For Release: Aug. 28, 1996

John Dumoulin, CA20
Marshall Space Flight Center
(205) 544-6541

RELEASE: 96-159

SPACE STATION EXHIBIT A ‘WAY OUT’ EXPERIENCE

A full-scale mock-up of one of the International Space Station’s science laboratories and the crew’s living quarters will be on display during Star Trek’s 30th anniversary celebration Sept. 7-8 at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, Ala., allowing visitors to get a "feel" for how astronauts will live and work aboard the real thing in just a few years.

Billed as "Star Trek 30: One Weekend on Earth," the event is expected to feature more than a dozen actors from Star Trek productions, as well as Apollo astronauts.

"NASA’s space station mock-up lets visitors experience what it will be like to be an astronaut," said John Dumoulin, exhibits manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. "It copies the real station hardware being built right now. It is as realistic as we can make it without removing the gravity."

The hands-on exhibit travels in two 48-foot trailers, which are connected in an "L" shape.

Inside the living quarters, visitors see where the international crew members will sleep, exercise, relax and prepare their meals. Visitors are able to step into the astronaut’s shower and bathroom compartments, peer into storage drawers, or look out the porthole to Earth. They can even "zip-up" into an astronaut sleeping bag, called a "sleep restraint unit."

The laboratory module in the companion trailer features mock-ups of actual experiments scheduled to be aboard the space station.

"The space station will be a permanent orbiting science institute capable of performing long-duration materials and life science research in a near gravity-free environment. It will accelerate breakthroughs in science, technology and engineering which will have immediate, practical applications for us back here in Earth," Dumoulin said.

Scientists will study the basic workings of the human body aboard the station to provide better methods for adapting to living in space, with applications to treatments for people who suffer from physical disabilities on Earth.

In the exhibits laboratory, visitors see racks along the walls where life sciences research will take place. Visitors learn about the station’s research experiments on the growth and study of protein crystals, research that could help in the prevention and treatment of diseases on Earth. They can ask staffers about the study of cell and tissue growth in space which will allow scientists to better understand the role gravity plays in how cells join together to create either healthy or unhealthy tissue.

Racks in the floor and ceiling depict facilities designed to help scientists study materials and fluids. Aboard the real space station, scientists will conduct experiments to find better ways to produce electronic materials such as semiconductors, crystals for lasers, computer chips and solar cells. Other experiments onboard the space station will examine the behavior of fluids in the absence of gravity.

The International Space Station is considered to be the largest scientific cooperative program in history, drawing on the resources and scientific expertise of 14 nations: the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and 10 other European countries. Assembly of the station in orbit will begin in 1997 and be completed in 2002.