Omaha Children’s Museum (www.ocm.org) will open a special exhibit, Moon To Mars, inspired by NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars. The exhibit opened May 28 and will run through January 8, 2023, and is included with regular museum admission. Moon To Mars was designed by the museum’s exhibits team with support from NASA’s Deep Space Explorations Systems at Johnson Space Center. Featuring real space artifacts and hands-on activities for children, the exhibit is created to inspire excitement about the future of space travel. The exhibit is presented by Mutual of Omaha. Additional support is provided by NASA Artemis, Olsson, Cox Communications, Douglas County, KETV, and Astroscale.

Moon To Mars features six areas, each designed for specific types of play such as physical, social, inquisitive, and creative. Inspiring the design for each was the premise that science and exploration require a diverse team. The Artemis missions are notable for being the first to land a woman and a person of color on the moon.

The museum will have coordinated events throughout the exhibit’s run. The first event planned is a visit from Omaha native, Richa Sirohi, on August 20 at 1 p.m. Sirohi is an end-to-end information system engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She’ll talk about her work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, women in STEM, and other things.

Since its inception in 1976, Omaha Children’s Museum has been a special place where children can challenge themselves, discover how the world works, and learn through play. To learn more about the Museum or the Moon To Mars exhibit, visit www.ocm.org.