Moonshot Museum
Pittsburgh, PA
Moonshot museum gives local communities a hands-on experience with a tangible, far-out future.
KEY INFO
Client
Astrobotic Foundation
Scale
2600 sqft / 250 sqm
Partners
Ravenswood Studio, RLMG, Solomon Group
Concept
In a city once defined by steel, Pittsburgh’s Moonshot Museum is introducing curious visitors to a new kind of industry—built with community, collaboration, and ingenuity. Sponsored by Astrobotics and built around an unobstructed view of a lunar lander under construction, the Moonshot Museum grounds the wonders of space exploration in the here and now. Visitors are encouraged to team up, jump in, and puzzle through the experience of joining the 21st-century space industry.
“I knew I loved space before but now I really want to be an astronaut!”
Bill, aged 9, Moonshot museum visitor
The mission
Luci’s own mission started with the challenge of making something as complex and technical as lunar robotics feel approachable and engaging for young visitors. During prototyping, the Luci team conducted hands-on playtesting with local middle schools using simple materials like sticky notes and paper cutouts. Observing how students interacted—where they hesitated, what surprised them—directly shaped the final designs, ensuring they resonated with school-aged audiences.
The Clean Room
Astrobotic’s Clean Room creates an unprecedented connection between the public and the spacecraft development process. Floor-to-ceiling glazing provides uninterrupted views into the working facility, allowing visitors to see lunar landers and rovers being built, tested and prepared for their missions to the Moon.
By transforming a functioning Clean Room into a live exhibition feature, the experience makes the process of spacecraft development visible and tangible. Visitors gain a rare behind-the-scenes perspective on the people, technology and precision involved in building the next generation of lunar spacecraft.
Step into the story
We developed exhibits inviting visitors to physically and imaginatively step into the story. Taking an “escape room” approach, where challenges mimic real-life space scenarios, visitors balance weight and fuel to load a lunar lander, build their own rovers, and design a mission-critical team patch, to name just a few.
But the most satisfying aspect has been watching the Moonshot Museum take the initial intent and run with it, evolving the materials for more visitors in new ways, keeping the experience as current and awe-inspiring as the astronomical industry that supports it. Moonshot Museum was voted #9 Best Science Museum of 2026 by USA Today 10Best.
