Last update to this page: August 19, 2020

Many of the links in the program summary below are to the official Voyage National Program website.

On a visit to the National Mall in Washington, DC, one can see monuments of a nation—Memorials to Lincoln, Jefferson, and WWII, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, and the Washington Monument. Standing among them is Voyage—a one to 10-billion scale model of our Solar System—spanning 2,000 feet (600 m) from the National Air and Space Museum to the Smithsonian Castle Building. Voyage celebrates what we know about Earth’s place in space and our ability to know it. It reveals the true nature of humanity’s existence—six billion souls occupying a tiny, fragile, beautiful world in a vast space. It uses the remarkable power of models to develop a deep conceptual understanding of our world in the context of a greater Universe.

A 6th grade class in Washington, DC. Click on Image for Zoom and DC Photoalbum

NCESSE Senior Researcher Dr. Timothy Livengood gives a tour of the Voyage exhibition on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Click on Image for Zoom,  Details, and DC Photoalbum

A seamless fusion of sculpture and science education, Voyage was approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission for permanent placement on the National Mall.

Voyage was designed for replication and permanent installation in communities worldwide, and is now in Houston, Corpus Christi, and Kansas City. The Voyage National Program is overseen by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, and the Voyage International Program is overseen by the Center’s international arm, the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Science Education.

The Voyage exhibition on the National Mall, installed in 2001, was created through a partnership between Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA. A summer 2013 update of this exhibition’s content was undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution, through a grant from the District of Columbia Space Grant Consortium. To learn more, and view photo albums of all Voyage exhibitions, visit the Voyage National Program page.

Voyage is an exhibition that speaks to all humanity. The Center is therefore making replicas of Voyage available for permanent installation in communities across the U.S., and starting in 2012—world-wide. The exhibition is appropriate for a park, college campus, or along a main thoroughfare.

You’re invited to visit our Facebook photoalbums for the Voyage exhibition in different communities: Washington, DC, Houston, Texas, Kansas City, Missouri, and Corpus Christi, Texas.

A family at the Sun at Space Center Houston. Click on Image for Zoom and Houston Photoalbum

A young visitor at Mars in Kansas City, MO. Click on Image for Zoom, Details, and KC Photoalbum

The Voyage exhibition also serves as a focal point for sustainable, community-wide learning experiences leveraged by science education resources tailored to the exhibition, and through programming from the Center’s Journey through the Universe initiative. A customized tour brochure puts the exhibition to work as a lab for inquiry-based exploration; a suite of grade K-12 lessons places the exhibition experience within a multi-week unit on the Solar System in the classroom, and powerfully addresses National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks; and Journey through the Universe delivers programs for students, teachers, families, and the public.

Key Program Objectives:
• Provide visitors an understanding of Earth’s place in space using the power of models
• Extend science education experiences to outdoor spaces
• Use the exhibition as a focal point for programming that engages diverse audiences across a community
• Make available educational sculpture for parks, college campuses, and downtown walkways
• Create a network of Voyage Communities, and foster an inter-community exchange of ideas on how to put the exhibition to work

Voyage in Corpus Christi, TX. Click on Image for Zoom, Details, and Corpus Christi Photoalbum.

Program Highlights:
• Voyage opened in Washington DC, October 2001
• Voyage opened in Kansas City, MO, and Houston Texas, Fall 2008
• Voyage opened in Corpus Christi, TX, July 2009

Other Voyage pages of interest:
• Photoalbums for: Washington, DC, Houston, TX, Kansas City, MO, and Corpus Christi, TX.
• The Voyage Experience
• Exhibition: Design, Storyboards, Storylines and Imagery, Unit Specifications
• Exhibition History
• The Power of Models, Physical Models, Conceptual Models, Numerical Models
• The Exhibition’s one to 10-billion Scale
• The Exhibition’s Accuracy
• Rallying Support for a Voyage Exhibition in Your Community
• Voyage and Pluto

• Voyage in Washington, DC
Media Library for Voyage in Washington, DC

• Voyage in Kansas City
At the Kauffman Foundation: Voyage Exhibition Lifts Off in Kansas City
Live with Jay: Learning into the Future (radio interviews)
Live with Jay: Space Management in Downtown KC (radio interview)
At the Kauffman Foundation: Voyage Exhibition: A Journey through the Solar System
At the Kauffman Foundation: The Voyage Exhibition as a Teaching Tool
Voyage at the Kansas City Public Library
Martin Kelsey’s Walking the Solar System Audio Tour

• Voyage in Corpus Christi
At Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History: Voyage: a Journey through the Solar System
Caller.com: Solar system exhibit funded

• Voyage in Baltimore
Great Baltimore Committee: Earth and space science expert discusses ‘Voyage’ solar system exhibit for Baltimore

How to Participate:
If you would like to explore permanently installing a Voyage exhibition in your community, please contact us. We work closely with interested communities to identify funding sources, and write the needed proposals. We also have case statements for siting Voyage on a university or college campus, or at a museum or science center.