You Too Can Float in Space

That's me floating in space. Sort of. The space suit hangs from the ceiling of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. I sat in a chair and looked through a lens, which is how my face ended up on the astronaut's body.

I spotted The Tech from a taxi cab on Tuesday night and suggested to Carlos that we go. I was intrigued by the horse in front of the building.



The museum is completely interactive and, while I think it might be geared for children, it's certainly fun for adults. It's the only museum I have ever visited where you can sit around and play Second Life and virtually arm wrestle both people in the museum and those available by satellite.

For $8, you get admission to the museum plus a ticket to one of several Imax films that play in an adjacent theater. You can also pay extra to see multiple movies. We caught Sea Monsters, a National Geographic film about very large prehistoric water creatures in North America. The Imax theatre alone is worth the price of admission. It's shaped like a dome and the seats are slightly reclined, so when the film plays, you actually start to feel like you're in the middle of an ocean that no longer exists, swimming with fish that are now extinct.

Since we went to The Tech on a Wednesday morning after summer vacation had ended, the facility was virtually empty and we had the opportunity to play with everything. Carlos posed with a Kenny Rogers display (I think it had to do with memes, I can't remember).



One of the coolest aspects of The Tech is that you can record your scores on games and keep copies of pictures taken at different displays. Everytime you use something, you scan your ticket. Once you're home, you type the code on the ticket into the site and tap into your personalized page. The only problem I had was with the downloading the viewing software for the 3-D portraits that Carlos and I made of ourselves. Here's a photo of us on the Northridge earthquake simulator.



We also had the chance to see test piezoelectricty, play in astronaut chairs and even had a robot draw a picture of us.

And then we got to ride Segways.





Segways, by the way, are no easy ride. Everything relies on upper body movement, so you essentially have to move like a joystick to make it run and stop.

If you're in the Bay Area, check out The Tech. It's only a half-mile or so away from the Caltrain station, so you can take a train down from San Francisco and get their easily. If you can't make it to The Tech, you can check out some of the museum's online exhibits.