New attractions and enhancements at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex this year are designed to be a draw for the “Mars Generation,” said Therrin Protze, chief operating officer.
A centerpiece of the changes at the Brevard County facility will be the ATX Center — a stylized name for astronaut training experience, which is scheduled to open in the third or fourth quarter of the year, he said. Groups inside will simulate the training needed to go to Mars, Protze said. The programs will be “really scientific yet very experiential,” he said.
Through virtual reality and simulators, “they’re going to learn what it’s like to work in a microgravity environment,” Protze said. Theatrical tricks and floor-to-ceiling 4K screens will help create a Mars-based experience, he said. Participants will feel as though they’re being transported 300 feet into the air, gantry-style.
“You’re going to walk across and you’re going into the Mars vehicle. It’s going to be motion-based,” Protze said. “There’s going to be experiences in there that you’ll have to work as a team based on the real-life problems that will be faced going to Mars.”
The ATX Center activities will require a fee in addition to visitor-complex admission, but prices have not been determined, Protze said. There will be levels of time-commitment options, ranging from an hour to a five-day camp experience.
“There will be a focus on [ages] 8 to 14 because that’s our Mars generation,” Protze said. “NASA wants to really have that kind of Uncle Sam, ‘I Want You’ perspective for astronauts, and those are the ages we’re trying to play to.”
ATX tasks will be done in three groups of eight people.
“It’s really all about the teamwork versus anything else,” Protze said.
In addition, portions of the visitor complex, including the NASA Central area, will get a new look. “The facades of the building are being completely redone to resemble a Mars-scape,” he said. The souvenir shop also will be remodeled.
Other changes will be energy-related. Through a program with Georgia Tech, large mats will create energy when they are walked upon, Protze said. Depending on the amount of juice that folks generate, “they’re going to wirelessly connect with your phone, and you’ll learn about planet characterizations, planet geography, past and future missions of NASA.”
Plus, the attraction’s fleet of buses, which take visitors on behind-the-gates tours, are going all-electric. The upgraded transportation will be a “rolling show,” Protze said.
The additions come on the heels of the opening of a new attraction called Heroes and Legends, which features the relocated U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
“The whole place will look completely different in the next year,” Protze said.
dbevil@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5477
![From Amelia Island on the northeast tip of Florida to Alligator Reef in the Keys. From the pink sands of Eleuthera in the Bahamas to the slopes of Mount Scenery on the Dutch island of Saba in the Lesser Antilles. The May 2024 issue of our Explore Florida & the Caribbean takes you places – by land, sea and air. The new issue that will appear in digital format on Sunday, May 5, features stories on Florida’s lighthouses, cruise-line dining, a return to ultra-luxe Little Palm Island in the Keys, a camping trip to Peanut Island in Palm Beach County, a […]](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Explore-Florida-cover-May-2024.jpg?w=620 "From Amelia Island on the northeast tip of Florida to Alligator Reef in the Keys. From the pink sands of Eleuthera in the Bahamas to the slopes of Mount Scenery on the Dutch island of Saba in the Lesser Antilles. The May 2024 issue of our Explore Florida & the Caribbean takes you places – by land, sea and air. The new issue that will appear in digital format on Sunday, May 5, features stories on Florida’s lighthouses, cruise-line dining, a return to ultra-luxe Little Palm Island in the Keys, a camping trip to Peanut Island in Palm Beach County, a […]")
![Starting from when shorter than a canoe paddle, I grew up on Florida rivers such as the Suwannee and Silver to the north, the Myakka and Peace to the south and camping near home along the Wekiva. Maybe that’s why this Orlando native was so fascinated that you can travel by canoe along America’s most famous river from near Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Last fall, I finished a solo 92 days on the Mississippi River. It was epic: nearly impassable wetlands, numbing cold, oppressive heat, barge traffic, Mark Twain, angry druggies, a police rescue, inspiring nature, solitude, torturous […]](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TOS-L-Mississippi-By-Canoe-01_aeb137.jpg?w=482 "Starting from when shorter than a canoe paddle, I grew up on Florida rivers such as the Suwannee and Silver to the north, the Myakka and Peace to the south and camping near home along the Wekiva. Maybe that’s why this Orlando native was so fascinated that you can travel by canoe along America’s most famous river from near Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Last fall, I finished a solo 92 days on the Mississippi River. It was epic: nearly impassable wetlands, numbing cold, oppressive heat, barge traffic, Mark Twain, angry druggies, a police rescue, inspiring nature, solitude, torturous […]")
