Between June 24th and September 6th, The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama will be hosting Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, an exciting exhibition featuring more than 80 costumes, models and props from all six Star Wars films that invites visitors to defy gravity, manipulate robots, and engineer droids.

Exhibition Overview

Robot Object Theater

Entering a large-scale model of the rusted-steel interior of a Jawa sandcrawler, visitors meet C-3PO and (via video projection) real-world robotics engineer Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Robotic Life Group, MIT Media Lab. The droid and the roboticist debate the merits of R2-D2 and how researchers try to duplicate traits such as mobility, perception and cognition.

Building Communities and Augmented Reality

Visitors build a spaceport, moisture farm community and walled Jawa town. Placing cards on a table—the physical landscape—a computer superimposes a building on a site in virtual reality and real time.

Real World Starships

Visitors will see actual vehicles and prototypes researchers and engineers in our own world have developed.

Real World Robots

Today’s task-oriented robots and humanoid robots are on display in the exhibit. Visitors will get to see a floor-vacuuming Roomba that can sense its surroundings and plug itself in to recharge, as well as early ancestors such as the Johns Hopkins Beast, developed in the 1960s.

Star Wars Artifacts

Luke’s original landspeeder from Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope is on public exhibit for the first time, alongside scale models of X- and Y-wing starfighters and TIE fighters. Visitors will also see an original Yoda puppet from from the Star Wars films and Darth Vader’s actual helmet from Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

They will also be hosting JEDI EXPERIENCE, a weekend or 3-Day overnight Parent/Child Summer Camp for ages 7-12 from June 25th-September 6th. Jedi Experience focuses on the principles and moral codes surrounding the training of a Jedi. It is an educational look into the scientific, technological, historical and cultural trappings of the Star Wars universe, with real world parallels.

• Immerse yourself in the world of Star Wars as you learn about Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader’s universe and its real world parallels to such modern day technology as: space flight, robotics and laser technology.
• Students will focus their training on the moral codes and principles of the Jedi, learning the valuable importance of honesty, integrity, leadership and team work.
• Take your first steps in learning the ways of the Lightsaber
• Build and race your own Pod racer
• Infiltrate the decks of a Star Destroyer and steal the plans of the Death Star

Visit U.S. Space & Rocket Center – Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination or U.S. Space & Rocket Center – Jedi Experience for more information