Draper, a Cambridge nonprofit research company, unveiled a giant replica of the planet Mars in its atrium Tuesday.
The rendition of Mars goes along with Draper’s existing model of the Moon. Draper has been working with NASA for decades helping to develop some of the technology used in the Apollo and Artemis missions.
“So why Mars today?” said Jerry Wohletz, President and CEO of Draper. “If you go back to the history of the Apollo program and the Sputnik program and that event for our nation, Doc Draper, the namesake of the laboratory, was actually planning the mission to Mars. He actually knew President Kennedy personally and President Kennedy came back and said ‘Hey, how about let’s just go to the Moon first?’.”
The Mars model was unveiled at a private event on Tuesday, in advance of the reopening of the Draper Museum in March. Once open to the public, visitors will be able to take self-guided tours to learn more about Mars, the Moon landing, and Draper’s contributions to space travel.
The new model of the red planet uses high resolution imagery to show every valley, crater, volcano, and mountain on Mars. It can even be seen from the street, so people can get a better look at our planetary neighbor until we get their ourselves.
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