Craft: transforming traditional crafts

The space geek, fan of Fall in me is pretty much giddy over the latest celebration of NASA's rich history.

In a special outreach titled Space Farm 7, seven of the nation's top agritourism farms have been selected to celebrate and honor the U.S. space program in collaboration with NASA this fall. Each farm has planted corn mazes that will feature designs celebrating NASA's achievements and progress in space. An increasingly popular phenomenon of crop circle-type creations, each of the seven corn mazes will open this fall to challenge and delight visitors.

NASA has ten regional research centers located in the United States, each of which has a different responsibility. The individual Space Farms have each been paired up with their local space center in order to highlight that region's contribution to NASA.

The objective of this outreach project is to expose guests to NASA space exploration and educate children across the United States. The celebration is very timely as this year NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first American in space, the 30th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle mission and the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment in space.

The farm closest to us here in Houston and the Johnson Space Center is Dewberry Farm, and we're hoping to make it out there very soon. Check out the Space 7 Web site to see maps of all seven of the corn mazes and how they represent some of NASA's greatest achievements. I'm really wishing I could be in an airplane over one of these fields for a bird's eye view! Thanks, Robert!