December 6, 2008
On December 6, 2008, we went on a field trip to the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, and to the National Air & Space Museum. At the Library of Congress, we explored the “Exploring Early Americas” exhibit. The exhibit showed intems from the Jay I. Kislak Collection of over 3,000 maps, documents, artifacts and artwork. Our trip focused specifically on 3 items: one from before the arrival of Europeans, one from during the first century and a half of contact (from 1492 to 1642) and one artifact being a map. The first artifact found was a piece called "Monumental Jaguar Statue." Dated from between 600 and 900 in the Mayan Empire, it locates from the South Veracruz local. A mid-size painted buff ceramic statue of a jaguar, the piece shows a crouching jaguar with a frightful expression and a collar around itsÕ neck. Jaguars are significant because, according to legend, they represent the Sun and protect Kings. Smaller in size than others may have been, this piece was likely to flank a KingsÕ throne. The second artifact dated to approximately 1502, called "ColumbusÕs Book of Privileges." Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and validated ColumbusÕs priviledges, powers and titles to him wrote it. Consisting of 36 documents, it is a piece of parchment with black script. Significant because it documents the trip of Columbus. The map was a chart of the Pacific Coast. A portion of a 16th century map used in sailing of the Central and South America, it displays the area from Guatemala to North Peru. Of Spanish origin, it is tan with red, black and blue ink. With a compass rose, it also has sketches of birds, trees and houses on it. It is significant because it may be the very first map which portrays the Galapagos Islands.
At the National Air & Space Museum, we visited the exhibit named “Space: A Journey to Our Future.” The exhibit portrayed different space programs and previewed further projects to come. The first project was “Ares: Back to the Moon” which is part of NASAÕs Constellation Program. This program aims to send American astronauts back to space in 2014 and to the Moon in 2020. If accomplished, the project would eventually send astronauts to other sites via the Ares rocket. The goal of the program is to set an outpost on Moon to support a long term human presence. Astronauts would have to rely on resources already on the Moon and to prepare for journeys to Mars. The exhibit displayed other previous projects which our group explored. A previous mission, the “Cassini Probe” was a joint effort between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency to study the moons and planet of Saturn. Launched in 1997 and orbited around Saturn in 2004, the main use of the probe was to send back images to scientists who would analyze it. This project released the Huygens probe that descended into the atmosphere of SaturnÕs largest moon, Titan, in January 2005. Another exhibit our group explored was one which defined the Apollo program. It showed various pictures from the years of1961Š1975. The program is known for conducting manned moon landing missions. Apollo was the third human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA. The Apollo Program has been very influential and important in the history of NASA and in spaceflight. Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit another celestial body and Apollo 17 is known for the last moonwalk.
This field trip was very beneficial and enjoyable. While the two exhibits were very different, they both revolved around the evolution of science and technique.