SEMO pays $35,000 for NASA display

Custom-made models of NASA spacecraft will be exhibited in Southeast Missouri State University's mobile museum starting this summer as part of a display that will cost an estimated $35,000 in federal grant money.

"These are handcrafted, museum-quality models made to special scale to fit our display cases," said Dr. Ernest Kern, director of the Missouri NASA education program at Southeast.

The university's NASA Educator Resource Center is looking at buying 29 models of spacecraft and rockets to be housed in display cases in the Southeast Explorer, a 38-foot-long recreational vehicle sporting rainbow colors.

Kern said the university plans to buy the models from a man in British Columbia, Canada, who specializes in such work.

The models will be constructed of a molded resin, Kern said. They have to be specially constructed to withstand the bumps and vibrations that occur with a mobile museum, he said.

"These are not off-the-shelf models," Kern said, adding that they really have only a single source for such items.

Unveiled in October, the rolling museum alternates six months of university museum exhibits with six months of science exhibits provided by the NASA center.

The NASA display is expected to be installed in June. The exhibit will travel around the region from July through December, said Jackie Wortmann, who coordinates the Missouri NASA Educator Resource Center at Southeast under the direction of Kern.

Some of the models will be over 2 feet tall, he said.

One of the models will be a space shuttle shown ready for launch.

The exhibit also will include two dioramas showing the surfaces of Mars and the moon.

"There will be information panels on the walls with pictures and text," Kern said.

Also displayed will be a space suit and helmet of the type astronauts use on space walks.

Astronaut and Cape Girardeau County native Linda Godwin will greet visitors on a videotaped introduction. One display case will be reserved for Godwin memorabilia of items that accompanied her into space.

"She is going to loan us her flight suit and the toothbrush she used in space," Kern said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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