OREM -- To Talisa Vistaunet, models of real spacecraft don't look anything like she's seen on television.
"This is totally different because it's real," said Vistaunet, a student at Westridge Elementary School in Provo."They're different than Star Trek," added her friend, Kathleen Atwater, who also is a student at Westridge.
The duo were among some 2,500 Utah County students who learned about space exploration Monday and Tuesday during Sen. Bob Bennett's "Space Talk 2000: One Orbit Around Utah." The two-day event was at Utah Valley State College.
Bennett's "space fair" began in southern Utah two weeks ago and will make its final stop in West Jordan this week.
Historically, Bennett's SpaceTalk program has been a mainstay at the Utah State Fair. This year, the senator's staff took the program on the road, reaching some 10,000 elementary school students.
The traveling show includes a video presentation of Utah's involvement in the space program and a tour of half a dozen booths set up to show off various spacecraft and space technology.
One of NASA's goals is to reduce the cost of spaceflight by building various spacecraft. But an educational goal is to interest more young people in space and science.
"We need more people to be excited about science," said John Vanderford, outreach director of the Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University.
One of the ways USU is plying young people's interest is to get them involved in Project Starshine, which was launched from Space Shuttle Endeavor.
Starshine looks much like a disco ball, only much larger.
The first one, which has thousands of names of students on it, now orbits the Earth. With specialized software and the Internet, students around the world can track the satellite.
Vanderford said the next Starshine globe will be twice as large.
Although is has no scientific function, the mirrored ball helps students participate and gain an interest in space, he said.
Students learned that going where no man has gone before has quite a price tag. So, what does it cost to leave Earth's atmosphere? Up to $10,000 a pound, the students were told.
NASA wants that reduced to $1,000 a pound. One of the most expensive elements in space flight is the rocket fuel used to get the ship off the ground, said Willis McCree, a representative of Thiokol Propulsion.
"It's really amazing how they first started sending things up in space," said 12-year-old Johanna Scheetz. "It's almost unbelievable."
Students also saw a X-34 spacecraft, which is carried under the belly of a jet aircraft to 40,000 feet, then launched into a low Earth orbit. The plane will be tested in Utah skies.
USU's Mindy Blackham demonstrated a vehicle that may be a predecessor to larger, unmanned "smart" tractors that farmers can program to do field work on farms. A smaller version was sent to explore Mars, she said.
The SpaceTalk 2000 program also includes several school assemblies and workshops for teachers.
Some of the materials for the space fair come from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., which will also make available a mobile NASA Resource Center to teachers where they can access NASA classroom materials.