obvious

example being our own moon’s impact on ocean tides.

Audiences viewing “Explore the Universe” fly off into the far reaches of the Milky Way, our

galaxy, in which Earth is but a tiny spot, to investigate the cosmos.

You can begin to explore such strange new worlds by riding the Massachusetts Bay

Transportation Authority’s Green Line subway to Science Park station, a short walk from the

museum. Take the "E" train. MBTA commuter railroad trains stop at North Station, as does the

Green Line subway. Amtrak trains stop at Back Bay Station, as does the Orange Line subway that

connects to the Green Line. The museum also is accessible via subways from Logan Airport.

Jersey City science center displays SpaceShipTwo model A model of SpaceShipTwo pictured in The Travelin' Grampa last month is currently on

display at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J. The real one, flown by Virgin Galactic, is

ready to fly amateur astronauts into space for $200,000 each, including six minutes of actual

weightless. At this museum last month, Sir Roger Bransom, Virgin Galactic’s CEO, received an

award. NJ Transit Hudson-Bergen light rail line goes right to this museum from Exchange

Place terminal in Jersey City, where stop New Jersey Transit buses from all over, as well as

PATH trains from New York City. Amtrak and NJ Transit railroad trains, Liberty Landing

Ferry and New York Water Taxi also connect to the Hudson-Bergen light rail line.

For more: http://LSC.org and www.njtransit.com

Cleveland museum tells women’s extensive air/space history International Women’s Air & Space Museum at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland,

Ohio, is near the popular Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum and Great Lakes Science Center.

“We welcome you to visit us and discover how Women’s Air & Space History is more than Sally

Ride and Amelia Earhart,” says the museum’s web site.

It can be reached via Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus routes 39,

39E, 55, 55F, 77F, 239, the Waterfront light rail line, and B-Line Trolley.

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National Museum of the U.S. Air Force includes space hall Grampa has toured this largest military aviation museum in the world. On display are more

than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles, including Apollo, Gemini and Mercury craft, amid

more than 17 acres of indoor exhibit space. Taxis and a Greater Dayton Regional Transit

Authority bus go there. For more: www.nationalmuseum.af.mil and www.i-riderta.org

Photo credits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Goddard’s improved visitor center, Greenbelt, Md. Gemini spacecraft at U.S. Air Force museum.

New stuff at NASA exhibit gallery near DC beltway Last time Grampa visited NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., near

Washington DC, he brought along his granddaughter. Neither was particularly impressed. Since

then, its exhibit gallery has been revamped and improved. New displays are added; old ones

either updated or removed. Among the new: (1) a full-size model of a spacecraft now orbiting

Earth’s moon, (2) interactive computer displays, (3) a detailed wall-size picture of the moon,

(4) a James Webb space-based telescope exhibit including full-color views of galaxies, stars,

planets, asteroids, etc. If grandkids accompany you, you’ll appreciate that the children's area also

has been expanded and improved. Greenbelt is in Prince Georges County, which calls its transit

system simply TheBus. Its #15 Express bus to Goddard Space Flight Center also stops at both

Greenbelt and New Carrollton Metrorail stations. The latter is adjacent to an Amtrak station.

Seniors age 60&+ can ride TheBus free-of-charge 6 am to 7 pm, Mon.- Fri. by showing the bus

driver a proper ID, such as a driver license or Senior SmarTrip fare card.

Ames space-based telescope seeks distant livable planets How many planets are livable? Nine? Eight? More than 1,000? At the Exploration Center

of NASA's Ames Research Center near Mountain View, Calif., you can get some idea just how

many habitable worlds might await Earthling tourists. This amazing NASA research installation

welcomes visitors with four short videos. Then they move on to see exhibits about space-based

telescopes named Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel, Kepler and James Webb. In space since March

2009, Kepler is designed to discover planets about the size and temperature of Earth with surfaces

that might contain water, thus maybe are okay for human residency. Kepler constantly monitors

about 100,000 stars and their planets, if they have any. Among latest Ames projects is an airborne

observatory named SOFIA, to complement the famous Hubble telescope.

On exhibit also is a 169-lb. rock retrieved from the Moon by the Apollo 15 crew.

Located at Moffett Field, 12 miles northwest of San Jose, Ames is easily reachable via Santa

Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) route 51 bus. This connects at Mountain View

Transit Center to Caltrain from San Francisco area, and to VTA Mountain View - Winchester

light rail line from San Jose, as well as VTA bus routes 34, 35 and 52.

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============= SPECIAL REPORT: SPACE AGE ATTRACTIONS ============= Illustration credits: Wikipedia; Scholastic; CoverBrowser.com.

From Jules Verne’s 1865 book, From the Earth to the Moon. Scholastic publications Magic School Bus video. Rocket to the Moon cover story in Sept. 1945 issue of Mechanix Illustrated magazine.

Contents of this issue: Alabama: Huntsville, U.S. Space & Rocket Center, p.6.

California: Los Angeles: California Science Center, p.4. Mountain View: NASA's Ames Research Center,

p.13. Oakland: Chabot Space & Science Center, p.2. Pasadena: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, p.8. San Diego:

Air & Space Museum, p.7. San Jose: The Tech Museum of Innovation, p.10.

Colorado: Denver: Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, p.6.

District of Columbia: Washington: Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, p.5.

Florida: Cape Canaveral: Kennedy Space Center, p.1.

Georgia: Atlanta: Fernbank Science Center, p.11.

Illinois: Chicago: Museum of Science & Industry, p.9.

Maryland: Greenbelt: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, p.13.

Massachusetts: Boston: Hayden Planetarium, Museum of Science, p.12.

Michigan: Kalamazoo Valley Museum, p.2.

Minnesota: Duluth: Alworth Planetarium, University of Minnesota, p.9.

New Jersey: Jersey City: Liberty Science Center, p.12.

New Mexico: Alamogordo: Museum of Space History, p.5

New York: New York City: Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, p.3. Forbes

Galleries, p. 12. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, p.2.

Ohio: Cleveland: Glenn Visitor Center, Great Lakes Science Center, p.10. Dayton: U.S. Air Force

Museum, p.13.

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia: Fels Planetarium, Franklin Institute, p.3. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Science Center.

Texas: Houston: NASA Johnson Space Center visitor center, p.5. Museum of Natural Science, p.11.

Virginia: Chantilly: Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, p.5. Hampton: Virginia Air &

Space Center, p.7.

Washington: Seattle: Museum of Flight, p.4.

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