"The Moonwalkers" at the Lightroom
An immersive experience seeks to educate and inspire the public about interplanetary travel.
This week, with the kids off school, I’ve visited Lightroom in London - a venue for immersive shows that involves projecting images on to all four walls and the floor. The show we chose was “The Moonwalkers” - a celebration of the Apollo program, narrated by Tom Hanks.
Hanks is not just a random celebrity voice here - he has been keeping the spirit of the Apollo era alive for years, and includes here a lot of his own personal recollections of seeing the first Moon landing when he was 13. He is a very effective public advocate for space exploration, and able to make it relevant to ordinary people in a way that us nerds sometimes struggle with.
When you arrive at Lightroom, you enter a bar area where you can get some refreshments before going down to the room itself. Once it is time for your show, you proceed downstairs through a somewhat maze like series of corridors, before arriving at the venue itself. The place is larger than I had imagined based on seeing photos online, and despite this showing being very busy, it did not feel overcrowded. We were able to get a seat, but some children ended up sitting on the floor (which didn’t seem to dampen their enjoyment). The show lasts for about 50 minutes, and is engaging all the way through. There are multiple elements projected on different walls, so I found myself turning around a fair bit to make sure I took everything in. If that is uncomfortable you can get plenty out of it focusing on the front screen.
Both me and my 12 year old son especially enjoyed the parts when the projection was used to place the audience on the lunar surface with the Apollo astronauts. Much of this part focused on later Moon missions, which is good because it is quite common among the general public to forget that there were 5 more landings after Apollo 11.
The Artemis Generation
One especially notable thing was how the show directly linked the Apollo missions to the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, including accounts from all four crew members about what Apollo and space exploration in general means to them.
I’d be interested to find out if this show raises general interest in the Artemis missions among the public. As I said above, it seemed pretty popular. I also wonder if this show will be updated and re-released in anticipation of the Artemis III mission in a few years. If you are in the UK (or one of the cities this show tours to) and want to get a friend or family member excited about space exploration, then taking them to Lightroom is a good idea.