Spring 2009 - Issue 5

The Silversword: Home > Features > Let's live on Mars

Let's live on Mars

By Katrina Garcia

Chaminade Silversword

Discover life on Mars at the Bishop Museum’s "Facing Mars" exhibit.

The Bishop Museum, known mostly for its Hawaiian Polynesian exhibits has recently added a space exhibition to its sights. "Facing Mars" is a fun, interactive exhibit that runs until Jan. 2.

When you first walk into the exhibit, you are posed with the question “Would you go to Mars?” A question not many take seriously, but when you start your journey through the exhibit, you will face what it takes to really take on the challenge of going to the far off planet.

“Museum visitors like the deeply interactive parts to the exhibits,” said Mike Shanahan, Director of Education, Exhibits and Planetarium at Bishop.
Located within the Castle Memorial Building, each piece of the "Facing Mars" exhibit is designed to bring the amazing experience of Mars down to Earth. In fact, there is an actual rare fragment from Mars on display. Along with the meteor fragment are various interactive kiosks, models, simulators, video displays, a mock NASA control room and a small robot add to the overall experience.

“’Facing Mars’ is very unique," Shanahan said. “It is the first exhibit about astronomy for over a decade and it is a very interactive space science topic.”

Throughout the exhibit are tests that measure mental and physical problem solving skills. These help determine if you are capable of not only a trip to Mars but also being able to live on Mars.
“A popular one is the walking on Mars with a harness simulator,” Shanahan said.

“Facing Mars” captures what living on Mars will be like with a harness simulator that takes 60 percent of your body weight and have you walk over a bumpy platform. Trying to arrange blocks in airtight atmospheres, what the shaky surface of Mars will feel like and displaying what the windy sand surface will look like under a small dome. There is also a “glider” you can lie on and look through; you will see Mars' surface as if you are gliding over it.

If you think you work well under pressure, the exhibit has multiple kiosks that will put you to the test. Simulators like performing surgery in space, solving problems after being spun around for 30 seconds, rebuilding a platform for a solar panel and a command center that you and a partner replace an air filter in giving and following instructions in separate rooms. There is a small dark cubicle you can close yourself in and listen to the experience of what it is like to travel in space for a long period of time; a small “window” shows Earth and the moon making it easier to put yourself in an astronauts shoes.

The exhibit also offers information and opinions of professions that talk about if it is even worth humans trying to go to Mars.
The Watumull Planetarium works alongside the “Facing Mars” exhibition to provide an informational tour about the surface and life on Mars. There is also the “Mars and the Sky Tonight” show that focuses on Mars in the night sky.

“We try our best to get exhibits that draw our local audience to keep coming back because they are important to us,” Shanahan said. “We try to change up the exhibits at least 2-3 times a year. It's tricky to get the exhibits because we ship them over from the East Coast. But it's worth it to keep our locals coming back in.”

According to Shanahan, Bishop Museum will be opening up an exhibit that will teach astronomy and space science sometime in 2012 after renovations.
Leaving the exhibit you are again faced with another question, “Will you still go to Mars?” Armed with new information and experiences of what it will be like to travel and live on the distant planet, this question shouldn't be hard to answer.