At first glance, a school bus might not be the type of vehicle that you would expect to take on a trip to Mars, but this is no ordinary school bus that has taken up residence in the parking lot of the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Besides the obvious of being painted orange and blue rather than the traditional yellow, the bus is the venue for the new Mars Experience, an interactive virtual reality experience that teaches visitors about life on Mars that opened this past weekend.
The bus was a gift from Lockheed Martin, who produced the program and originally had taken it around the country to middle schools, inspiring future space explorers. As part of the experience, visitors will simulate a drive around Mars, seeing things like the Curiosity rover, an envisioned Martian colony and being exposed to the varying conditions and challenges of the planet.
To create this experience, the bus windows have been replaced with LED screens, which also means that users do not need to wear googles, creating a true group experience.
“We’ve been toying around with some virtual reality with our app,” says Barbara Gruber, supervisor of educational programming at the National Air and Space Museum, “but nothing on this scale and certainly nothing that has the potential to go out to schools.
Already the bus is planning to make an appearance at Sterling Middle School in Loudoun County in December. Additional trips are expected in the future, but no plans have yet been determined.
“It’s a visually rich experience, and the goal is for [students] to be inspired and to maybe look at more information about Mars and engage in some additional activities at the museum that hopefully teach them a little more about what it’s like to live on another planet,” says Gruber.
Though there is a big push for students to enjoy the experience, any visitor to the Udvar-Hazy Center can take part.
Udvar-Hazy’s push for furthering Mars education is just getting going with the bus. Starting on Black Friday and throughout Thanksgiving weekend, the museum will host a countdown to the landing of the InSight space probe on Mars. In addition to the Mars Experience bus, the museum will have a model of the InSight, an official countdown and commentary on the NASA live feed. The InSight is scheduled to land on Mars in the afternoon on Monday, Nov. 26.
The bus was part of the Udvar-Hazy Center’s “Air & Scare” event over the weekend, and will now be open to the public every weekend indefinitely. // National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway, Chantilly; airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-center
