NASA Highlights Where We've Been, Where We're Going

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Jul 25, 2011, 04:05 ET

NEW YORK, July 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA joins Kimpton's Eventi Hotel in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood to take the public on a virtual tour of the universe and beyond on Wednesday, Aug. 17.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The Eventi Plaza will be transformed into a miniature space outpost filled with displays, demonstrations, interactive exhibits, video segments and children's activities. NASA employees will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to explain how NASA's missions, scientific discoveries and aerospace technologies are influencing and improving the way we live.

Fans can get a sneak peek of those outer-limit destinations leading up to the event at the Eventi Plaza on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EventiHotel. NASA videos will also be shown in the Eventi Plaza on The Big Screen Plaza, a 35-foot high-definition LED screen.

Our message to visitors is simple: When space shuttle Atlantis landed Thursday, July 21, NASA closed the door on yet another historic era in America's space program. The end of the Space Shuttle Program, however, does not mean the end of NASA or the U.S. human space program. Instead, the agency begins a reinvigorated exploration, innovation and technology development program that promises to lead humans and NASA robots to an array of challenging destinations.

With the same spirit of innovation and grit as the early days of spaceflight, NASA is moving out on an exciting challenge to develop the capabilities to explore and, eventually visit, even farther destinations in the solar system - asteroids, Mars, the far planets. Preview those destinations at the Eventi through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope and the scientific satellites that are the precursors to journeys beyond low Earth orbit and into deep space.

We'll start the journey on Earth, coming to a better understanding of our home planet. Visitors can interact with NASA's Home and City video game and trace space back to items we use everyday at home and at work. A walking gallery will showcase many of the commercial products developed from NASA technology. See and talk with NASA craftsmen whose job it is to build scale models of NASA aircraft and space vehicles so each can be tested and judged safe before humans enter the cockpit.

In tribute to the incredible accomplishments of the Space Shuttle Program over the past 30 years, adults and children alike can experience AstroCamp and learn the basics of rocketry, or experience what it's like to live and work in the near gravity-free environment of space. Using Legos, visitors can build such things as airplanes, shuttles, rovers, a moon base or the International Space Station.

Two New York firms -- Honeybee Robotics and MesoScribe Technologies – will demonstrate how they are contributing to NASA missions. Honeybee developed tools that played a critical role in the Phoenix Mars Lander that explored the Arctic Plain of the Red Planet. MesoScribe, specializing in manufacturing sensors for harsh environments, will demonstrate the use of a robotic arm.

Be part of the Moon Base Alpha crew and find a solution to restore the life support capability to a lunar habitat after a meteorite impact. Drive a rover across a lunar terrain from the Eventi plaza.

Enter the Journey to Tomorrow trailer that has been transformed into an interactive environment packed with hands-on activities and digital learning stations. Experience Eyes on the Solar System, a 3-D virtual experience complete with real NASA mission data. Hop on an asteroid. Fly with NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. See the entire solar system revolving around you. You're in charge. You control space and time.

Learn where NASA's been and where we're going. Be a part of this amazing journey on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Eventi Hotel in New York City.

For more information on NASA's future exploration efforts, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/next

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SOURCE NASA