Marion man started foundation to build dream park

A Marion man who is passionate about space exploration wants to honor those who took us to the moon and back.

Doug Smith founded the non-profit Terra Luna Foundation in July to generate resources to plan, develop, construct and maintain Terra Luna Park. The park would honor those who worked on the Soviet and American lunar programs of the 1960s and 1970s.

'Between the two of them, there were nearly 1 million people who worked on their lunar programs,” Smith said. 'With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 coming in a couple of years, both sides really need to be recognized for what they did.”

The park would include two black granite walls with mission information and logos along with quotes describing each mission's impact on society. There also would be eternal flames to honor fallen astronauts, Smith said in a news release.

The Terra Luna Statue would feature an astronaut and cosmonaut standing on a base in the shape of Earth with a water basin.

Smith, who has lived in Marion for 27 years, said he has been a space enthusiast since he was five years old.

'My Dad got me up in the middle of the night so I could watch them walk on the moon,” Smith said. 'It's just one of those things that had an impact, just to see the awe in my dad's face as that happened, it was something that stuck with me.”

Smith has created a fundraising page through the online website Kickstarter to raise $6,500 to commission a feasibility and cost estimate of the project. He wants to see the park built near an already existing space museum across the country.

If he cannot secure a partnership with such a museum, Smith said he would consider building the park locally.

When he is not working on the foundation, Smith co-owns StratosFour, a webcasting and application development company based in Cedar Rapids. He originally is from Fort Madison.

To learn more about the Terra Luna Foundation and its plans for a park, go to terralunapark.org.