NASA Space Pavilion Excites and Inspires Guests at Comicpalooza
Where can you find a NASA astronaut, Spiderman, and Pikachu all in one place? At Comicpalooza, the largest pop culture festival in the southern U.S.!
The annual Houston-based event brings together a diverse audience of comic book, science fiction, anime, and gaming fans for a celebration of their favorite entertainment and a chance to meet celebrity guests. NASA’s Johnson Space Center has participated in Comicpalooza for the last nine years, starting with panels and celebrity engagement in 2014 and expanding to an exhibit booth in 2015.
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For the 2023 event, held May 26-28 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Johnson employees developed a Space Pavilion concept for the NASA exhibit booth. The booth featured tables representing the International Space Station, Orion, and Gateway programs, including two hands-on tables where Comicpalooza attendees could sample space food and try using tools designed for future spacewalks on the Moon or Mars.
The NASA booth also had a stage area where Johnson employees and others shared their experiences of working to advance the agency’s mission. Presentations included:
• Remarks from astronaut Stan Love about his experiences as an astronaut and about how and why vacuum sucks. Stan also signed autographs for attendees.
• A panel about the African American employee experience at NASA, led by Brian Troutman, the Human Landing System crew compartment lunar dust mitigation discipline lead and featuring Scott Stokes, deputy program manager at KBR; Robert Howard, habitability domain lead in the Habitability and Human Factors Branch and the co-lead of the Center for Design and Space Architecture at Johnson, and Amy Fritz, a mechanical engineer at Johnson in the Robotic Systems Technology Branch.
• A discussion by Dr. Kris Lehnhardt, element scientist for NASA's Exploration Medical Capability Element, about his experiences in Antarctica and how medicine at the ends of the Earth relates to space medicine.
• Flight Director Ed Van Cise’s talk that leaned into comic lore by sharing how the Mission Control Center is the “sidekick” to the “superhero” astronauts and how it’s okay to be the sidekick.
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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was a surprise guest at the NASA booth. He and his family tried their hand at using spacewalk tools and posed for photographs with NASA's inflatable mascot, Cosmo.
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NASA partners were invited to join the agency’s Space Pavilion at Comicpalooza. Jacobs Engineering, Lockheed Martin, and Third Rock Radio were able to attend.
Participating in Comicpalooza helps NASA to educate and excite the public about the agency’s mission. It also helps to spark interest in NASA careers and dispel misconceptions that someone has to be a scientist or mathematician to be part of the agency’s work.
Enjoy more images of the NASA exhibit booth at Comicpalooza below.
