Scale Model of the solar system in River Parks?

[BKDotCom]

Sure, those natureworks statues of non-indigenous wildlife are groovy.. but how about something like
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/A-Walk-Through-the-Solar-System.html

St Louis is the nearest such model.
The Article has an interactive map showing other such models.
The Cumberland, IN model which the article focuses on stretches over 3 miles and gives Earth a diamter of 1/2 inch.

My roughly sketched out idea has the following placements:
Google Map of riverparks scale solar system

• The sun would be at or near 11th St and would be just over 14 feet in diameter... maybe something like a geodesic jungle gym..  Perhaps something super reflective/shiny..
  (kinda competing with the route 66 thing... or perhaps a route 66 roadside attraction?)
• Earth would be about a half block south of the spotlight theater and 1.6 inch in diameter... our moon would be about 4 feet away and aprox .4 inches in diameter.
• Neptune, the outermost planet (since Pluto has been demoted) would be @ the 96th and Riverside park and would be 6.1 inches in diameter

Informative plaques would accompany each planet...

Perhaps a joint thing with the riverparks and Tulsa Air & Space?

Would definitely complement the space shuttle exhibit  

[Townsend]

Great idea

[nathanm]

Great idea

+1

To whom do I make a donation?

[jne]

+1

To whom do I make a donation?

+2

[RecycleMichael]

Pluto deserves in.

[custosnox]

Pluto deserves in.

Pluto has had a downgraded status.  It doesn't even get coach seating anymore

[stageidea]

Awesome Idea.  How do we make it happen?

[BKDotCom]

I will be more formally writing the Riverparks and TASM soon.
I'm just average Joe Citizen...  not like I'm also sending them a large check...
So there will obviously need to be donor and/or fund-raising
This won't be called the "BKDotCom Solar System Walk"

Good "selling" points:  
   I'm pretty sure this would be the largest such model in the US.  (need to verify)
   Outdoor museum / art installation
   Sun to mars and back is an easy 3/4 mile walk
   Call me crazy or nerd, but this is something I'd want to see when visiting Tulsa
Hard selling points:
   The Sun is quite large..  14 feet in diameter..  so it needs to be done in some not-ugly / large way  Some sort of artistic jungle-gym sphere comes to mind ..  
   Everything else is quite small..  and "unspectacular"  
       Mercury, Venus, Earth (largest @ 1.6"), and Mars are all puny and probably somehow just part of the informative plaque.
       Jupiter (1' 5.6"), Saturn (1' 2.3" - rings go out to 2' 3"), Uranus (6.3"), Neptune (6.1") .. are larger, but not spectacular

all these models / plaques need to be resistant to vandalism (Sun and Saturn being the vandal magnets)

An interesting tidbit that may be found on the earth plaque:  The earth model would need to move at 13 inches / hour to orbit around the sun model in one year (moving at a pretty good clip)...

With any luck I hear back from either org and learn what the next steps would be to make this happen.
I read that one of these models  (the Florida one maybe) started with some dad marking the pavement of the local walking trail to give his son an idea of the scale of things...   Enough people had an interest in it that an official model was built.

[RecycleMichael]

Under the Sun garden centers might consider sponsoring the Sun. We could get the Mercury Lounge to sponsor Mercury and Marrs Electric to sponsor Mars. Joe Marina Saturn seems a logical choice as well. The Jupiter Jump rental place would be good for Jupiter and any good environmental company (I have one in mind) would be a proud sponsor of Earth. Neptune will be hard.

Maybe a porta john company could sponsor Uranus.

[Townsend]

Maybe a porta john company could sponsor Uranus.

He'll be here all week folks.  9 o'clock show totally different from the 7 o'clock show.

Remember to tip your waitress.