The Adler hired BRC Imagination Arts to development a master plan and exhibit concepts that will transform the Planetarium in order to engage today’s diverse, media-savvy audiences with story-driven experiences about the ways we explore our universe.

As a first step in their Master Plan, BRC designed and produced two galleries that introduce human space exploration into the museum’s mission. In the first gallery, Shoot for the Moon: A Journey with Jim Lovell, the story of America’s Gemini and Apollo space programs are told through the eyes of astronaut Jim Lovell (of Apollo 13 fame), and features the Gemini 12 space capsule that Lovell flew with Buzz Aldrin.

A second gallery, Mission: Moon, aims to inspire the Adler Planetarium’s young visitors to play an active role in humankind’s future in space. This highly hands-on gallery makes the risks, rewards and exhilarating thrills of lunar exploration come alive for new generations of potential explorers.

Highlights include: the “Lunar Dangers Training Lab,” a humorous special effects show hosted by a holographic “test dummy” robot; a “Lunar Leap” exhibit that invites visitors to test how high they’d be able to jump in the 1/6-G environment of the Moon; and a computer-based “Touch Down” interactive that challenges visitors to land a spacecraft on the boulder-strewn lunar surface.

Project Credits and Acknlowledgements