Ahead of the launch in the coming week, a 'Rakia' mission complex was set up at the Check Point offices in Tel Aviv, including a control room from which scientists, artists and educators will monitor the activities of astronaut Eitan Stiva on the International Space Station; and a visitor center that will be visited by thousands of students in the coming weeks who will experience interactive educational activities
As part of the Rakei mission led by the Ramon Foundation and in cooperation with the Israel Space Agency in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, a unique complex was established at the Check Point offices in Tel Aviv from which the mission's control room will be operated, which will be the ground station from Israel to the International Space Station and a unique visitor center about the Rakei mission. In the control room, scientists, educators and artists will follow Eitan Stiva's mission on the International Space Station, and the visitor center will make the sky mission and the experience of the human journey into space accessible to the general public through interactive elements that "activate all the senses".
The mission headquarters say that the Rakei mission is designed to stimulate curiosity and creativity through a human journey into space and recognition of the potential inherent in the exploration of the universe. Its goals are to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the planet, while deepening international cooperation and promoting the space industry. The mission will enrich education in Israel and will be exposed to students, educators, researchers, people of thought and culture, and the entire public, in diverse ways - from dozens of scientific experiments and blue and white technology demonstrations that will be carried out on the station, through the transmission of educational content to Israeli children from space as well as the creation and presentation of Israeli art. Because no dream is too far.
The control room will be managed by representatives of the scientific team and will contain the researchers, artists and educators while Stiva performs the various activities. The control room is the beating heart of a sky mission in Israel, through which communication with Stiva will be conducted during the mission. Its purpose is to allow researchers, educators and artists full monitoring of Eitan's activities and through it it will be possible to make necessary changes in experiments in real time, while maintaining a direct dialogue with the control room of the International Space Station in the United States. The educational content that Eitan will deliver from the station will be concentrated in the control room and broadcast directly to the children of Israel.
The visitor center was designed inspired by Rakei's mission and is intended to make this complex mission, which has artistic, educational and scientific aspects and their combination, accessible to the general public. The center is divided into 5 complexes, each of which will present a different aspect of the mission - the International Space Station complex, a celestial mission complex, the scientific experiments complex, the life on the International Space Station complex and the "no dream is too far" inspiration complex.
Israeli cyber defense giant Check Point will host the Rakei mission complex during the Ax-1 crew's stay on the International Space Station. Check Point's training center, where special training programs for integration into the high-tech industry are held on regular days, will become the first visitor complex of its kind in Israel.
All the complexes in the control center are designed in order to make the knowledge accessible in the most clear way to all visitors to the complex. The walls of the complex present through videos, photos, activities and text the theme of each complex, in order to create a unique and extraordinary experience that will make the sky mission and the field of space accessible to visitors of all ages.
In order to make the control complex accessible to the general public, the 'Rakia' mission team created a special launch kit on the 'Rakia' website which can be used by any student, teacher, parent or educational center - to experience the visitor center from anywhere in Israel and the world. The launch kit includes unique posters that can be printed for educational centers, detailed explanations of all educational activities and links to the websites that will be projected on the control room screens during the mission. The launch kit will allow anyone to experience the 'Rakia' mission complex.
The walls of the visitors' center in the 'Rakia' mission complex will be divided into exhibits on different topics. The performance that focuses on the International Space Station will show pictures and explanations about the station. In addition, a virtual tour station was set up in the International Space Station that includes virtual reality (VR) glasses and tablets for the young audience who cannot use glasses. During the virtual tour, visitors will experience an interactive game, float in the station and collect various objects in space - from an astronaut's point of view.
In a performance focused on a celestial mission, the exhibition of the items that astronaut Ethan Stiva takes with him into space as part of the mission will be shown. In addition, a simulation of the Dragon spacecraft's trajectory from Earth to space will be shown - starting from the moment of launch, through exiting the atmosphere, docking at the International Space Station - until returning to Earth. In addition, there will be several interactive activities - a trivia quiz about space created in collaboration with the Davidson Institute for Science Education, a space navigation game, an activity about measuring carbon dioxide, in collaboration with the "Green Network" and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, an augmented reality activity that corresponds with the artwork of the artist Yael Frank and a host of other activities.
The display of scientific experiments is designed to make accessible the dozens of experiments that astronaut Eitan Stiva will perform throughout the mission and they will even get a chance to try some of them. Visitors will experience a simulation of the CRISPR experiment of Tel Aviv University and the Volcanic Institute, which will test genetic diagnosis of viruses and bacteria in space missions under microgravity conditions. The simulation will illustrate the reaction in the CRISPR experiment that will be carried out on the International Space Station. In addition, a simulation of a remote medicine experiment will be performed - identifying stress and monitoring the health of astronauts remotely, of the Sheba Medical Center, which detects the development of emotional distress and stressful situations through an application. Visitors will be able to try out the application while performing various activities. The app will analyze their emotional state, just like the state of the astronauts on the space station.
The exhibit of life on the International Space Station will illustrate the agenda of an astronaut in space and will present explanations about the living conditions on the space station, dealing with the lack of gravity, the unique sleeping chambers of the astronauts, and more.
The inspiration area 'No dream is too far' is a special photo area that incorporates the cupola, the window through which the astronauts look down on the Earth from the International Space Station. Visitors will be able to take pictures with Israel visible from space behind them - like the astronauts staying on the station. In this area are presented the words of Ilan Ramon, who looked at the world seen from the window while he was in space: "From the angle of our view here in space as we revolve around the earth we look at you and in front of us is a world without borders full of peace and splendor. A prayer in our hearts that humanity as a whole will imagine the world as it appears to us without limits and strive to live together in peace." From these words, the slogan of Rakiya's mission "No dream is too far-" was taken, illustrating the desire to fulfill humanity's greatest dreams and to preserve the earth.
