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Author
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Topic: NASA asks: Best give-away for NASA exhibit?
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-09-2011 10:22 AM
   
NASA asked today on Facebook and Twitter: What would be the best give-away for us to consider for a NASA exhibit? What is the best give-away you ever received at a space exhibit or conference? These questions seem particularly well-suited for the collectSPACE community. Share your ideas and we'll make sure NASA sees them. (By give-away, think collectible swag rather than contest prize.) |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 08-09-2011 11:34 AM
I think NASA should consider a series of lucites. These are the best way to give lots of mementos away. As we know a piece of flown insulation or metal can be cut into hundreds, maybe thousands of small samples for encasing in lucite. Add some mission ID (sticker etc.) inside the lucite and you have a great souveneir.Of course I'd prefer my own orbiter but I think that's not on the table. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-09-2011 12:00 PM
A great idea, one I'd personally love to see NASA produce, though I suspect it might be too expensive for a public handout.Some of the giveaways suggested on Twitter so far have included NASA LEGO minifigures, shuttle payload bay-liner-style bookmarks, and good quality 3D glasses for use with Eyes on the Solar System. |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 08-09-2011 12:26 PM
I saw what I believed to be a flown shuttle tire, which was painted white(!) and the public allowed to write on the tire with markers(!!) at the World Science Fair last year in NYC.Perhaps instead of lucites, NASA could distribute half-inch segments of such tires and place them in plastic boxes with a descriptive card. That said, I enjoy the items that aren't available outside of the NASA centers, such as the "postcards" with the shuttles pictured on the front and a summary on the back (managed to get all six, and they're unique in that they were produced before STS-135) or the 2011 International Space Station calendar, both of which I got at the New England Air Museum this year. |
J.L
Member Posts: 674
From: Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Registered: May 2005
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posted 08-09-2011 12:37 PM
How about a nice piece of Pad 39B... |
tegwilym
Member Posts: 2331
From: Sturgeon Bay, WI
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 08-09-2011 01:45 PM
Flown shuttle tile! |
4allmankind
Member Posts: 1043
From: Dallas
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 08-09-2011 01:52 PM
I always thought a bookmark with flown payload bay liner was a great item to hand out because it serves the dual purpose of promoting the space program, as well as reading. Does anyone know why they stopped creating those bookmarks? They are a great memento with a practical use. |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 08-09-2011 03:27 PM
Lucites with small parts of the shuttle, or Crawler way stones. Some replicas of probes or satellites, a chance to go into a white room to see a probe or rover being built (obliviously you would be in a bunny suit) |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2474
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 08-09-2011 06:32 PM
The payload bay liner would be the ideal item simple low price point easy to mail or hand out. However I would love a crawler way rock! |
spaceman1953
Member Posts: 953
From: South Bend, IN
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 08-10-2011 10:43 PM
A flown tile segment in a box with a certificate would be fine.... and probably cheap enough to produce. Put it in a nice cloth bag, like the Titanic coal sold a few years ago. |
Rusty B
Member Posts: 239
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 08-13-2011 12:52 AM
Cards like baseball cards, but with spacecraft, astronauts, planets, space missions, etc on them. Make different sets to collect. Nice picture on one side, info on reverse. |
jimsz
Member Posts: 616
From:
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted 08-13-2011 03:48 PM
Something from the moonflights that ordinary American citizens have a chance of obtaining via a lottery. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 08-20-2011 10:23 PM
Well, I have to admit one of the coolest bits of swag I ever got at the press site for a launch was the thumb drive keychain shaped like Ares 1 which was handed out for the Ares 1-X launch. It had PDF files of the press kit on it (it WAS the press kit).As such, thumb drives are getting pretty cheap and packing them with some "might be nice to read after the exhibit" information would be cool to see. Put a smart phone code on the outside so those who have phones can scan the bar code to read the same or similar information, yet still get the thumb drive for later. I also like miniatures of course. I recall Robert that ESA handed out a ATV replica for one of the launches (and I believe you got one). Maybe if NASA were to partner up with SpaceX to create a nice miniature of the SpaceX Dragon to hand out would be a neat idea. Other vehicles could be done as well (Apollo CSM in about 1/200 would be pretty easy to do). Pairing up both the thumb drive and miniature idea would potentially be the coolest of the lot since a thumb drive would have educational material on it. Other than that, best pieces I ever got at space exhibits or conferences were paper models, such as what ATK and Lockheed were handing out for the Constellation program (Lockheed had two versions of the Orion that they did while ATK did two versions of Ares 1). And paper models are pretty cheap to make and have educational value as well. Designing a shape that is interesting, yet easy to assemble is the trickiest challenge of course. Theoretically the Orion could be done again, just call it the MPCV. Cool posters are another idea, but they are big and bulky (even in a rolled up state). For a good handout, the thing needs to survive the museum visit and make it home intact (or unbuilt in the case of a paper model). Compared to the items I mentioned, other bits of Swag just seem to pale in comparison as kind of cheap and mostly useless. Two other items that just came to me would be a pair of inflatable balls (maybe small beachball size or perhaps even grapefruit size for a mini one). Do one as the moon and the other as Mars. Have images of the craters and features found on those planetary bodies, but with the main features called out in text form. Inflate them and you have a globe. |
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