September 10, 2004 (Inglewood, Ca.)
The Traveling Space Museum’s first permanent simulation, the SpaceLab Module dubbed the Sirius B is now on display at the A-MAN International Learning and Discovery Center at 101 North La Brea in downtown Inglewood Ca.
The Sirius B, named after the star system that was a part of the African Dogon culture for over a thousand years, is modeled after the 13 foot-long Odyssey II Spacelab recently on display at the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
The full scale Sirius B Spacelab is over 9 feet long and can accommodate six students at six different workstations simultaneously. The workstations are all fully functional and operate like equipment found aboard space bound laboratories. The only simulation of its kind, students aboard the Sirius B can see and talk with teammates at a Mission Control simulation using a sophisticated video-teleconferencing system. The entire crew can all view microscopic life displayed at the Life Sciences station which features a robotic video microscope. Bio-Med features a stepper machine for exercise and equipment to measure heart rate and blood pressure. Other stations feature DVD players, computers, radios and an observation window that simulates a view of the Earth below.
The Sirius B is the centerpiece of the newly created Charles Lang Space Center a space science wing of the Learning Center dedicated to memory of local educator Charles Lang who helped recruit some of the first African American astronauts.
The A-MAN Center is run by long time space educators Hal and Dr. Bettye Walker. Hal Walker was the first to fire powerful laser beams that reach the experiment placed on the moon by Armstrong and Aldrin back in 1969. Buzz Aldrin and Hal Walker Jr. collaborated on the lunar laser ranging experiment, which measured the distance from the Earth to the moon with a laser beam.
One of the major benefits to the world from the successes of these experiments is utilizing lunar laser ranging methods to very accurately trace the movement of the Earth's continental plates, thereby enabling scientists to gather data that can assist in the future of predicting the occurrence of major earthquakes.
