Broken Arrow’s Voyage Solar System Walkway
Creekwood Elementary to Broken Arrow High School
In 1996 Dr. Jeff Goldstein, currently National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) Institute Director, but at the time an astrophysicist for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, shared his vision of educating students and adults by creating 1/10billionth scale solar systems in to-be-determined locations within the United States. More than a quarter of a century later Broken Arrow is now the nation’s seventh city to become the home of a Voyage Solar System Walkway.
Broken Arrow’s Voyage Solar System Walkway
Location: Sun, Creekwood Elementary School (1301 E. Albany) to Pluto, Broken Arrow High School (1901 E. Albany).
Distance: Nearly 2000 feet or approximately 6 ½ football fields. The walkway is ADA accessible.
The "Voyage" begins at the Sun – represented by a grapefruit-sized golden sphere – on the Creekwood Elementary campus and ends with the dwarf planet Pluto on the Broken Arrow High School campus. Along the path through the solar system, each planet is represented by a laser-etched crystal and a tactile element that is scaled to the size of the walkway’s Sun. Information about each planet is displayed on a disk that is mounted on an aluminum stanchion at the precise scaled distance in relationship to the Sun.
What makes Broken Arrow’s “Voyage” unique?
While there are six other locations in the country, Broken Arrow’s is the first to be built through a grassroots, fundraising campaign. More than 100 individuals, businesses, and organizations contributed to the creation of BA’s Voyage Solar System Walkway.