BERLIN -- A voyage through our planetary system, a virtual stroll on the surface of Mars, or a walk with astronauts through the International Space Station (ISS): visitors to the forthcoming International Aviation Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin will be given a closeup look at what is going on in outer space these days.

The space technology industry is making the ILA the venue to promote its own cause. Or as Andreas Schuetz of the German Aviation and Aerospace Center DLR puts it: "Space travel is something to be experienced."

The DLR, the European Space Agency ESA and the German Aerospace Industry will be exhibiting both existing space projects and those still in the planning stages.

Among them are unmanned scientific missions, and the show will have many items on display to explain the work of space technicians.

"The exhibition hall for space travel is a unique show," DPA quoted Schuetze as saying. Nowhere else in Germany is such a comprehensive presentation being made about space projects.

Up to 35 staff members will be on hand to explain to visitors such programs as the development of the European satellite-based road navigation system Galileo, earth scanning, and communications systems in outer space.

"In the past few years, the space exhibition has been the major attraction despite the large number of airplanes on display (at the ILA)," noted Wolfgang Rogall of the fair company Messe Berlin.

One attraction this year will be the unmanned space glider project Phoenix, with a display of a test model being used by scientists to prove the feasibility of a reusable space transport vehicle. Phoenix, resembling a U.S. space shuttle, is almost seven meters long and has a wingspan of 3.8 meters, while weighing 1,200 kilograms.

Engineers explain that a prototype of the Phoenix is necessary because a great many physical influences in the atmosphere cannot be rendered in every last detail via computer simulation or wind tunnel tests.

Visitors can also witness live the construction of the European space laboratory called the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF). The laboratory is to dock with the ISS in 2004.

Each day, Messe Berlin officials say, there will be live television linkup with the Astrium Company in Bremen which is building the COF. with 3-D glasses, viewers can feel like they are in the midst of the production process.

The space exhibition will be rounded off by astronauts who will speak about their work and training for space missions.