New museum to offer best in aerospace technology

Friday, Aug. 21, 1998 | 10:55 a.m.

The ability to man a space station, communicate with mission control and utilize aerospace technology will soon be available to Nevada students.

The Fisher Space Pen Co. of Boulder City, creator of the space pen first used by NASA in the 1960s, is breaking ground for the Fisher Air and Space Educational Center.

The facility, which will be located at the 42-acre-site of the old Boulder City airport, will include an interactive aerospace museum, a learning center and a planetarium. Also on site will be a zero-gravity facility and simulated planetary landscapes.

"What we're trying to create is a foundation for the best aerospace entities to come here," said Scott Fisher, president of the Fisher Museum Foundation. The Foundation was created last year for the program.

But the multimillion dollar project is not intended as another themed tourist attraction.

The nonprofit organization plans on education being the core of the center's mission. The learning center is a franchise of Challenger Center for Space Science Education, an international, not-for-profit education organization based in Washington D.C. It was founded in 1986 by the families of the Challenger crew members who were killed when the shuttle exploded. The center's mission is to encourage long-term interest in math, science and technology.

The center at Boulder City will be used by students in the third- through eighth-grades who will attend as part of their science curriculum.

"There are 5 million tourists who drive by, but we don't want to just give them a ride or tourist attraction. That's not what it's all about," Fisher said.

Foundation member Judi Dohn said that the Challenger Learning Center is similar to the simulated programs at the Space Camp at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "There will be a simulated mission that will be as close as possible to what real astronauts go through."

With education being the key element, "we're trying to bring the best to the table," Fisher said.

Which is why, he said, the foundation is including the Clark County School District and the Community College System of Southern Nevada in on their plans. Fisher said students will have to be prepared in order to participate in the interactive learning center, shuttle and mission control.

The union with the school district is still in the initial stages.

Steve McCoy, Clark County School District's area superintendent for secondary education, said the district has been looking at the Challenger Learning Center for a number of years. "The details have to be worked out," McCoy said. "We first have to develop the resources and funds that can make this happen."

McCoy said a new earth-science curriculum will begin this year for seventh-graders and part of that will be space science.

The foundation also plans to construct a new after-school center for the Boulder City Boys and Girls Club.

Phase one of the project -- the museum and exhibit halls -- is expected to be completed within the next year, Fisher said. Completion of phase two, the learning center complete with dormitories for overnight trips, still has no scheduled completion date.

The pace of the program depends on how fast the financial support grows, he said, adding that the program is supported by a combination of private and public grants, industry related companies and the Fisher Space Pen Co.

Fisher said that a few large aerospace companies are interested in the project and that the Fisher Space Pen Co. is in contact with them.

"What makes this project more possible is the long relationship the Fisher family has had with NASA," Dohn said.

Simulated landscapes and an amphitheater with space-themed lectures, shows and concerts are part of the later phased projects. Completion of the entire project is expected to take up to 10 years.

Fisher said the site of the Boulder City Airport, vacant since the 1980s, was chosen for its historical value. Constructed in the 1930s, it was the first airstrip in the valley to fly commercial planes in and out of Southern Nevada. The former naval hangar will be the main museum and is already undergoing renovation.

The city is leasing the property to the Fisher Museum Foundation for 42 years at a rate of $1 a year.

"I am very supportive of the project, as are the other members of the City Council," said Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro. "We see it as a great opportunity for the children of Boulder City as well as the children in other areas to have interactive experience in aerospace technology."

The center is not entirely limited to school students. Open to the general public will be the museum and static and interactive exhibits as well as the simulated landscapes.

"If it proceeds as planned, it will be a great addition to Boulder City and provide everyone an opportunity to be better acquainted with the space program and flight," Ferraro said.

Visitors at the facility will be able to experience a moon and Mars-like terrain, which combined will be a total of eight acres and will be recessed as much as 10 feet into the ground, leaving observers to see only the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Simulated rocks along with native Nevada landscaping will also be used.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to travel across the moonscape, also composed of simulated and natural rocks -- granular grey -- in a lunar rover led by guides dressed as astronauts.

Fisher said the project is a great opportunity to see his father's dream of education through trial-and-error become a reality.

His father, Paul C. Fisher, is the inventor of the Space Pen, which writes in zero gravity, upside down, under water, over grease and at temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Fahrenheit and at below minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit.

"All facts have to come from experience, not from logic," the elder Fisher said.

Shuttle astronaut Mike Mullane and Russian Cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev were in Las Vegas recently to promote the project.