ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids... but St. Cloud is, according to a scientist who grew up there.
Dr. Felicity-John Pederson, founder of LVX System, inventor and recent co-buyer of the mock replica Inspiration space shuttle, told KARE 11 the wait for Inspiration's highly anticipated, impending arrival is nearly over.
"It's at the Wisconsin border right now, and it's the fuselage; most all the other parts are here," Pederson said Wednesday.
You might even see "it" — the 25-ton fuselage, or main body of the shuttle — make its way across the border into Minnesota sometime after midnight on Saturday, bypassing the Twin Cities and cutting over to its new home in central Minnesota.
The event, Pederson said, "should be quite a sight."
The decades-old Inspiration replica orbiter, which lived at Florida's John F. Kennedy Space Center for more than half a century, is taking a trip north before eventually taking willing participants on a virtually simulated trip through various destinations in space.
"This quote, 'trip,' would be something that you might go into low earth orbit, whatever," Pederson said. "This thing will react to the simulations, the dome and all that — kind of like big movie theaters that are in these domes — gives that very realistic thing going on.
"There will also be places to observe the shuttle on the 'bleachers,' if you will, to see this thing because it'll look like the shuttle flying through space and landing."
But there's still some work to be done before the craft embarks on its first mock flight, including the shuttle's complete reconstruction, and the development of new "domes" to house it. The infrastructure, a conglomeration of up to five domes, will each feature its own attraction as part of the new "spaceport" complex.
Pederson said that with the complex, the science community hopes to further highlight advancements and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). And they plan to do it soon.
"I do think, though, it'll go fast," Pederson said. "I know that coming from our local Representative Aric Putnam (DFL-St. Cloud), he said everybody's very interested in doing something quickly, and that the governor wants education mixed in, which is what NASA will want, too."
Pederson said the faster the "edutainment" project comes to fruition, the faster regular people like you and me can experience the wonders of space exploration.
"I'll say, you know, at my age, I'm 65 — I figured we'd be flying around the moon and all that stuff by 2001," Pederson said.
"We are not that far yet, but you know, this is cool because no time soon is anybody flying off to another planet. I think I'm assured that this thing could be super realistic by the people that make the domes and all these shows that go in these domes."
Next steps, according to Pederson, include outfitting Inspiration and its home dome with sufficient technology; attracting partners "similarly committed" to education; and working with local officials — like Putnam — to pick a perfect, accessible spot to place it all.
"At first we were going to do the Mall of America, but the plans fell through at COVID and it hasn't recovered to the state where we were able to do that. We also talked to the Science Museum in St. Paul, but they didn't have enough land to do this," said Pederson.
So, of all places, why St. Cloud? And where, exactly, will the shuttle land?
"The Challenger Learning Center did a study, and I was told by the person who's starting it that St. Cloud was one of the best choices," Pederson said. "And because I know St. Cloud — because I'm originally from here — I worked with the mayor and some of the others here, and turns out, it's a good spot; this is a nice, centrally located area for people around the country to visit it."
Pederson said the plan is to build the complex off of a major exit from Interstate 94, so members of the public can easily access it.
In addition to edutainment purposes, the project will also be used to train space explorers, having already attracted a long list of astronauts — and airlines — vying for the opportunity to "fly" it.
"The idea is probably to have airlines sell a ticket to places they can't take you," Pederson said. "We're talking to some of the airlines about that, and so far, they're very interested. And, of course, none of us are probably going to go out into space here, [but] you could do that based on all the things that NASA has learned — all the photographs and pictures and artificial intelligent-generated movie things you would travel through and experience."
And according to Pederson, Bob Cabana, former astronaut, associate administrator for NASA and native son of Minnesota — is currently, unofficially, the first pilot in line.
"He's a very connected astronaut, and he's also very connected to Minnesota, and he just said, basically, 'If you're going to do it right, I want to be part of this,'" Pederson said. "He doesn't want to embarrass Minnesota or himself or NASA, so, you know, do it right."
But again, you don't have to be a NASA rocket scientist to experience Minnesota's new space simulation shuttle.
"A few of them (astronauts) said to me, 'Put a jump seat in so I can bring one of my kids, grandkids, so I could show off: Here's what it was in the day,'" Pederson said. "There's four seats in the flight deck, and then there's another three of them on the mid-deck, so there's room for people to be there while this guy's doing it.
"Plus, we'll set up seats in the cargo, and that should be a very overwhelming thing, very cool, kind of like an airplane ride."
And the next thing you know, said Pederson, the walls will light up with TV sets, transporting those lucky enough to experience the simulation to another place completely out of this world.
"... Then the doors open up, and you're looking at the rings of Saturn."
Follow these links for more information about LVX System and Dr. Felicity-John Pederson.
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