Buzz Aldrin's ShareSpace Foundation Awards Giant Destination Mars Map™ to Space Foundation

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 26, 2016) – The newest education tool at the Space Foundation’s Lockheed Martin Space Education Center, located at the Discovery Center in Colorado Springs, is a Giant Destination Mars Map™ recently awarded by Buzz Aldrin’s ShareSpace Foundation.

As a Mars Map recipient, the Space Foundation will receive honorary membership into the exclusive ShareSpace Foundation Mars Map Society, a select group of educators around the world who have also received a Mars Map. They have their own space on sharespace.org, where they can discuss Map curriculum, lessons and activities and share photos and video of their students’ work with the Map.

The Map measures 25 feet by 25 feet, allowing an entire class to interact with it. The Map depicts the Mars MOLA image, which measures the elevation of the surface features of Mars, and it includes the landing locations of NASA Mars robots.

The Space Foundation is using the Map in conjunction with the Discovery Center’s Mars Robotics Laboratory to cover topics that include map reading, latitude/longitude comprehension, topographical map comprehension, mission planning, spatial awareness, scale models and other Mars-related lessons.

Last school year, the Space Foundation served more than 20,000 students and teachers with standards-based, hands-on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs. A quarter of these students were low-income and under-represented, and were able to come on field trips to the Space Foundation Discovery Center in Colorado Springs because of scholarship funding.

Because the Space Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, philanthropy is critical to its education mission to inspire and build a STEM-based workforce and the next generation of explorers and innovators. Learn more about Space Foundation education programs at www.discoverspace.org.

About the Space Foundation
Founded in 1983, the Space Foundation is the foremost advocate for all sectors of space, and is a global, nonprofit leader in space awareness activities, educational programs and major industry events, including the annual Space Symposium, in support of its mission “to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity.” Space Foundation World Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, has a public Discovery Center, including El Pomar Space Gallery, Northrop Grumman Science Center featuring Science On a Sphere® and the Lockheed Martin Space Education Center. The Space Foundation has a Washington, D.C., office and field representatives in Houston and the Florida Space Coast. It publishes The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity, and through its Space Certification^TM and Space Technology Hall of Fame® programs, recognizes space-based innovations that have been adapted to improve life on Earth. Visit both of our websites — www.SpaceFoundation.org and www.DiscoverSpace.org — and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, Flickr and YouTube, and read our e-newsletter Space Watch.

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Space Foundation contact:   
Carol Hively, Director – Public Relations & Team Communications
[email protected]