Staffordshire farm to mark moon landing with unique event

Between the July 13 and September 2, the National Forest Adventure Farm, in Tatenhill, will be transforming the family-friendly attraction into a hive of space exploration for this year’s annual maize maze.

Farm mascot Crumpet the Cow is set to 'fly into space' and unveil the moon landing maize maze design in early July.

The Friesian will travel 35,000m into near space capturing every second on a 4k high definition, 360-degree digital camera before parachuting back to earth.

Tom Robinson, one of two brothers who own the National Forest Adventure Farm, said it was one of the most ambitious summer mazes to date, as they aim to bring the impossible to life by allowing families to explore beyond our planet.

He said: “Space is a fascinating place very few people ever get to explore so what better way to celebrate the achievement of those first intrepid astronauts 50 years ago than to bring our own homage to space exploration here in the heart of Staffordshire.

“Families can find out what it is like to be an astronaut and catch a rare glimpse of earth as very few have experienced before in our 360 degree virtual reality video of Crumpet’s journey to space.”

The annual summer maize maze at the farm is a popular Staffordshire tourist attraction attracting over 45,000 visitors each year.

This summer’s space themed maze is made completely from maize plants. On May 1 almost 600,000 maize seeds were drilled into the 10-acre field. In a first for the Farm, this year the design of the maze was planted by self-driving tractors using new precision drilling technology guided by RTK GPS. The maize plants will reach full height of 2.4 metres by mid-August.

Once open on July 13, families can navigate the maze to find and solve space-themed puzzles and help a Lunar Crew fix their space craft in order to safely return to Earth.

Crumpet’s space flight will be available in a 360-degree virtual reality video allowing visitors the chance to experience the journey for themselves.

Families can watch the flight alongside a brand new indoor family activity, Space Rangers: Alien Rescue. The interactive experience sees children train to become a Space Ranger and help save aliens.

The event has been designed to mark 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two people on the moon in the historic Apollo 11 lunar landings on July 20, 1969.

Since then there have only ever been six manned lunar landings. However, there have been many other robotic missions as well as spacecraft that have carried animals ranging from fruit flies to rats, rabbits and even monkeys and dogs.

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