Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Mars attraction in the works
New attractions and enhancements at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex this year are designed to be a draw for the “Mars Generation,” said Therrin Protze, chief operating officer.
A centerpiece of the changes at the Brevard County facility will be the ATX Center — a stylized name for astronaut training experience, which is scheduled to open in the third or fourth quarter of the year, he said.
Groups inside will simulate the training needed to go to Mars, Protze said. The programs will be “really scientific yet very experiential,” he said.
Through virtual reality and simulators, “they’re going to learn what it’s like to work in a microgravity environment,” he said.
Theatrical tricks and floor-to-ceiling 4K screens will help create a Marsbased experience, he said. Participants will feel as though they’re being transported 300 feet into the air, gantrystyle.
“You’re going to walk across and you’re going into the Mars vehicle. It’s going to be motion-based,” Protze said. “There’s going to be experiences in there that you’ll have to work as a team, based on the real-life problems that will be faced going to Mars.”
The ATX Center activities will require a fee in addition to visitor-complex admission, but prices have not been determined, Protze said. There will be levels of time-commitment options, ranging from an hour to a fiveday camp experience.
“There will be a focus on [ages] 8 to 14 because that’s our Mars generation,” he said. “NASA wants to really have that kind of Uncle Sam, ‘I Want You’ perspective for astronauts, and those are the ages we’re trying to play to.”
ATX tasks will be done in three groups of eight people.
“It’s really all about the teamwork versus anything else,” Protze said.
Also, portions of the visitor complex, including the NASA Central area, will get a new look.
“The facades of the building are being completely redone to resemble a Mars-scape,” he said. The souvenir shop also will be remodeled.
Other changes will be energy-related. Through a program with Georgia Tech, large mats will create energy when they are walked upon, Protze said. Depending on the amount of juice that folks generate, “they’re going to wirelessly connect with your phone, and you’ll learn about planet characterizations, planet geography, past and future missions of NASA.”
Plus, the attraction’s fleet of buses, which take visitors on behind-thegates tours, are going all-electric. The upgraded transportation will be a “rolling show,” Protze said.
“The whole place will look completely different in the next year,” Protze said.