Living on a space station is a unique experience that students can experience this month, said Kay Hyde, marketing and membership coordinator for the Science Center of Iowa.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Station Exhibit is touring Iowa during the month of June.

The Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) has been helping NASA coordinate the tour through Iowa, and Iowa State is the lead institution for ISGC.

The exhibit is traveling through Iowa in two 48-foot semi-trailers connected in an “L” shape, Hyde said.

The Space Station Exhibit is a full-scale mockup of the International Space Stations (ISS) laboratories and living quarters.

Hyde said there will be people on hand at the exhibit to discuss the ISS and answer questions.

“Visitors will be able to speak to people from NASA regarding the ISS and actual experiments that will be aboard the Space Station,” Hyde said.

The exhibit also offers visitors a “hands-on” experience of how astronauts aboard the Space Station will live and conduct scientific experiments.

There are racks on the floor and ceiling of the exhibit depicting where actual experiments will take place aboard the Space Station.

Visitors will also have a chance to “zip up in the sleep restraint units” that astronauts living on the orbiting facility will sleep in, Hyde said.

“It is as close to the real space station as it gets without removing the gravity,” Hyde said.

The Space Station Exhibit will land at the Science Center in Des Moines on June 15 and 16.

The public can tour the exhibit free Sunday from noon until 5 p.m. and Monday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.