SAMUEL CHAN
SAMUEL.CHAN@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 September, 2015, 7:00am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 September, 2015, 10:54am
The lights will go out at the Space Museum - at least for a while. Photo: Felix Wong
The Hong Kong Space Museum will become the latest attraction in Tsim Sha Tsui to close for renovation.
This will happen in two phases. The two exhibition halls will close on October 5, followed by the theatre and lecture hall on November 1. They will remain closed until March next year.
This will be the second temporary closure of a museum in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The Hong Kong Museum of Art has been closed since last month for a HK$930 million renovation that will give it about 40 per cent more exhibition space when it opens four years later.
READ MORE: Hong Kong Museum of Art set to close for HK$930m expansion to meet growing demand
The Hubble Space Telescope which launched in 1990 is still described as a 'future possibility'. Photo: NASA
The adjacent Avenue of Stars will be closed for renovation from next month until 2018.
Opened in 1980 and renovated once in 1991, a number of the museum’s exhibits have been criticised for containing outdated information, including describing space projects in the 1990s as future ones.
In 2012 the Post reported how the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was still referred to as a "future possibility" when for almost two decades it has been transmitting breathtaking images of deep space that have changed our understanding of the universe.
All existing exhibits will be dismantled and replaced by about 100 new items, of which about 70 per cent will be interactive, which the government says will offer visitors a simulated experience of travelling through space and time.
Read more: Hong Kong Space Museum 'out of date'
Visitors play with a model of the solar system at Hong Kong Space Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: SCMP
After renovation, the Hall of Space Science and the Hall of Astronomy, with a total area of 1,600 square metres, will be renamed the Hall of the Cosmos and the Hall of Space Exploration respectively.
The ground-floor Hall of the Cosmos will feature exhibits called “Moon Jump”, “Big Bang Theatre” and “Gravity Surfing” in what is described as “a dimmed and mysterious simulated space environment”.
The first-floor Hall of Space Exploration will allow visitors to experience “what it is like in space through a simulated futuristic and surreal environment”.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1858195/hong-kong-space-museum-become-latest-attraction
