Curving over the sandy lunar soil with the lunar rover - or even playing golf there: While the space industry is working on another trip to the moon, the Deutsches Museum is now making a virtual landing there.
The day before yesterday, on 1 August, the German Museum in Munich has opened a Virtual Reality Lab (VRlab). Visitors can not only steer the moon car on the faithfully reconstructed landing site of Apollo 17, but also accompany Otto Lilienthal on a flight with his glider or click through a steam engine up close.
"What may seem like a gimmick at first glance is an important building block for the knowledge transfer of the future," said Director General Wolfgang Heckl at the presentation of the VRlab on Monday. The museum is both a "popular education centre and Oktoberfest", he said, quoting museum founder Oskar von Miller.
The new VRlab could become a holiday attraction for those staying at home. However, it also shows the possibilities of digitalisation, which will play an important role in the working world of the future or in care, among other things.
The museum wants to make more of its 130,000 exhibits virtually accessible or accessible, said Heckl. "We are in the middle of a digitalisation offensive." Next up - for the 50th anniversary next year - guests will be able to experience a moon landing or ride on one of the world's largest steam locomotives, the S 3/6. Weightlessness or rocket launches could also become an experience for everyone - the space programme of Minister President Markus Söder (CSU) has its counterpart in the museum. Already now Bavaria arrived there on the moon: If you drive the moon car around the American flag, it becomes a Bavarian flag.
Source: DPA
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