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An Exploratorium-NASA collaboration actually began before the museum opened its doors: Among the exhibits that greeted our first visitors in 1969 was a Mercury space capsule prototype. Our alliance with the nation’s space agency has continued for more than forty years.
Most recently, we partnered with NASA to cover two total solar eclipses: one in 2016, from a small atoll in Micronesia, and another whose path of totality spread across the United States in 2017. Our 2017 Total Solar Eclipse coverage and mobile app won four awards in two categories at the 22nd Annual Webby Awards. The live stream reached over 63 million people and the app was downloaded 228,000 times and used for 591,000 individual sessions on the day of the eclipse. The app, which included information about the eclipse and safe viewing techniques, allowed users to view the eclipse live from their phones and tablets. It also provided streaming access to the Exploratorium’s five live streams: original Spanish and English language coverage, telescope feeds from Wyoming and Oregon, and the Kronos Quartet’s real-time performance in collaboration with sonified data from the eclipse.
In the past, we also partnered with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which manages NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. We presented more than twenty live webcasts about the rover Curiosity, its extraordinary landing in August 2012, and its initial explorations of Mars. We also filmed behind the scenes at JPL, where the rover was built and tested. And JPL lent us a full-scale model of Curiosity for our visitors to check out.
The rich partnership between NASA and the Exploratorium is based on NASA’s appreciation of our ability to present science and their scientific missions in a way that is engaging and contributes to the public understanding of science. In exchange, NASA has given us virtually unrestricted access to their labs and scientists.
Other significant projects include the following:
The strong relationship between NASA and the Exploratorium has resulted in lasting benefits for both organizations—the development of new public educational outreach activities by NASA, and the evolution of sophisticated, authentic media production by the Exploratorium.