Outer Space – Valerie's Voice

The Bell Museum

When our boys were young, we went several times to the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. It was a fun outing, and it was free back then.

The name has been shortened to Bell Museum.

In 2018 they built a new, beautiful building and moved from the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus. And, they added a planetarium.

A much larger and modern building houses the Bell Museum and planetarium.

I was excited to see the planetarium. I remember going to the planetarium in the downtown Minneapolis library when I was in elementary school. I really enjoyed it.

I looked up the Minneapolis Public Library‘s history and discovered it opened in 1889 along 10^th street and Hennepin Avenue. But that’s not where I remembered it.

That library became overcrowded and out of date. In 1961 a new Minneapolis Public Library opened at 4^thstreet and Nicollet Ave. That’s where I remembered it. It too, has since been rebuilt (replacing the old stone castle-like building with a four-story glass and steel building , but no planetarium.) The one I went to as a child included a planetarium, and a small museum of Egyptian mummies, in its basement (which I had forgotten about until my memory was triggered when reading about it.)

Our massive, wonderful galaxy of stars shown in the planetarium.

All that to say, we went to visit the new Bell Museum last week. We paid extra to see the planetarium show…which was titled Minnesota Skies. This was a narrated program by a staff member interacting with the audience. I was disappointed because I was expecting to see more dark sky and starry, starry night scenes.

There were a few other choices for planetarium shows…so I suspect there are ones similar to the ones I remembered seeing as a child. I’ll have to try again.

Many of the dioramas in the natural history part of the building were the same ones in the old Bell Museum space.

When they moved to the new building, they didn’t take the scenes apart…they moved the entire displays. They were well-done when they were created, so it made sense to keep them intact.

A beautiful fawn in one of the dioramas.

The new Bell Museum has so much more to offer, with a hands-on area and many more displays about outer space and other natural history.

Apparently there are gardens to explore in the summer.

The Bell Museum is a great resource for the Twin Cities…although now they charge a fee to get in. And you have to pay for parking. That’s disappointing, because that can be restrictive for young families. However, I’m sure it’s a great destination for school field trips so many children can experience this great place.

The Jetsons, part two

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about The Jetsons, a comic book based on a cartoon series back in the 60’s (link to blog post). So when I saw an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune on Sunday, March 4^th entitled George Jetson would be impressed I was intrigued.

The article written by Daisuke Wakabayashi and starts out:

“Flying cars are just starting to inch their way out of science fiction. But that is not stopping some companies from planning for flying taxi service.

A grow collection of tech companies, aircraft manufacturer, automakers and investors are betting that fleets of battery –powered aircraft will give rise to air taxi services, perhaps as soon as the next decade. Some of those taxis, the companies hope, may even use artificial intelligence to fly themselves.”

Hmm…It seems this “George Jetson air travel” may become a reality, and it may come sooner than expected.

Name and date of newspaper with article about flying cars.

The Jetsons and Starman

Sometimes when I’m caught in heavy traffic I have thought about the Jetsons. The Jetsons was a cartoon show on television in the 1960’s and I used to watch it as a little girl: George the father, Jane the mother, Judy the daughter, Elroy the son, and Astro their dog. It made an impression on me.

The cover of 1963 The Jetsons comic book.

The Jetsons had the coolest vehicles called spacemobiles…and they traveled fast through the interplanetary expressway. In rush hour traffic I have envisioned being in spacemobile rising above the traffic and zooming home, leaving the mess behind!

The other day I was looking through a box of books and found an old comic book: The Jetsons, Volume 1, January 1963, published quarterly, “Now only 12 cents!” What fun!

Also, the other day a friend, not knowing about this comic book I just uncovered, suggested I look online at pictures of “Starman”, the name of the mannequin dressed in a spacesuit orbiting the universe in a bright red, Tesla Roadster. The photos are interesting, intriguing, and a bit eerie. Click here to see photo. The roadster might even crash into earth some time in the next million years, click here for article and photo with short video of traveling by Earth.

So to see these amazing images from outer space and then look at an antique comic book from 1963 depicting the same theme felt like an intergalactic experience!

Stopping by for a picnic on a “planetoid”.

Back to the comic book: the Jetsons take nutrition pills as their dinner; George, the father, says in a huff “keep your synthetic shirts on”; they take their dog Astro for a “float” instead of a walk; and when they have to use an airplane to fly to Hawaii because their spacemobile breaks down (darn – I guess there will never be a vehicle that doesn’t break down) the kids think the airplane is an antique. Although not featured in this particular comic book, I do believe the Jetsons had picture phones…like Skype or FaceTime!

Here are a few photos of pages from the comic book.

The first page of the comic book…notice year on time box in upper left corner: 2062 A.D.

Afternoon float and inter-canine intercoms…o my.

I’m still wondering if someday we couldn’t find away to rise above all the traffic and use space as our freeway. Hmm, just think…no snow removal… construction zones… no traffic jams…