Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

One Man's Trash . . . Bottle Cap Mural Inspired by "Green Revolution"

You know the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." We're happy to report that the trash-to-treasure phenomenon can now be applied to Smithsonian traveling exhibitions!

The Centro de Ciencias y Artes A.C, Planetario Alfa in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, is preparing a Spanish presentation of SITES’ digital exhibition, Green Revolution, to open on March 15, 2013.  Planetario staff members, school groups and general visitors recently created an 8 x 79 foot mural on the exterior of their building, made entirely of 60,000 bottle caps. One complimentary entrance pass was given for every 50 bottle caps donated (or one pass for every 10 hard-to-find black ones).   

The United Nations designated 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation, and the mural design reflects that theme. The boat in the mural symbolizes the union of countries working together for the care of water, the whale symbolizes species in danger of extinction, the octopus symbolizes children and their fantasies and the sun symbolizes hope.  The mural will be on display for at least one year and the Planetario plans to create another mural in the Waste Not! section of Green Revolution.  Other Mexican institutions are now copying this project using their own designs.  Images courtesy Angelica Flores.

 

 

Remembering Sally Ride: A SITES Staffer's Perspective

A few months ago, my mom sent me an old homework assignment that she had found--a paper that I wrote and illustrated in the second grade. The topic: my hero, Sally Ride. It was 1983, and Ride was about to become the first American woman in space. For a little girl, it was exciting. And Ride's amazing first space flight sparked my imagination, inspiring a life-long interest in the space program. From that day on, I wanted to be an astronaut. I loved science and tuned in for as many shuttle launches as I could. I even went to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

I was, and still am, a space geek. I didn’t become an astronaut, but I continue to learn and explore at the Smithsonian, working on exhibitions about everything--from Latin music to the Muppets, from giant squid to the science of the spacesuit.

It’s those space-related projects that have really let my inner geek shine, and I could go on forever about meeting real astronauts and visiting NASA facilities for our traveling exhibits. Regardless of the topic, however, I’ve continued to be curious, and I hope the stories that we create here at SITES help to spark the imaginations of others--just like Sally Ride did for me. So, it’s with sadness that I say good bye to my hero. Thank you for inspiring me, Sally.

Ride, Sally. Ride.

--Jennifer Schommer, SITES Assistant Director of Public Relations

Sticky Note Inspiration

Sometimes, less is more. After considering a number of high-tech ways to engage with our Suited for Space exhibition audiences, we decided on three very basic tools--pens, pencils, and sticky notes. Yes, the exhibit itself is about innovation and technology, but no modern device has the universal ability to convey information like a good, old-fashioned writing implement and a tiny slip of paper. There's nothing to download here; it's not device specific and runs on an hOS. (That's the hand operating system.) But, really, in this age when mobile is hot, and paper is not, why did we go with such a simplistic solution?

Maybe, we just liked the size of the sticky notes; they're so cute--each one a miniature canvas that only takes a second to customize with quick sketches and personal witticisms. Let's face it, this is a 140-character society, and asking folks to spend more than a few moments on anything might be asking too much. This sticky-note concept, while certainly not new, is really the antithesis of where we are in the technological moment, and yet, it reminded us of the most basic of museum goals--to foster dialogue.

That vibrant, sticky-note color also sucked us in. Are you a hot pink kind of gal or a lime green sort of fellow? No matter, you choose. Oh, and what about that wonderful, tacky swathe of glue? When was the last time you saw someone adhere their mobile device on a wall for others to see? "Hey, look at all my pictures, world. Here's my banking information and all my friends' phone numbers." Maybe, the point here is that the sticky note is personal and yet, somehow, very anonymous--an opportunity for publically condoned graffiti.

We tested the concept of the sticky note wall at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, California, where the Suited for Space exhibition was recently on display. To get the conversation started, we asked people to answer a couple of questions. Among them, "What one thing would you bring on your trip into space?" The answers were both serious and whimsical, thoughtful and flippant.

It's safe to say that Californians love their iPods, iPads, and cameras. It's also fairly accurate to state that food was of great concern. Many cited the implicit need for candy in space,  for cheese cake, hot cheetos with sour cream, Nutella, pizza, and pineapples (hooray for the fruit lover). Some, more nostalgic writers, asserted that a picture of their families would be a must, while others hoped that their beloved cat or dog could make the trip too.

Long story short, we were exceptionally pleased with the level of engagement at the site. Personally, I might have joined the waves of writers who referenced their mobile phones, but alas, maybe I could be convinced that a pen, pencil, and pack of sticky notes would be just as valuable.

Suited for Space opens at the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, this weekend. The national exhibition tour is generously supported by DuPont.

 

Titanoboa: Monster Snake Revealed

By now, you may be aware that something big, really big has come to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. In fact, it's so enormous that it arrived in six separate crates, each weighing about 500 pounds.

I was lucky enough to be in the weeds as the Smithsonian Pennsy Facilities team, SITES project director Jennifer Bine, and our registrars, Cheryl Washer, Ruth Trevarrow, Viki Possoff, and Juana Shadid put this 48-foot thing together.

Even before the crew heaved Titanoboa out of those crates, I was quietly amazed by the texture and coloration of the serpent's scales--so supple that they seemed to glisten with rain forest moisture under the dim museum lights. Segment by segment, the snake became even more awe inspiring, both in its scale and its girth. Indeed, getting down on the ground with this baby, I imagined Titanoboa swallowing a medium-sized person without batting an eyelash . . . if snakes had eyelashes, or real eyelids for that matter. 

Tracy Rollins, of the Smithsonian's Facilities crew, was poised to test my theory as he wrangled with the serpent, connecting two of its more recalcitrant parts. Inside of a massive set of coils, which in real life would have exerted some 400 pounds of pressure per square inch, Tracy looked like Titanoboa's first victim in 60 million years. That's when the snake really started to take shape, a mega predator slithering through the murky waters of a distant Paleocene world.

Titanoboa would have been at the top of the monster-eat-monster food chain, and it was easy to understand why when the team finally attached the monster's head, jaws agape, arched around a lifeless crocodile. Like modern constrictors, Titanoboa killed by squeezing its prey to death. Long, flexible tendons in the upper and lower jaws then allowed the snake to devour just about anything that was unlucky enough to get in its path, including massive snub-nosed crocodiles and turtles the size of billiard tables. You could almost hear the stomach acids churning as the snake's digestive system prepared to dissolve this croc's bones and tissues.

Head finally in position, she was born--a snake the length of a school bus, orginially conceived by Ontario-based model maker Kevin Hockley. There were some proud moments as the team stepped back to study the newest addition in the Smithsonian family. "Good gracious," I heard one staffer exclaim, "that's thing's a beast."

Titanoboa: Monster Snake is now on display at the National Museum of Natural History through January 2013. The exhibition will then travel to the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Nebraska State Museum, where the Titanoboa research teams continues to make discoveries. From there, there's no telling where the snake will end up--maybe in YOUR natural history museum.

For a complete view of the snake as it was being installed, see our Facebook gallery. Visit the exhibition website to find our about the upcoming tour schedule, see clips from the Smithsonian Channel film, and more.

 

Test Your Astro-cabulary!

Do you know the difference between Nylon, Nomex, and Neoprene? What about the relationship  between a full-pressure suit and a rubber bladder? Gearing up for space means more than donning a special suit--you've got to learn some special lingo, too!

SITES' new Suited for Space exhibition is filled with stunning color photographs and x-rays of NASA spacesuits. But don't forget to read what's written next to the images, too--Suited helps skyrocket visitors' knowledge of astronaut argot with vocabulary lessons sprinkled throughout the show. So while you're stepping in Buzz Aldrin's iconic footprints, you can ask your friends what they know about the development of the Chromel-R covering Buzz's overshoes. Or while you're standing behind a replica suit for a photo-op, you can examine the way the convolute at the knees connects with the Beta cloth covering the legs, providing both mobility and protection from unpredictable dangers like micrometeoroids.

Suited for Space will be on tour for several years. There is also a Facebook page with tons of extras. The national tour of Suited for Space is generously sponsored by DuPont.

Conservation of Space Objects

During the first two Moon landings, astronauts did not have access to drinking water unless they returned to the lander. Starting with Apollo 13, however, spacesuits were equipped with a new accessory: an in-suit Teflon bag with a drinking tube. These drinking devices are the predecessor to today's CamelBak water bottles.

One of the most fragile and unique artifacts traveling with SITES' new Suited for Space exhibition is a rare example of these early drinking devices. Although the device has been stored in a climate-controlled environment since being acquired by the Smithsonian, it has deteriorated over the past 30 years. The object is so fragile, in fact, that conservators from the National Air and Space Museum expect it to have disintegrated almost entirely by the time the national tour of Suited is complete.

So, you might wonder, if the object is in such precarious condition, why is it traveling at all? Smithsonian conservators are closely monitoring this artifact to learn about its deterioration process. After the Suited tour, the artifact will be de-accessioned and studied in more detail. Conservators will take what they learn from the gradual deterioration of the drinking device and use it to improve their conservation of other artifacts made from similar materials. The visible deterioration of this device over time reinforces the importance of artifact conservation and helps visitors better understand why photographs and x-rays of spacesuits--rather than the fragile objects themselves--are included in the exhibition.

Suited for Space will be on tour for several years. There is also a facebook page with tons of extras. The national tour of Suited for Space is generously sponsored by DuPont.

--Robin Meyer, SITES publications intern

Getting a workout on the Moon

In his own words: Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean talks back to Mission Control in this air-to-ground voice transcription . . .

"You know the funny thing about moving around on the lunar surface, you put on this pressurized suit we wear, and you try to do it on Earth, with even close to the weight you have on your back on the Moon and get tired very rapidly from the walking, and you don't have to walk over, you know, let's say 200 or 300 yards, and you're ready for a rest. But, on the Moon, in the light gravity with the same suit on and the same weight, your legs never seem to get tired. I guess when you run up the side of a steep slope, you could do it, but just running around on level ground, you assume some kind of normal pace, and you're able to go for long distances without your legs getting tired.

The suit doesn't always want to bend like you want to bend. For example, it bends pretty well in the knee, and it bends pretty well in the ankles, but it doesn't want to bend up near the thigh, the top of the thigh. So what happens is you tend to run with straight legs, land flat-footed, and then push off on your toes. And you think to yourself, 'Well, I'm going to tire out my calves pretty soon because I'm not used to this sort of thing,' but apparently the force it takes to push off on your toes on the Moon is much less than you just have when you walk or run on Earth, so your legs just don't seem to tire . . ."

Original NASA transcripts like this have helped us gain an understanding of just what it feels like to wear a spacesuit. We're reading plenty of them, pulling together information for our upcoming Suited for Space exhibition, about the history and evolution of spacesuits. The national tour of the exhibition begins in March 2011.

Spacesuit Special

We're putting the finishing touches on the design and text for our upcoming exhibition "Suited for Space," launching in March 2011. It's been quite a wild (and fascinating) trip as we've examined spacesuits with National Air and Space Museum curators and photographers who have spent decades sorting and cataloguing this and that piece of space gear.

Here are a couple of tidbits we learned from them that might surprise you:

1. Spacesuits are fragile, not necessarily because of space exposure but because of what they're made of--natural and man-made materials that are unstable when integrated or juxtaposed. They just don't play nice together.

2. A rubber bladder is the innermost portion of a spacesuit. It holds air in and keeps the wearer at constant air pressure, about 3 pounds of pressure per square inch over the body, similar to the Earth's own atmosphere.

3. Nylon, developed by the DuPont company, is a petroleum-based compound and can withstand intense pressure. It's a key component in spacesuits, roping, parachutes, and bullet-proof vests.

4. It took about 45 minutes for an Apollo astronaut to put on a spacesuit; putting on a spacesuit is called "donning;" and taking it off is called "doffing."

5. A spacesuit had to protect a lunar-landing astronaut against many things, including small micro-meteoroids that travel up to 16,777 miles per hour.

Stay tuned for more fun facts, videos, and announcements about this stellar exhibition. The show will have its own Facebook and Twitter accounts as well, ready for launch sometime this fall.

Meeting an Apollo Astronaut

If you've followed our postings for a while now, you know that I get to work on our space and science exhibitions. Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes (which opened this past weekend in Santa Barbara) has beautiful photographs of the planets and moons. NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration is a wondrous selection of artworks from NASA's art program. In development is Suited for Space, featuring the photographs of Mark Avino and based on the book by Space History curator Amanda Young. I've worked with scientists from the National Air and Space Museum and NASA, but until last week, my connection to real live astronauts had been through the artwork. 

Last Thursday, however, I had the privilege and honor of spending nearly an hour with artist Alan Bean. Name sound familiar? He is not only a painter, but he was the fourth man to set foot on the moon, exactly 40 years ago today, as an Apollo 12 astronaut. And he was the commander of Skylab II, living in space for nearly two full months.

Mr. Bean has graciously offered to loan us one of his recent works to share with the venues hosting NASA | ART. Currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the mall in Washington, DC, his fabulous paintings will soon have to go back to their owners--all except one, which will be shipped to Colorado Springs to join the NASA | ART exhibition.

What makes Mr. Bean's artwork so special? Well, for one thing, no other artist in the world has ever been to the moon! And the paintings share Mr. Bean's deeply personal stories and memories. Each painting is also textured--little details that you might at first miss: A small bump here, a little scratch there. When I was examining the paintings with Mr. Bean, I learned that those bumps aren't dust or paint--they are pieces of the Apollo 12 heat shield. And that little scratch? Made with Mr. Bean's own hammer, brought back from the moon. The small pieces of fabric are pieces from his own spacesuit's flight patch, or part of the flag, and include bits of moon dust that still cling to the cloth 40 years later.

Looking at a painting with the actual artist is an extraordinary thing, but it is especially out of this world when the artist has lived in space!

Suited for Space: Notes from the Curator

Only a woman who has spent 25 years at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) could describe the manned space program as “government employees traveling on government time using government equipment.” Or observe that we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon without duct tape and Velcro. Or call her favorite spacesuit by its first name, the “Jack” (for Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt).

Amanda Young, who will retire at the end of the month, took a somewhat fragmented set of spacesuits, helmets, boots, and gloves, with little documentation and no parameters for their care, and transformed them into an organized collection of historically important artifacts. Highlights of the collection are the “flown” and developmental suits, which, she says, “show how we got from there to here.” It took 10 years to organize and catalogue what eventually became more than 1,000 spacesuits, pressure suits, and components (gloves, boots, and helmets), including most of the spacesuits worn during the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury missions. Since then her focus has primarily been on spacesuit preservation, storage, and display.

"The problem with displaying spacesuits is that they’re very heavy, fragile, and hard to move,” says Young. “Moreover, the number of suits available to lend has shrunk because of their condition, and very few venues outside of NASM can meet our stringent humidity, temperature, and light requirements.” The suits aren’t fragile because they’ve been to space and back, she explains, but because they’re made of a variety of natural and man-made materials–like copper, rubber, and plastics–that “don’t play nicely together” and so deteriorate at an alarming rate.

The challenges of traveling spacesuits shaped the upcoming exhibition Suited for Space, a collaboration between SITES and NASM that begins its national tour in April 2011. Because the collection cannot travel, it has been thoroughly photographed, providing amazing and detailed pictures of pressure-suit design and development, the early pressure suits, those from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, advanced extra-vehicular suits, and those designed for the U.S. Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. Currently some of the suits are being x-rayed—a process that requires about 35 sheets of x-ray film per suit.

“You can’t pull a suit apart to see what's going on inside,” says Young. “You can either look down its neck with a flashlight or you can x-ray it. With the x-ray images, works of art themselves, you can see the ball bearings, the fibers, the sewing holes, and the rubber convoluted joints at the elbows, thighs, and knees that enabled the astronaut to walk.”

The striking photographs by Mark Avino, NASM’s chief of photographic services, with x-rays by Ron Cunningham of the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, with Avino, are presented in Young’s just-published book, Spacesuits: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Collection (powerHouse Books, 2009). The traveling exhibition Suited for Space includes these amazing images—many life size—along with informative text and some small objects.

—Ann Carper, SITES editor