"South Dakota / NASA Space Days 2001: A Space Odyssey in Rapid City" will be held on Friday-Sunday, May 4-6, 2001 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. This special event will feature the following: The International Space Station traveling exhibit; an astronaut speaker (Col. Sam Gemar, the only astronaut from SD!); loads of educational exhibits on earth science, space science, and technology; Starlab Planetarium shows; free teacher-training workshops; and many other activities.
Col. Sam Gemar is a native South Dakotan born in Yankton and raised in Scotland, SD. His distinguished career includes having flown on three Space Shuttle missions from 1990-1994 on Space Shuttles Atlantis, Discovery, and Columbia. He has logged about 600 hours in space and will speak to the public about his experiences at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Friday, May 4th and at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 5th in Rushmore Hall of the Civic Center.For more details and instructions on obtaining free tickets to the International Space Station (ISS) exhibit, call Tom Durkin at 394-1975 or visit the web at <SpaceDay2001Home.htm>. Tours through this exhibit include information on the ISS and will expose people to what it is like for astronauts and cosmonauts to live and work inside the ISS.
Sponsored by the SD Space Grant Consortium <>, Space Days 2001 is a free event for all area schools and the general public. Come enjoy this fun event, full of learning opportunities!
The SD Space Grant Consortium is one of 52-university-based Space Grant Consortia across the nation that fund education, research, and public service projects in the fields of science and technology that are supported by NASA's unique mission. The SD Space Grant Consortium is headquartered at SDSM&T with institutional members consisting of SDSU, Augustana College, and the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center. Educational affiliates include several science centers throughout the state, Black Hills State University, USD, Dakota State Univ., Black Hills Astronomical Society, Badlands Observatory, the six Native American universities in SD, and several educational entities for children. Industrial affiliates include Cynetics Corp., Horizons Inc., Raytheon ITSS, and Raven Industries. State Government Affiliates consist of the SD Dept. of Transportation's Office of Aeronautics. For detailed information on the Consortium and it's resources for education and research, please visit the Consortium's website atBack to SD Space Days 2001 Homepage