EcoTarium

Summary: STEM-focused space science exhibit with an emphasis on hands-on interactivity, making advanced concepts approachable, and inspiring a new generation of space scientists with stories of challenges faced and overcome
Client: EcoTarium
Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Exhibit Fabrication: Panoptic Design/Build

The EcoTarium is one of the oldest natural history museums in the country, inspiring a love of science and nature through hands-on discovery for nearly 200 years.

Our studio was tasked with designing an exhibit about space exploration that showcased key scientific breakthroughs and concepts. Supported by a grant from NASA, the project drew on the local area’s noteworthy contributions to space science and aimed to inspire the next generation of explorers.

To bring these ideas to life, we created four interactive stations designed to engage visitors of all ages. Each station explores a different theme, offering hands-on ways to connect with the science of space exploration.

Rocketry

This area was designed to capture attention and spark curiosity with a striking large-scale model of NASA’s bright orange SLS rocket. Built in collaboration with Panoptic Design/Build, the rocket anchors a dynamic experience, surrounded by three interactive stations connected by reader rails that provide visitors with deeper insight into each concept.

At the Build a Rocket station, visitors assemble their own rockets using different 3D-printed pieces embedded with RFID tags, then test whether their designs have enough thrust to launch their chosen payload into space.

The Gyroscope station offers visitors a hands-on understanding of how gyroscopes guide and control movement in space. Featuring a 3D-printed satellite with a working replica of a control moment gyroscope inside, visitors press a button to spin the flywheel and use a joystick to tilt it, rotating the spacecraft’s body as they try to align the satellite with a target.

At the Launch Director Station, visitors manage pre-flight check-ins using an embedded tablet, communicating with team members who provide updates and give the green light for launch. They then press a large button to start the countdown, triggering a rumbling audio track and projected visuals on the rocket model in front of them.

Check in with the launch team and blast off!

Choose a payload, then build a powerful rocket (and its digital counterpart) to launch it into space!

A working miniature control moment gyroscope

Looking at Space

This set of interactives was designed to investigate the ways we observe space, introducing key concepts like the non-visible light spectrum and the effect of gravity on light. It acts as a bridge between the surrounding exhibits, highlighting how scientists use telescopes to observe universal bodies and deepen our understanding of space.

Bend the Beam gamifies one of the trickier concepts in space observation: how objects with large amounts of gravity (like a supermassive blackhole) can change the path of light. Visitors step up to a 43″ touch screen monitor, where they try to bend a beam of light toward a target by dragging space objects with different levels of gravity into its path.

The Telescope station uses a cross-section model to show how a Cassegrain telescope works. Pressing a button activates a red laser that traces the path of light through the telescope, while a toggle switch lets visitors move the primary mirror to see how it changes the focus at the eyepiece.

The Hunt for Hidden Light interactive illustrates some of the amazing things we’ve learned from different space telescopes that detect non-visible light. To built this, we removed the polarizing filters from two LCD screens and used them to show visible-light images from Hubble. When visitors slide a polarizing filter over one of the screens, hidden aspects of the images are revealed: an X-ray view from Chandra on the top screen and an infrared view from James Webb on the bottom.

Star Chasers

One of the biggest challenges we faced with this project was how to transform the elevator alcove. How could we make this area an engaging and fun space while still leaving enough room for people with strollers and wheelchairs to pass through comfortably?

Our solution was Star Chasers. Using two short-throw projectors, we modeled an accurate night sky (from about 10,000 stars and deep space objects, complete with astronomically correct colors and magnitudes!) above Worcester onto one long wall. As visitors move through the space, a camera on the opposite wall detects their motion and triggers a gentle shower of shooting stars across the sky. Key celestial objects are highlighted one by one, each accompanied by images and brief facts.

Space Scientist Stories

One of the main goals of this exhibit was to inspire the next generation of space explorers by highlighting space scientists from diverse backgrounds—both past and present—who overcame obstacles to advance our understanding of the universe.

Overcoming Challenges features a wall with life-sized cutouts of ten space scientists, each accompanied by a brief bio. The challenges faced by three featured scientists are brought to life through audio stories. Using directional speakers that are mounted overhead, visitors can step into an audio storytelling circle and choose to listen in either English or Spanish with the push of a button.

Case Study

Rocketry

Looking at Space

Star Chasers

Space Scientist Stories

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