The International Spaceflight Museum is a virtual museum, that is, it does not exist in real life. It exists in Second Life, and attracts visitors from all over the world. Because it is virtual the collection is huge - putting together an exhibit like this in real life would be impossible to do, simply just because of the size and cost.
Many of the exhibits are interactive and include such things as a planetarium, a robotic arm simulator, 3D satellite tracking simulator and even a ride on the Gemini V/ Titan II launch vehicle. I am on the ISM Staff, and in addition to giving tours and answering questions I am building an exhibit about amateur satellites.
There are six snapshots here, the last will show some of the amateur satellite models I am building. It is unfortunate these cannot fully demonstrate the 3D experience that Second Life offers, but I have chosen them so that they might provide some hint.
This is a view of the the ISM from the lagoon. To the left and right you can see launch vehicles, and in the foreground is an exhibit of the White Knight and SpaceShip One that are sponsored by Scaled Composites. Behind SpaceShip One is the main rocket ring, and below the ring is exhibit space. Everything in the ISM is built using the original blueprints whenever possible and are always built to scale.
This is a view of the main rocket ring - here you can see almost every spaceflight vehicle successfully launched from many countries all over the world. I am hovering far in the foreground otherwise I would just be a tiny spec you would not see - all of these exhibits are built to scale. One of the first tasks I did for the ISM was to provide some documentation for some of the launch vehicles - if you click the white cards in front of them it gives you information about the rocket.
This is one of the exhibit spaces - this one is sponsored by NOAA and talks mainly about weather satellites. The space behind is an exhibit about the Lunar Lander and Lunar Rover sponsored by NASA. My goal is to have a similar space for AMSAT education and public outreach. As a staff member of the museum I am allocated some space for exhibits that I build, but AMSAT will have to pay a small amount (about $50 per year) if they want it to be an official exhibit with the AMSAT logo and other outreach materials.
After you ride the Gemini V/Titan II simulator it deposits you in a Low Earth Orbit simulation where there is a display of the Shuttle Endeavour docked to the ISS. Here you can see me answering questions for a visitor from Holland. On thing that happens in Second Life is that you quickly learn to improve your language skills, in this case, I am conversing in Dutch.
This is another view of the Endeavour/ISS docking. This part of the exhibit is still under construction, but you can see the massive scale at which the exhibits are being built. I am the small spec that appears to be near the Endeavour's rudder, however I was still maybe 20 metres away. On the right you can see a full size model of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Here I am with some of the models of Amateur Satellites in front of my Second Life home. When they are completed and placed in the museum they will be animated - when a visitor clicks on them they will slowly rotate and play audio of telemetry or conversations. They will also give the visitor a notecard of information similar to the information on AMSAT's website, information about AMSAT, a link to the AMSAT website and information about becoming an AMSAT member.
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