Event name: National Air & Space Museum

Event time and place: Washington D.C., February 23, 2025

One World Connected


Signal Boosting Sattelites
The first section of the National Air & space Museum that I explored was the "One World Connected" gallery. The areas of science this part of the museum focused on are orbits, satellites, and space travel, explaining how these things are done or made. One innovation that was displayed was the design of windows used in the ISS Cupola. These windows need to be specialized to withstand the harsh conditions of space and so they are different from standard windows found in structures like houses on Earth. Typical windows in houses have 3 panes of glass with small gaps between them. Windows in the ISS have 4 panes with gaps between them. The panes of the ISS are thicker than panes of a house to withstand debris and pressure. The closest gap to the inside of the ISS has ambient pressure and the other two gaps have a vacuum between them that help insulate the ISS from the vacuum of space. This gallery also featured an echo canceller model from the 1970's. This technology was used to help improve satellite calls. Raido waves would experience delays while traveling to and from satellites which would cause echoes to appear in calls. This technology would cancel the echoes from this delay improving the quality of satellite calling. Signals need to travel long distances to get to satellites and back to Earth. In order to allow signals to travel this distance effectively, satellites were equipped with signal boosting tubes. These tubes would take the signals received by the satellites and return them to Earth stronger to compensate for the lost strength of traveling so far. This gallery uses physical models that you could touch to represent the information related to the windows in the ISS as well as descriptive text. The gallery displayed the information relating to the satellites with small scale models that had written descriptions next to their display case to inform people. This gallery is aimed at the general public who has little prior knowledge of topics being displayed. It has easily understandable explanations for how things work, and it also has many easy to use interactives. These interactives were common throughout the hall and were effective at conveying information. Many kids were easily navigating the interactives and the information on them was easy to follow.

Exploring the Planets


Kepler Space Telescope
The next section of the museum that I explored was the "Exploring the Planets" gallery. This part of the museum covered lots of astronomy and technology used to study planets. Technology used on the Voyager space crafts that explored the outer planets of our solar system was displayed. information about the heater units, radiators, and thermal blankets used to keep the Voyager operational was included. Heaters were powered by radioactive decay that would last long enough to heat the ships for long periods of time. Radiators would keep parts of the ship cool so they would not overheat and would remain operational. Thermal blankets were used to insulate electronics on the ships and protect them from the extreme temperature changes that can occur in environments outside of Earth. The Kepler Space Telescope was also displayed. It was the telescope launched into space with the purpose of searching for exoplanets. It measured the light from stars for dips in the amount detected which would signal that a planet is in orbit of that star and was proven to be effective, helping monitor many stars. Information about planets in our solar system was also included. The different features of the rocky planets, the 4 planets closest to the sun in our solar system, were presented. The gallery presented the information about the rocky planets in the form of an interactive tablet, allowing someone to pick each individual planet and explore the different features it has to offer. The Kepler Space Telescope information was displayed by having a model of it displayed and text explaining its function in front of it. This gallery also seemed to be aimed at the general public who would have little background on the subject of space study. It had easy to understand explanations of the subjects being displayed that seemed to encourage learning for people of all ages. This gallery also included many interactive components that would allow for engaging learning. There were many kids using the interactive tablets to click through slides that would present information simply and effectively.

Destination Moon


Lunar Suit
The last section of the museum that I explored was the "Destination Moon" gallery. This part of the museum focused on the space race and technology used to reach the moon. One piece of technology shown was laser ranging retro-reflectors. These devices are used to reflect beams of light from Earth back to where they came from. This allows for the distance between the Earth and the moon to be measured by the time it takes the light to be turned on and then return to Earth. Space food was also on display in this gallery. Freeze dried food that could be prepared by adding water to the bag was shown. This type of food was nutritious and easy for astronauts to eat and was prepared with a gelatin coating that prevented crumbs from floating around and damaging any electronics on board the ship. The lunar suit that is needed for an astronaut to survive the harsh conditions on the moon is also displayed. The suit had to provide pressure, oxygen, and protection from solar radiation to its wearer. Many attempts were needed before a suit that met all these requirements was produced. The information about the suit was presented by showing an iteration of a lunar suit that was worn and used by NASA along with accompanying text to provide context. The food was presented with actual samples that were left over from the Apollo 11 and 16 expeditions and labels showing what is what. There is also text explaining how these samples would have been used by astronauts. This section of the museum seemed to be geared more towards an older audience with a higher level of understanding. It had much less interactive components and the language in this section was a little more advanced and based around the difficult task of innovating a way to safely reach the moon. There were a few interactive components like the moon model. There was a model of the moon that you could spin which would show the difference between the light side and dark side of the moon by displaying the much rougher surface of the dark side and the less damaged surface of the light side. The interactive components were effective and well-designed but there were less in this section than the other two.

Portrayal of Astronomical Concepts

It is very difficult to show concepts in astronomy in a museum due to the difference in scale of the two. Space and its contents are so much larger than imaginable, and it takes some creativity to be able to find ways to show information about it. The museum used lots of scaled down models to help present information in a visual way without taking up too much space to be incomprehensible or prevent other exhibits from being shown. They also used touch screens and animations to show large figures like planets in a small space of the gallery. Sometimes one part of a larger piece of technology would be shown to scale to present the size of the whole figure, like how a full-size thruster was shown in one part of the Destination Moon gallery. The museum tries to keep updated information available to visitors by renovating its exhibits to provide the best possible and most accurate educational experience. Part of the museum was closed due to such renovation which shows the museum is committed to providing the best and most accurate experience to its visitors.

Thank you to Dr. Merck, Dr. Holtz, and SGC for providing me with this opportunity to learn at the National Air & Space Museum, it was very informative, and I had a great time!