*HTML is ON *UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend
Smilies Legend
[b]A Case for Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit[/b] Wow! How time flies. Today not only marks the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, but it also marks two years since you and a community of more than 9,000 backers from around the world came together to help the Smithsonian conserve, digitize, and display Neil Armstrong's and Alan Shepard's spacesuits. We remain as grateful for all of you today as we did when we first set off on our bold mission! We're just crossing the mid-point of our project. Neil Armstrong's spacesuit will go back on display in two years, in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Today, we're excited to report that we now have a display case design for the suit! [b]Why is the display case for Neil Armstrong's spacesuit so special?[/b] Lisa Young, Objects Conservator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, has spent almost two decades researching the ideal conditions for the complex combinations of materials that comprise our suits, and therefore what will be required in the new display case. The conditions inside the sealed glass case will replicate our ideal storage conditions as closely as possible, allowing us to preserve the Apollo suit while sharing it with the public. The primary material of the case will be museum glass, providing the visitors with a clear view of three sides of the suit — the front, back and left side. The light will be at a low level to avoid the cumulative damage that prolonged light exposure can have on textiles. Many features of the case will be obvious, but some, though equally important, are unseen. The inner workings of the case will help us come close to replicating the best storage conditions possible for this precious artifact. The case will house a climate system that will maintain the cool, dry environment that is so essential to preserving our spacesuit collection. As an added preservation measure, the case will pass conditioned air through a "chemical scavenger" that will remove the byproducts of chemical off-gassing from the case, further slowing the process of degradation. [i][b]Above[/b]: Rendering of the proposed design for the Neil Armstrong spacesuit display.[/i] (National Air and Space Museum) [b]Constructing Display Mounts[/b] You'll notice that in the rendering above, the suit seems to be standing on its own. That's the magic that Adam Bradshaw, Exhibits Specialist, is working on right now—creating a display mount that is both rigorous enough to hold the weight of the suit while delicate enough to cause no further damage on the interior of the suit when it is being inserted. Adam is currently working on prototypes for these support structures. [b]Display Details[/b] Behind the suit on the rear pane of glass will be a full-scale transparency of an x-ray of the suit. This high-resolution cross section of Armstrong's suit will allow everyone to marvel at the complexities of this machine that allowed the first humans to explore another world. The ventilation tubes, communications and life support wiring and complex restraint systems that make the suit work will be plain to see, as will many of the suit layers. The accompanying labels on each side of the case will describe Armstrong's life, his work at NASA, the first steps on the Moon and the efforts that the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has made to preserve this marvelous object and share it with the world. [b]When can I see it at the Museum?[/b] This case and design will debut at the museum in July 2019 in the Wright Brothers gallery with Armstrong's suit inside for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The case and the suit will eventually move down the hall to its permanent home, joining the Apollo 11 Command Module "Columbia" and the museum's rich collection of Moon exploration artifacts, in the Destination Moon gallery.
If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 1999-2024 collectSPACE. All rights reserved.