I grew up in the hazy, fuzzy black and white televison broadcast days of the 1960's. It was pretty unfulfilling trying to watch a footie game on Match of the Day. It was pure guesswork as to what was going on in late night snooker (Our maternal Grandfather let us stay up and watch Pot Black). Ironically and entirely politically incorrect now was the entertainment value of the musical cabaret with half of the performers having their faces dubbed up but ready made nevertheless for monochrome.
For a young, active and imaginative kid even the limitations of a two-tone TV picture on the small screen could sometimes be quite a challenge.
That was until the grainy images of the July 20th 1969 landing on the moon that I watched, pyjama clad at the age of 6.
I was from that date hooked on all things space, science and science fiction.
So the recent call for public contributions towards restoration work on the suit worn by Neil Armstrong when he walked on the surface of Earth's near neighbour caught my imagination and my small donation has been wired across the Atlantic to the Smithsonian Institute.
It represents a chance for citizens of Earth to conserve, digitise, and display Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit for explorers everywhere.
July 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, a feat so breathtaking in its scope and ambition that it captured the collective imaginations of audiences around the world. At the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the power of real objects is used to tell stories like this milestone event – stories of the vision, intellect, and courage of men and women who have overcome challenges and pushed boundaries to take the next giant leap for humankind.
The Appeal to #rebootthesuit is the first crowd funding or kickstarter campaign in the history of the Smithsonian.
The idea is to preserve Armstrong’s spacesuit – and the story it tells of its incredible journey – down to the particles of lunar dust that cling to its surface. Just like the Apollo programme itself , this will be accomplished in collaboration with thousands of people around the world.
We seem to have been desensitised by the rapid technological changes in our own lifetimes but yet the Apollo 11 Moon landing represents one of the single greatest achievements in the history of humankind.
Bringing Armstrong's spacesuit back not only helps honour the accomplishments of a generation who brought us from Earth to the Moon in less than nine years, it also inspires the next generation of bold space explorers.
This is on the eve of a new vision in deep space exploration with recent unprecedented Probe flights as far out as Pluto in our solar system and talk of the practicalities of a manned expedition to Mars.
The suit is a part of world cultural heritage, and safeguarding it recognises its importance in telling the story of a remarkable accomplishment. And because it is the real thing, seeing the suit provides a tangible way of touching history.
Neil Armstrong's spacesuit – like most of the spacesuits in the Museum’s collection – is currently being stored in a climate-controlled collections storage area that is not accessible to the public.
In spite of the image of durability and an ability to withstand extremes in temperature and environments spacesuits are in fact among the most fragile artifacts in the Museum’s collection. The Apollo suits were made to take astronauts to the Moon and back safely -- not to last hundreds of years in a museum.
To provide public display and access, Armstrong’s spacesuit requires conservation to stop current deterioration and a state-of-the-art display case that will mimic the climate-controlled environment where it is currently being safeguarded.
Will the suit look dramatically different when the project is complete? Not to the naked eye. Conservation is the process of documenting, stabilising and protecting an artifact, not modifying it to make it “like new.”
So why does it take so long?
Plenty of time is being dedicated to get this right.The research and documentation will be pioneering and will write the book on the proper techniques for spacesuit conservation for every suit in the Smithsonian collection.
The process will involve consulting with those who contributed to making the suit and its materials, those who cared for it during the Apollo programme, and materials experts throughout the world. Research, meetings, and mastering new techniques take time. The blueprints for the suit were often overridden for practical alterations in the pre-flight process and patched up when accidental damage occurred in training and handling.
State-of-the-art techniques in 3D scanning, photogrammetry, chemical analysis, CT scanning, and other means are now available to create a detailed map of the suit that will document its condition in the most complete way possible. This work will inform a condition assessment that will help technicians create the appropriate environment for public display while preserving the suit in its current condition.
The crowd funding target was set at a $500,000 goal but donations have rapidly exceeded this and are heading towards three quarters of a million dollars with 10 days to go.
Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit will be temporarily displayed in time for the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing in 2019, but in the long-term, it will be a centerpiece of a brand new exhibition, Destination Moon, at the Museum in Washington, DC. Planned to open in 2020,
Destination Moon will show those who remember the 1960s, as well as generations born afterwards, how an extraordinary combination of motivations, resources, and technologies made it possible for people to walk on the Moon.
The new gallery will explore how Armstrong’s “one small step…” in July 1969, in the context of the bitter, global Cold War taking place at the time, became not only a triumph for the United States, but an accomplishment that resonated around the world.
3D scanning the Armstrong spacesuit gives a chance to put the suit directly into your hands. With a 3D scan of the suit, you can take a self-guided tour and explore the functions of each of the suit’s 21 layers (check out 3D models of other iconic Smithsonian collection objects). You can make a 3D print of Armstrong’s glove and slip it over your hand. Teachers will have a dynamic new tool for talking about the technology required for living and working in space. 3D scanning also ensures that the conservators and curators have an accurate picture of the suit in its current condition, helping to monitor and preserve the suit and protect it from further deterioration.
The Smithsonian’s Digitization team is doing work that will revolutionise the way we interact with and learn from the artifacts in its collection. The team has already scanned a number of the Smithsonian’s iconic artifacts, from the Wright Flyer to the Bell X-1, and is currently in the planning stages to scan the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia.
In addition to the Armstrong spacesuit, Destination Moon will feature several other significant artifacts, including a huge Moon mural painted by the famous space artist Chesley Bonestell in 1957, the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule in which Alan Shepard became the first American in space, the Gemini 7 spacecraft, the giant F-1 rocket engine, the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, parts of the Apollo Mission Simulator, and many small artifacts. The exhibition will also display the Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft currently hanging elsewhere in the Museum, and at least one other robotic spacecraft from a more recent mission.
I have been pleased to contribute a few quid. I should be getting a T-shirt of #rebootthesuit to acknowledge my involvement, a sachet of freeze-dried space flight ice cream and a 3D scan of one of Neil Armstrong's suit gloves.
Those bits of merchandise are insignificant, just gratuities, compared to actually being involved in saving a piece of modern history.
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