The annual AerospaceFest in Concord has always been a draw for families. This year, they hope it will attract industries, too.
“I tell GE Aerospace or other (companies): ‘I have these 5- to 9-year-olds coming all year around. You need to get your name in front of them … and show them what you do, so when they get older they’ll know,” said Melissa Edwards, executive director of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. “Hiring home-grown talent is much cheaper than importing people from across the country. This is where you need to be, to be part of the community.”
For the first time, the museum is hosting an industry night as part of the event, inviting representatives of all sorts of companies to show up to tour the museum, see the Planetarium show, and meet astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger in a “low-key setting” that will allow for networking, Edwards said. “We want people to see the Discovery Center as the place for bringing ideas and people together.”
The Discovery Center is far from alone in trying to lure more adults and businesses through its doors. Science museums in general have long tried to shrug off the image of being only for children.
“I want a grown-up to feel just as comfortable building something as a 5-year-old,” said Edwards, 54. “We’re told you’re too old and it’s not for you, but we’re just as interested in creating as youngsters are.”
The expanded direction of AerospaceFest is in line with the revamped mission for the discovery center.
“This is part of our greater effort to get everybody to see themselves here,” Edwards said. “We’re working on a redesign of exhibits and messaging.”
AerospaceFest launched in 2010. This year’s event runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and is free, although a $5 donation is requested.
Along with a host of interactive exhibits, the event includes the premiere of a new planetarium show, called “Asteroid Mission Extreme,” which discusses the present and future plans for visiting or mining asteroids. The film is narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver.
The keynote speech will be given by Metcalf-Lindenburger. She flew as a mission specialist on the STS-131 crew, an International Space Station resupply mission that lasted 15 days. She also commanded the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation in the Aquarius Reef Habitat off the Florida coast, an underwater mission that sought to develop techniques for working at an asteroid while operating under a 100-second time delay.
She will give the keynote talk at 1:30 p.m.
