Apollo and the Next Giant Leap Exhibit
APOLLO
December 8, 2019
MVEF, the Mt. Vernon Education Foundation, and NASA worked together to host an exhibit that took place right here at the high school. The purpose of the exhibit is to give real-world experiences to the students and staff.
The exhibit came with a 3.7 billion year old Moon Rock. The piece that was on display is a smaller piece of a bigger moon rock which was brought back and distributed all around the world. This was a rare occasion considering this is the first time the Moon Rock was viewed in Indiana in five years. It is also the first time it has been displayed in a high school in Indiana.
“Our Mt. Vernon Education Foundation was instrumental in bringing this incredible educational opportunity to Mt. Vernon High School. We can’t speak to possible future opportunities with NASA,” said Maria Bond, Director of Community Relations here at Mt. Vernon, “but this new relationship is a wonderful connection for our students. We are thankful for our Mt. Vernon Education & the Main Street Arts at the Carnegie in Fortville for bringing this exhibit to our community”
The exhibit also showed a unique collection of artifacts showing the amazing achievements of the Apollo missions. There are also additional artifacts showcasing NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, and the Orion spacecraft that powers the Artemis program.
The Moon Rock that was on display is a type of rock known as Lucite and weighs 159 grams, in more simple terms, half a pound. One gram of moon rock is valued at a whopping $1,000,000 making the single portion of the rock worth $159,000,000.
NASA also plans on sending the first woman to the moon and another man using innovative technologies to explore the lunar surface more than ever according to the Glenn Research Center at NASA. Then after that they plan on making the next giant leap by sending humans to Mars in the 2020’s.
