Visual Guide to Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?

Overview

The exhibition is a series of seven rooms. The rooms are wide and round and there are smaller, dark transition spaces between them. There’s a specified route to move through the exhibition from beginning to end.

The dark transition spaces all have spongy and slightly uneven flooring. The rooms are carpeted. There are some vents on the floor that aren’t carpeted and are a slightly uneven surface. All the exhibition is on one level with no steps.

You can move through the exhibition at your own pace. If you want to skip any parts of the exhibition, you can do so by passing through to the next transition space or room.

If you need help at any point, return to the exhibition entrance where there will be a staff member in a purple jacket or top.

Sound

There are atmospheric soundtracks at the beginning and end that travel softly through the rest of the exhibition space. They are loudest in the first and last rooms.

In the central Mars room, there’s periodically a loud, rumbling noise accompanied by a slight vibration in the floor. This occurs approximately every three minutes and is loudest around the large, curved projection wall.

Some of the games make low sounds when played.

There are three films on screens. These have ear cups to listen and subtitles.

Lighting

The exhibition has low lighting.

Each room has a different colour tint of lighting.

The transition spaces between the rooms are darker than the rest of the exhibition.

There are no flashing lights.

There are films on screens and projected onto the walls.

Touch

There are multiple points where you can interact with physical and digital games.

There are also some objects that you can touch. These are clearly labelled.

There are three instances where you can place your hand inside a sphere to touch a rock specimen. The sphere will glow when you put your hand inside.

Smell

There are four smell pots where you can lift up a cup to smell a scent.

Seating

There’s seating at multiple points throughout the exhibition.

These are all simple benches without cushioning or backrests. Some have armrests.

Exhibition Journey

Ticket Desk

The ticket desk is located in our Birds Gallery. Our staff wear purple jackets or tops. They’ll either scan your ticket if you’ve bought your tickets online or you can buy tickets from them at the desk.

Entry Space

After passing the ticket desk, you’ll enter a dark room with a large, suspended sphere above head height. It has colourful, moving microbes projected onto its surface. You can walk all the way around the sphere but not directly under it, as there’s a black plinth beneath.

There are two individual seats without armrests.

An ambient soundtrack plays loudly in this room, which can be heard at a lower level throughout the exhibition.

Earth room

When leaving the entry space you’ll walk around a bend into a larger room.

There’s one large meteorite that you can touch.

In this section there’s a game where you can spin an inner wheel on the wall to find the ingredients needed for life.

The lighting in this space is tinted blue.

There’s a bench without armrests for seating.

Transition space: Earth to Asteroids

Exiting the Earth room, you’ll enter a darker, narrower space. This will have soft, uneven flooring and walls that absorb sound. This is a short space, and you can see the light from the next room as you move through.

Asteroids room

There’s an interactive game where you can press your hand into some shapes to mimic the feel of an asteroid’s surface.

There’s no seating in this room.

Transition space: Asteroids to Mars

Exiting the Asteroids room, you’ll enter a darker, narrower space with soft, uneven flooring. You’ll be able to see the light from the next room as you move through.

Mars room

This room has a large central table with a game on it. This is a game where you can move a small rover on a replica surface of Mars. The rover will vibrate softly under your hand at points during the game. A screen in front of you will show you what you’ve detected. Sounds accompany this game.

As you move further into this room, there’s a large, curved wall showing a looped projection of the Martian landscape. The loop lasts approximately three minutes. There are interactive points in the sequence when hands appear, inviting you to touch the screen. At one point in the sequence, fans above the screen will activate and blow a gentle breeze onto you. There’s a loud rumbling and other atmospheric sounds throughout the sequence.

There’s a seating bench in front of this exhibit with an armrest.

Moving around the room to the left, there are display cases with objects relating to Mars exploration and a large rover. There’s seating in front of the rover with armrests.

The lighting in the Mars room is tinted orange.

Transition space: Mars to Icy Worlds

Exiting the Mars room, you’ll enter a darker, narrower space. It has soft, uneven flooring and it curves around. You’ll be able to see the light from the next room as you move through it.

Icy Worlds

This room is tinted blue.

There’s no seating in this room.

There’s a sphere within a display case. It has a handle that you can turn to expand the layers of the sphere.

There’s a large table with screens where you can play a digital game to design your own space mission. There are sounds that accompany this game.

Transition space: Icy Worlds to Beyond

Exiting the Icy Worlds room, you’ll enter a darker, narrower space with soft, uneven flooring. You’ll be able to see the light from the next room as you move through it.

Beyond room

In the centre of the room is a large circular table with glowing planets around a star. You can turn the table by using the outer rim.

The light in this room is tinted purple and there’s a bench with no armrests for seating.

There’s a game that will ask you your opinion on different real and imagined scenarios about the potential of finding life beyond Earth.

Final Room

When you turn right at the end of the Beyond room, you’ll see the final room. This is a dark room filled with bright discs suspended at different heights. You can move through the space and stand on any of the four small circles of light on the ground. This will trigger a scene to emerge on the screen in front of you. A different scene will emerge depending on the circle you stand on.

There are two seating benches in this room. They have LED lighting to identify them in the dark space.

There’s an atmospheric soundtrack that’s loud in this room.

There are also some individual sound effects that are activated in this room.

You can move through this room to exit the exhibition and enter the gift shop. You won’t be able to re-enter the exhibition this way once you’ve left the room.