The exhibition
The Space Mission exhibition promises visitors a trip through the realm of space, today and in the future. It invites each of us to step into the shoes of an astronaut for an experience that feels like a waking dream. The exhibition is arranged in five sections to give an overview of the current state of play in terms of research, technology and discussion about space missions. It gives us insight into the reality and complexity of this field, to help us see the opportunities offered by space, but also the constraints attached to them.
Practical informations
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€13 | €10 | Our prices
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From age 8
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Trilingual exhibition (French, English, Spanish)
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The Cité is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 am - 6.00 pm and 10.00 am - 7.00 pm on Sunday.
Accessibility
- Accessible to visually impaired visitors
- Accessible to visitors with reduced mobility
- Accessible to deaf and hard of hearing visitors
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Explore
To explore space, humans cannot manage without robots. This first part of the exhibition offers visitors a chance to see objects that go where humans cannot, for safety or time reasons. From Venus Express to the Cassini probe, via Huygens, Juice or the Perseverance rover, each was designed for a specific exploratory purpose.
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Travel
Here, visitors put on spacesuits. As members of a team of scientists,
they leave for a drilling site on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, located 628.3 million kilometres from Earth. They experience this space exploration trip through an immersive show that begins with take-off and ends on landing. A number of models, including one of Ariane 6, are on display to complete the visitor experience. -
Gateway to space
This third section of the exhibition presents the public with a roadmap featuring the Artemis programme. Led by NASA in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and other space agencies, this programme resulted in the launch, at the end of 2022, of the new SLS (Space Launch System) with Orion, the vessel that succeeded Apollo. This spacecraft’s first uncrewed voyage around the moon was a success and it landed safely back on Earth, paving the way for a future crewed mission.
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Living in space
Visitors are now travelling in the future, to set foot on the Moon and visit an established lunar base. They find out how astronauts manage to be self-sufficient with the help of the resources found there and by recycling as many resources as possible. They also learn which architectural solutions are being studied to adjust to conditions on the Moon. This section features a multimedia game on the theme of day-to-day life on a Martian base, for which the visitor becomes an astronaut who is training to spend a day on Mars.
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Food for thought
In this last section, the public takes a step back. An audiovisual installation gives the experts a chance to speak (an astrophysician, a sociologist and a geopolitician) to offer food for thought on society’s relationship with space and, in particular, our motivations for sending humans there.
