Hutchinson ? With his failed legal battle over, Max Ary, founder of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, heads to prison this week and expects to immerse himself in an effort to clear his name.

“We’ve fought this very hard, with everything we had, for the last four years,” Ary said in an interview with the Hutchinson News. “There’s so much evidence that’s not been looked at by the proper people, so much information.”

Ary, who directed Hutchinson’s space museum for 26 years, begins serving three years in the minimum-security camp at the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Okla., on Thursday. He was convicted on three counts each of mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property and two counts each of wire fraud, theft of government property and money laundering.

“This has been a travesty of justice,” Ary said. “I totally profess my innocence to this day. We’re going to continue to fight this, even while I’m spending my time in prison camp.”

He admits to selling some artifacts that belonged to the National Air and Space Administration and the Kansas Cosmosphere through specialized auctions. He claimed at trial, however, and continues to argue, that it was a mix-up because he was legitimately selling items for both himself and the Cosmosphere at the time.

There are still numerous items, Ary declares, that are his that the government has retained possession of and he may never see again.

It’s likely, Ary noted, he’ll qualify for the 15 percent reduction in his sentence through good behavior credit, so the time he’ll serve will be closer to two years. When released, he’ll then be subject to three years of parole supervision and must repay more than $132,000 in restitution.

“I’ve lost most of my 50s,” Ary said. “I was 53 when this started. I’m 58 now. When I get out of prison, I’ll be 61. I’ve lost an entire decade that could have been one of the most productive in my career.”

He has already gone almost three years without a steady job, Ary said, and now must go three more.

“All our financial stability has been totally taken away because of this,” he said. “I worry about going off to leave my family to deal with it another three years.”

Ary has spent the months since his conviction organizing the thousands of documents accumulated from his case, trying to build a case that his conviction was based on a faulty foundation.

Ary called his prosecution “an eye-opening experience,” noting the amount of time and money required to “fight a system that is so stacked against a defendant.”