Market Cross supported a special “Learn to be an Astronaut event” in Dorchester on 21st July. We shared a marquee with a number of innovative locally based science companies and organisations. We also had a walk-in layout of the ISS right behind our stand which included modules representing different subjects, activities and handouts. There was “Radiation on Earth” in the Zarya Control Module, “Radiation in Space” in the Columbus Laboratory, “Radiation Protection – Time, Distance, Shielding” in the Kibo Research Module and “Radiation Protection – Magnetic Fields” in the Destiny Laboratory.
The layout was proportioned to-scale and for a bit of extra fun we had an emergency activity involving Solar Particle Events (or proton storms). When the SPE alarm went off everyone had to evacuate to the “shielded” Zvezda Control Module. In the end we had to stop doing the emergency activity because the ISS became too popular and there were too many people to fit into the Control Module!