Starship 2040 is a Hit At Utah State

Starship 2040 is a Hit At Utah State

President Kermit L. Hall and a number of other university administrators, including Executive Vice President and Provost Stan Albrecht and College of Engineering Dean Scott Hinton, joined the ranks of school children touring Starship 2040, NASA's traveling space transportation exhibit. The exhibit, on campus Oct. 6–8, is designed to give visitors a look at human space flight as it might exist 40 years from now.

Visitors board the "spaceship" and move through full-sized control, passenger and engineering compartments. Audio effects — engine noises, computer and crew noises — add to the realistic ambience of the experience.

"This is a fantastic exhibit," said Jan Sojka, Utah State physics professor and last year's Utah Carmegie Professor of the Year. "You can't get any closer to learning what space travel is really like."

Starship 2040 has been touring the country since Feb. 2001 and will continue its tour with several other stops in Utah.

During President Hall's visit the NASA exhibit fired up the "sausage rocket" for all to enjoy. The demonstration helps explain rocket science to exhibit visitors. In addition to the personnel who accompany the exhibit, Utah State University faculty were on hand to answer questions.

The Starship 2040 visit was provided by the Rocky Mountain-NASA Space Grant Consortium, an education alliance that promotes educational excellence through the pursuit of science and technology. Utah State is a member of the consortium.