Do space tourism like the billionaires, but for only twenty euros. It’s promise of the Space City in Toulouse, which has just unveiled the new animation that it will put into service in the summer of 2023: a space flight simulator called LuneXplorer and reproducing the conditions of a take-off then a trip to the star of the night. “It will offer a unique, immersive, sensory experience,” explains Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc. Visitors will experience the sensations one can experience when living this adventure. »
Concretely, the mission of the crews of four people will last “about 4 minutes” during which “the public will undergo an acceleration of 2 to 2.5 times its weight” before moving on to the essential scientific debrief. Because at the Cité de l’espace, we don’t go on carousels, the word “attraction” is banned. Scientific vocation obliges, even when one takes off for the Moon, it remains an “animation”. “We are not here for people to say yippee, I took 2 G in the face”, summarizes Jean-Baptiste Desbois, the director.
strong force of attraction
LuneXplorer, of which there are no final images yet, will take the place of the Terradome, the big blue ball in the park, already emptied for this purpose. Its construction will cost 11.8 million euros. The price of “renewal” at a time when the Moon remains, before Mars, the destination of the next manned flight. The Cité de l’Espace attributes to its future installation a force of attraction capable of attracting “30,000 to 40,000 additional visitors per year”.