Journal

Event

A Journey to the Moon on Moon Day

For International Moon Day, Skill Hub became a three-day space exhibition: a scale that weighs you on other planets, a screen that shows how high you'd jump on them, and a galaxy made of NeoPixels and cotton.

Date
Place
Skill Hub
Topic
Space
A group of girls looking up and pointing at the exhibition, with a painted rocket and an astronaut panel in front of them
Everyone looks up eventually

On 20 July 1969, two people walked on the Moon for the first time. International Moon Day marks that date. This year iLAB and Samāgata Foundation, with the National Council of Science Museums, celebrated it with a three-day event at Skill Hub, from 19 to 21 July, called A Journey to the Moon.

I curated it with Jenifar, Sarbas, Nandhana and Sana.

Space is hard to bring into a room. The planets are too big, the distances too far, and gravity is something every one of us has only ever felt one version of. So we built things that bring a little of it down to size.

The first was Weight in Planets, a scale you step on. It shows your weight on Earth, then what you'd weigh on the Moon, on Mars, on Jupiter. Same body, different numbers.

The second was Open Gravity. You jump in front of a camera, and a screen shows how high that same jump would take you on every other world. On Earth it's a hop. On the Moon it's a leap. On Pluto it's practically a launch.

A student standing in front of a wall screen running Open Gravity, showing an astronaut on each planet
One jump, ten worlds
Two girls smiling and pointing at a solar system model on a black board, with planets placed along its orbits
Finding the planets

The third was quieter. We made a galaxy out of NeoPixel LEDs and cotton, the lights glowing through the fibres like clouds of stars. No screen, no numbers, just something to stand in front of for a while.

The students built too. Part of the event was a showcase of their work, and we spent much of our time helping them make their pieces. Around the room were a solar system model, a rocket, an astronaut, and a whole wall about the 1969 landing, with old newspaper headlines and Neil Armstrong's line about one small step.

A display wall about the Moon landing with newspaper clippings, an astronaut cut-out standing on a paper Moon, and a photo of the Apollo 11 crew
The wall about 1969

The Regional Science Centre & Planetarium came with a liquid nitrogen show, and students from nearby schools visited the exhibition.

If there's one idea I'd want them to leave with, it's that gravity isn't a fixed thing. On Earth you're stuck with one. For three days, anyone who walked in got to try a few others.