NASA Lewis Center: Ohio's Free Space Playground

I'm not a science person, and neither is my wife. We don't want that fact to stop our little girl from pursing a math or science career someday, so we took her to the NASA Lewis Center near Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

We always knew NASA used the facility to test equipment before sending it up to space. We had no idea it had such a cool visitor's center with free admission.

We visited on a day that featured presentations about Mercury and Venus. Each lecture lasted nearly an hour, but the photos of the planets were breathtaking.

I was especially impressed with the fact that the shots of Mercury were taken earlier in the week by the Messenger satellite. Since the NASA Lewis Center is a real part of the active space program, it can offer much more current information than any textbook.

Our daughter has a lot of fun in the Visitor Center, even though most of the activities were designed for kids ages 6-12. She got to make her own planet, decorate it and give it a name ("Starry").

The NASA Lewis Center also has a flight simulator video game, which allows you to pilot everything from a Boeing 747 to a Sopwith Camel.

Kids can also have a virtual conversation with former Sen. John Glenn, who was the first astronaut to orbit the earth. By choosing from a list of questions, the kids can ask "Glenn" what the experience was like.

We also liked the photo booth, where our girl got a free photo of herself as an astronaut.

Another activity is the Drop Zone, which simulates NASA's gravity experiments. Kids use a joystick to lift a weight high in the air before crashing it down with a loud thud.

When the space shuttle launches, the NASA Lewis Center invites everyone to watch it on their big screen. The Atlantis is scheduled to launch on Feb. 7.

The NASA Lewis Center gives presentations on the third Saturday of every month, and we're already planning to go back for a few of them. Some of the presentations that look good include Mr. Hubble's Telescope (Aug. 16) and Touchdown on Mars (June 21).

Other big dates are the Open House on May 17, in which visitors can tour the space research facility; and Astronaut Encounter on July 19, which will allow kids to meet a real astronaut.