{"id":1646,"date":"2013-03-31T13:12:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T12:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/up\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/31\/angry-birds-roosting-at-nasa\/"},"modified":"2022-10-29T16:43:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T15:43:27","slug":"angry-birds-roosting-at-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/angry-birds-roosting-at-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"Angry Birds roosting at NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Angry Birds have a new space coop.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

At NASA’s invitation, the online game birds are roosting at Kennedy Space Center for the next one and a half years in an effort to lure youngsters to the cosmic wonders of math and science.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

The huge interactive exhibit opened March 22 and immediately packed in the kids, who couldn\u2019t get enough of the mirrored maze and the design-your-own Angry Bird and play-the-game stations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

It\u2019s called Angry Birds Space Encounter and is the first of its kind.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Astronaut Donald Pettit, a chemical engineer and father of 12-year-old twin boys, announced the collaboration between NASA and Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment a year ago while living aboard the International Space Station. He squeezed in as much physics as he could in the YouTube announcement. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p><\/wp-block>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWow, this could be a great venue for getting some physics and getting some math and getting some science into something that has the connotation as just an empty brain-draining video game that sucks out the creativity from the minds of young people,\u201d Pettit said at the grand opening.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cAnd so I thought, well, maybe I could help make a difference on this and bring the idea of a game up to a different level, where unbeknownst to the kids playing it, they\u2019re learning a little bit of math and physics at the same time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Enter the concepts of parabolic trajectories, hyperbolic trajectories, elliptical trajectories and even Holman transfer orbits, \u201cwhich is what we do with spacecraft going from Planet A to Planet B.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s all this stuff latent in this game, particularly if you tend to be a geek, or an uber-geek or what I\u2019m actually calling now a super-uber-geek,\u201d Pettit said. \u201cAll of this stuff can be mined out of this game and it can be used as an excuse to learn more. If you\u2019re not in any of those categories as a kid, you can still play the game and be entertained.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Parent Alert: If a PhD astronaut such as Pettit endorses Angry Birds Space, it must be worthwhile.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Toss in space shuttle Atlantis, making its museum debut in another few months, and the educational value goes sky-high.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Angry Birds is \u201ca nice prelude to Atlantis and it will be a nice complement as well\u201d, especially for children, said John Stine, Delaware North Co.\u2019s director of sales and events at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to learn something about Angry Birds and they\u2019re going to really be inspired when they go to Atlantis.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Finnish-based Rovio Entertainment has another Angry Birds Space exhibit up its sleeve at another locale in the near future, said Dan Mitchell, the company\u2019s director of location-based entertainment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cBut you can\u2019t get a much more true-to-life space theme than being here at Kennedy Space Center,\u201d Mitchell said as his 6-year-old daughter waited none too patiently at the exhibit entrance.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

The 417-square-metre exhibit features six interactive stations, including 41.2-metre-high Eggsteroids Slingshots that children can use to launch mini Angry Birds, and a laser-beam obstacle course set on the Red Planet.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

This reporter\u2019s son had to be dragged away after more than an hour inside the noisy, darkened chamber \u2014 noisy and dark for grown-ups, that is. The Florida sunlight beckoned, with the outdoor play area, rocket garden and shuttle launch-simulator ride.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWant to go back to the Angry Birds?\u201d he pleaded a few days later. \u201cPleeeease.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Angry Birds have a new space coop. At NASA’s invitation, the online game birds are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,22],"tags":[866,184,2002,2004,2003],"class_list":["post-1646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-travel","tag-angry","tag-at","tag-birds","tag-nasa","tag-roosting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3352,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions\/3352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}