Posted on 07/20/2015 4:33:01 PM PDT by Patriotic1
The US National Air and Space Museum has launched its first crowdfunding campaign to raise money to conserve the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on the moon.
The campaign, which launched on Monday, coincided with the 46th anniversary of Armstrong’s moonwalk. The museum hopes to raise $500,000 on Kickstarter – the online crowdfunding platform – to help safeguard the spacesuit, digitize it with 3D scanning, and build a climate-controlled display case
Conservators say spacesuits were built for short-term use with materials that break down over time, which explains why Armstrong’s suit is deteriorating.
SNIP
Armstrong’s spacesuit hasn’t been displayed since 2006. The museum plans to display it for the 50th anniversary of Armstrong’s moonwalk in July 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Who owns it now?
I think I’d display the rotting one with a dupe beside it for anout half a mill less.
Why isn’t it in the Smithsonian?
I have a real problem believing half a million is needed to save a suit designed to withstand the rigors of the harshest environment in the solar system. I have my old man’s service flight helmet from the big one and it is AOK despite my lack of museum quality storage.
I call BS.
The Air and Space Museum is part of the Smithsonian (which actually refers to a complex of museums - which I didn’t realize). They want to bring it out of storage to display it.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smithsonian/reboot-the-suit-bring-back-neil-armstrongs-spacesu/description
Me too.
It should be owned by the US Government, specifically NASA, but NASA is now a Moslem-oriented public relations operating in the Middle East so they don’t give a crap about a key piece of American and world history.
The head of NASA is a former Astronaut with space time. He should be ashamed of himself. Resigning might get him back some honor.
Gee, if Hillary or Bill only gave one speech, they could pay the whole restoration/preservation bill.
Let’s see if Donald Trump picks up the tab. WILL SOMEBODY WITH the knowhow SEND THIS STORY TO HIS OFFICE, PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE, OR TRUMP PLAZA?
All rubber from that era will be dry rotted and the suit is likely falling apart.
Just because something is designed to last a few days in space doesn’t mean it can sit in a shelf for 50 years. Completely different design parameters
Why hasn’t it been preserved as part of our national heritage? Maybe because a white man wore it.
Another scam by the "public employee" parasites. If it can't be funded by voluntary donations, it's not worth saving.
As you pointed out, a longer-lasting facsimile could be made at 1/10th the cost.
They should sell Rosa Parks’ pantsuit or something.
I have a German gas mask from WWII that is fully functional in terms of elasticity. The Armstrong suit does not need to be worn again for a trip to the moon. The exterior of the suit is some kind of nylon if IRC. A good deal of the process outlined in the above link is the kind of scientific overkill that is accorded to Egyptian scrolls or Lincoln’s hanky. I could inject an epoxy stabilizer into this suit and it could be displayed for a thousand years. Heck, if Lenin still looks good, this suit - made for harsh environments - isn’t the problem that they want you to pay for.
Well it’s a good thing their spacecraft was able to get them home. Otherwise, they’d be sitting up there on the moon today in rotting spacesuits and there would be nothing we could do about it. Not like we have the wherewithal to go fetch them today. Maybe the Russians or SpaceX. But not NASA.
I will save it for them for $1000.
I thought about this Heinlein story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Space_Suit%E2%80%94Will_Travel
On some road trips we listen to some of his stuff on CD.
I didn’t realize that it relies on private donations. This seems like a legitimate use of taxpayers’ money. We should be able to afford safekeeping our artifacts.
“I didn’t realize that it relies on private donations. This seems like a legitimate use of taxpayers’ money. We should be able to afford safekeeping our artifacts.”
Admission to the Smithsonian is currently free. How about charging admission to the Smithsonian to help offset some of the cost? In an age when a day at Disney World costs $100 per head, the entrance fee per person at the Metropolitan Museum in New York is $25, and a day at the Louvre costs $16.25 a modest $5.00 per person charge seems reasonable to raise $140 million per year toward the $850 million the Smithsonian requested from Congress for 2015.
Isn't the Smithsonian federally funded? Good question! Federal appropriations provide the foundation of the Smithsonian's operating budget and support core functions, such as building operations and maintenance, research, and safeguarding the collections. Projects like Reboot the Suit aren’t covered by our federal appropriations, which means we can only undertake them if we can fund them some other way. In other words, we won’t be able to do this project without the participation of Kickstarter backers.
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