This time, the Sputnik departs from Barcelona. The Catalan capital hosts Space Discovery-The Exhibition, the largest exhibition on cosmonautics and space travel. This project, promoted by the Czech company JVS Group and Proactiv Entertainment—a leading producer of live music and experiential events worldwide—presents original pieces from NASA and the Russian Space Agency. The exhibition can be visited from this Thursday, September 28, until next January 7 in the new Inmersa space, promoted by Proactiv and located at Llull 119 street, in the Poblenou neighborhood. The ticket price, sold online, is 13 euros. The reduced ticket costs 10 euros for those under 18, over 65, and people with disabilities. Children under 4 have free admission to the venue.
The new Inmersa space is an enormous warehouse of more than 3,000 m2 and aims to become the new epicenter for holding innovative and technological events and exhibitions in Barcelona. "We had been looking for an ideal place to do it for quite some time," explained Proactiv Entertainment CEO Nicolás Renna at a press conference. "We want to invest close to 15 million euros in the next five years to provide experiences like Space Discovery," adds the executive, who has the challenge of using this avant-garde enclave to immerse Barcelona residents in a surprising and exciting world.
Space Discovery is promoted by the Czech company JVS Group. In collaboration with NASA, the American space museum and educational center Cosmosphere, and scientific specialists from the Czech Republic, this impressive traveling exhibition on the space race between the two superpowers during the Cold War: the United States and Russia, has been created. "In this exhibition, you can see objects related to the race of the former Soviet Union and the United States, the first to set foot on the Moon," says Lisner Stanislav, director of the JVS group. The exhibition offers Barcelona the opportunity to see hundreds of real objects that have traveled beyond Earth's orbit.
The main objects of the exhibition
Space Discovery takes the public through the history of manned space flights, from their origins ---recalling Yuri Gagarin and the dog Laika--- to current missions. The exhibition includes hundreds of original objects that have been in space, a unique collection of space suits and real models of spacecraft, shuttles and rockets.
One of the exhibition galleries is dedicated to the Apollo missions and the conquest of the Moon, including the original engine part of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Also on display is the habitable module of the MIR orbital station, one of the largest pieces in the exhibition. Once inside, visitors will experience the sensations of a real astronaut in microgravity.
Thanks to a close collaboration with the American Cosmosphere Museum and Education Centre, which is directly linked to NASA, the exhibition has acquired unique material; the computer equipment from the Houston control center from the seventies. The old computer equipment still retains notes stuck on the shelves with calculations from the engineers who sat in front of them more than fifty years ago.
From Mars to Barcelona
The "jewel in the crown" of Space Discovery is a real piece of the planet Mars. "Small meteorites from Mars, red stone, rest on Earth, which millions of years ago were born due to an impact on Mars that made them jump with such speed that they became part of the orbit around the sun," explains Rafael Clemente, engineer, scientific popularizer and the first director of the Barcelona Science Museum, better known as CosmoCaixa. "For decades, these stones remained suspended around the orbit due to gravity until one day, one of them fell in Morocco. We have it in the display case with a Martian sample price, much more valuable than gold", concludes the scientific popularizer.
A family and school exhibition
Space Discovery is adapted for audiences of all ages so that everyone has the opportunity to learn much more about space travel. The entire exhibition is guided by an audio guide that can be downloaded for free on mobile phones. The audio guide has two versions; one for adults and the other for children. The little ones can participate in the interactive Cosmos Camp and experience challenging astronaut training and the latest 3D technology with different attractions.
The exhibition also has a visit program for schools and institutes with educational and informative material for students. "I don't know any child who hasn't dreamed of space at some point, and that's why we also invite schools and families to immerse themselves in the largest space exhibition worldwide, only in Barcelona," declares CEO Nicolás Renna.