Beechhurst native and Bayside High School graduate Ellen Louis Baker (née Shulman) is physician who also participated in three shuttle flights and logged more than 686 hours in space as a NASA astronaut.
Learn about her achievements and those of other high-altitude females at the Imaging Women in the Space Age exhibition at the New York Hall of Science.
The show spans from the earliest moon goddesses to today’s galactic fashions, informing on pioneering women and their ground-breaking achievements across science, movies, television, and design.
Sally Ride, the first woman in space, is featured. So are Mae Jemison, the first African-American female astronaut; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to go into space; and Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, who participated in an all-woman spacewalk.
The curator, State University of New York, Maritime College Proffesor Emerita Julie Wosk, included vintage and current images of female space travelers in television shows like “Lost in Space” and “Star Trek,” space-inspired fashions like Pucci’s designs for Braniff Airlines flight attendants, Chanel’s futuristic dresses, and screen shots from films like “Barbarella,” starring Jane Fonda, and “Gravity” starring Sandra Bullock.
CityWorks
Not done. The New York Hall of Science unveils CityWorks on May 3.
Housed in a 6,000-square-foot gallery, this interactive exhibit explores the intricate systems and engineering that allow cities to function, including how they break, evolve, and endure.
Created over the past five years, CityWorks will focus on five different aspects of infrastructure with emphasis on how each system has traditionally functioned and adapted over time.
Transportation
- Subway, bus, sidewalk, and roads – engineering, management and design.
- Future challenges: growing populations, transportation of goods, transit efficiency, and environmental impact.
Water and Wastewater
- NYC watershed and distribution systems, combined sewers, and treatment plant processes.
- Future challenges: system maintenance and repairs, and updates to plan for sewage overflows.
Sanitation
- Garbage landfill, recycling, compost, e-waste, construction debris, etc.
- Future challenges: explore the implications of waste streams and investigate ways to reconsider waste management for the future.
Construction and Urban Development
- How the iconic NYC skyline is built – materials, engineering, and processes.
- Future challenges: updating, maintaining, retrofitting, and demolition to make buildings more resilient, efficient, and adaptable for changing needs.
Integrated Systems
- The final section looks at three simulated city neighborhoods – one residential, one central business hub, and one industrial, coastal area – to reveal how changes in one type of infrastructure have effects on other systems and on the quality of life in the neighborhood as a whole. The interactive exhibit utilizes digital twin technology and real NYC data drawn from open data sources to allow visitors to see how their decisions impact the urban landscape.
“[Cities] rely daily on engineering systems and decisions that are complex in their beauty,” stated NYSCI President and CEO Lisa J. Gugenheim. “CityWorks will invite visitors young and old to explore this world, taking them deep into the built environment and challenging them to engage with the materials and ideas that keep our cities thriving.”
General admission to the Hall of Science is $22 for adults and $19 for children, students, and seniors. The museum is located at 47-01 111th St. inside Flushing Meadows Corona Park. A large parking lot is on the site.
Images: New York Hall of Science