Totally Texas -- Adventure out of this world

Moon Day 2012

Frontiers of Flight Museum

6911 Lemmon Avenue, Dallas

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Today, July 20, marks the forty-third anniversary of the first landing of human beings on the moon. (Make that Moon with a capital M.) My grandsons watched videos of space exploration at Dallas’s Frontiers of Flight Museum. They were entranced, but demanded, “Did that really happen?” Because no one has set foot on the Moon in their lifetimes.

This Saturday, Frontiers of Flight and the National Space Society of North Texas (NSS of NT) sponsor Moon Day 2012 to help keep the dream of human space travel alive. Twenty exhibitors, family-themed films, and a traveling planetarium from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History will join the museum’s standing exhibits of the U.S. space program, including the space suit illustrating this post.

The first two hundred kids through the doors (opening at 10 a.m.) get “lunar sample” bags, and everybody gets a chance to see Moon rocks, learn how to build a comet, and hear updates on the future of space transportation in the post-space shuttle era, among other topics.

The solar system’s a bit too cozy for your taste? Take a peek inside the “portable universe” from the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science.

Want to help your children (borrow some, if necessary) build a flying model rocket? Ask at the Frontiers of Flight registration desk. (There’s an extra fee for this.) The day of good clean lunar fun lasts from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 21.

Frontiers of Flight is located on the outskirts of Dallas’s Love Field airport. Admission is $8 for adults, $3 for children ages 3-17. For more information, see www.nssofnt.org/.


And if you’re thinking of a lunar family vacation, you’ll want to ask exhibitors which of your kids’ toys will operate in the Moon’s microgravity. Because plans for civilian space flights are in the works. Space Adventures is a private company reported to be taking orders for a flight around the Moon. (Sorry -- actual moon walks aren’t on the agenda yet.) This past spring, Air & Space Smithsonian discussed what it takes to book the week-long true vacation of a lifetime. You can email Space Adventures through www.spaceadventures.com/ for details.

The Smithsonian article at www.airspace.mag.com/ provides more information than Space Adventures is willing to divulge without knowing some pertinent information
about potential clients. Like whether they’re billionaires. Yes, it will be a pricey trip. But at least we can dream for free.