Kansas Cosmosphere

Cosmosphere lobby

There are three really big space museums. One is the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum here in Washington, D.C. Another is in Russia somewhere and is spelled with characters not on my keyboard. The third is the Kansas Cosmophere located in a remote backwater called Hutchinson. 

It had been a long time since I last went there. Last time it had been recently overhauled. Among the changes had been making the lobby to look like the picture above. Yes, the SR-71 Blackbird is real. No, the Space Shuttle is not. 

There's a number of shows to watch at the Cosmosphere. 

Instead of the obligatory IMAX theater they have an OmniMax theater. The difference is that the IMAX is big an flat while the OmniMax is a dome that wraps around so the movie fills your peripheral vision and enhances the sense of motion the movie causes. But, it shows the same movies as the IMAX theaters. 

The planetarium show was rather lacking. It was alright, but you've almost certainly seen better.

Robert Goddard's Lab, on the other hand, had a pretty good show. We've all seen those physics demonstrations with the super cooled liquid gasses and dry ice and foaming whatnots. That's what I was expecting and it's why I'd never bothered to go before. Instead the presenter talks about what problems Robert Goddard had when working on his rockets and the solutions he came up with and he does it while running a series of demonstrations to illustrate the problems and the solutions. The demonstrations include a number of things I haven't seen in other wizard's labs or physics shows. 

Then there's the display area, the actual museum part. They've redone it since I was there last. Before it was mostly a collection of exhibits with a few rooms dedicated to specific subjects. Now the walk through the museum tells a story. 

It starts with an actual V2 rocket from WWII. After all, if not for Hitler our space program wouldn't be nearly as developed as it is. This room tells about the scientists who developed the V2, the minions who died building them, and the madman who decided to make them instead of nuclear weapons. 

The next few rooms talk about the aftermath of the war. How the Americans and Soviets agreed to divy up the rocket tech but grabbed all they could anyway. About Werner Von Braun and Sergei Korolev, heads of the American and Soviet rocket programs both had to lie and manipulate their way along so that they could make space craft and satellites instead of weaponry. About the space race the direct conflicts between American and Soviet leaders.

After going through those exhibits I'd really like to see a pair of movies about the drive to space from the views of Von Braun and Korolev. Each gets a movie. In each movie there would be appearances and footage from the other movie and each movie would paint themselves as the good guys and the other side as the bad guys. I've always wanted to see a movie like that, showing both sides of a conflict as they saw it. This would make a great subject to do that with.

Anyway, around the time of the moon landing the story fragments a bit. Without the conflict with the Soviets it becomes about space programs and their artifacts. And their artifacts are pretty damn good. It was at the Cosmophere that they did the restoration of the Liberty Bell capsule after they recovered it from the ocean floor. What I was looking for (but didn't find) was the tire from a Space Shuttle that they used to have. They used to have the wear pattern marked to show what parts were lost during what part of touchdown. They really only get one use. 

And, as long as you're in Hutchinson, try to hit the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. Really, they need a better name for it. There's ongoing salt mining going on in that area. The active part of the mine is far from the museum, but you get to take the elevator down to the old part and spend sometime wandering around. They'll give you a hard hat and oxygen mask just in case. There's a train and an electric tram to take you around so you can see a bit more than you'd be willing to walk. Take the tram. You get to pick out a lump of unprocessed salt from a pile and take it home.

As they clear out space other things move in. The mine is used for storage for old TV and movie film and props. Some of them are on display.

If you go, be sure to get an appointment. People go down in groups and the groups are limited in number due to the limited size of the elevator. You wanna make sure you're not waiting for an opening. Also, you get a discount if you get tickets for both the salt mine and the Cosmophere.