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New App Allows Science Center Visitors to Explore Space

ANITA ORENICK
/
GREAT LAKES SCIENCE CENTER

The Great Lakes Science Center has launched a new app to allow visitors to explore scientific and historical equipment that would usually be available only to astronauts in space.  

According to Kirsten Ellenbogen, president and CEO of the science center, the app was created to give a more hands-on experience for all of the museum's exhibits.

“Mission to STEM is the new app we’ve created for our NASA Glenn Visitor Center. And this is an opportunity for us to use augmented and virtual reality to help our guests touch and use and get inside some historic, important NASA artifacts that are otherwise hands off,” says Ellenbogen.

Credit GREAT LAKES SCIENCE CENTER
Users can explore the inside of spacecraft with the new app

Ellenbogen says the science center has been testing the program for months, and though it is designed for grades four through eight,  people of all ages use the app to explore spacecraft and navigate virtual missions and experiments.

The free mobile app is available only for Apple devices but the center allows visitors to check out free iPads during their visit.