Thursday March 6 - Great Lakes Science Centre

I awoke to another gorgeous day, I have been so lucky on this trip, I might have had snow and cold but I have seen plenty of the sun!! The temperature at 9.30 am was 23 F, at 11.00 am it was 32 F, at 3.00 pm it was 29 F and at 8.00 pm it was 35 F!!! Tomorrow there is going to be a heatwave, it is forecast to reach 47 F and another sunny day!!! I took one layer of clothing off today, maybe a second layer will have to come off tomorrow!!


After breakfast I headed to the Science Centre, it is only a short walk away from the hotel and situated next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

I have always been fascinated by everything about space travel so for the first hour and a half I was definitely lost in space!! There was an Apollo capsule on show and boy were they tiny inside, the astronauts surely had to get along! 

The underneath part where it hits the atmosphere on re-entry showed how they had to cope with the extreme heat and a wee bit of what it might do.

Other items on show included a model of a moon lander, some of the gear the different astronauts wore, a model of a mars rover, the types of exercise gear used by people who stay in the ISS and so on. There were also a variety of informative short films around the centre, many about life on board a shuttle and the ISS. One of these was about using the bathroom on the ISS!!

I did not realise that there was an important branch of NASA in Cleveland and that there are so many astronauts from Ohio, 26 in all. These include John Glenn and Neil Armstrong as well as a number of women, one of whom was on the ill-fated Challenger mission. 

When Glenn rode the Mercury in his first space flight. he had a four page manual and a slide rule!! His emergency backup was a star chart!! 

LOL, what a change in technology, it makes those early flights seem even more amazing! No wonder Glenn wanted to ride in a shuttle.

There are many interactive exhibits including trying to land on the moon as well as landing a shuttle, or tying to. There was also a lot of information about the testing of different materials that goes on as well as research into and testing of totally new materials. The Ion engine, part of Star Trek, is actually a reality, the engine generates streams of electrically charged particles that can propel a spacecraft and are ten times more efficient than the chemical rocket. As well as this there was also a look into the future and what is happening/might happen.

There are other science exhibits including many on health. One thing that surprised me was the open MRI machine, I have had an MRI and it was enclosed. I hope the open versions become standard as it would be good for so many people especially young children.

I then went down to the lower level as they had a Wildlife Rescue exhibit. Almost the first one I saw was from New Zealand about the amazing comeback of the Chatham island Black Robin. By 1980, there were only five left and the government introduced an innovative programme. They managed to breed the oldest male and female who produced eleven chicks in all. The eggs were put in foster nests, using the Chatham Island Tomtit. Once hatched the chicks would be placed in another Robin's nest. The Chatham Islands are very small and lie approximately 420 miles to the east of Christchurch on the South Island.

I then watched a film about how Orangutan and Elephants. For both species, the young are are being helped to survive and then once old enough are being released back into the wild. The Orangutan in Borneo and the Elephant in Kenya. Again, there were interactive activities including one related to the young Whooping Cranes that are helped to  migrate from Wisconsin to Florida with the help of Ultralight aircraft. I had seen the film before but it was great to get the feeling of what it is like to fly with them.

After this I headed back to the hotel. I felt very tired for some reason and ended up sleeping for a couple of hours.