in Washington D.C. on Saturday, February 24, 2024

On February 24, 2024, I took the Green Line down to L’Enfant Plaza with a group of my scholar peers for our exploration of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. During the excursion I explored three of the galleries: One World Connected, Destination Moon, and Exploring the Planets. As this was our first fully self-guided excursion, I was able to explore all three exhibits in depth, learning and experiencing the museum from the perspective of every other museum goer.

One World Connected

The first exhibit I explored with a friend was One World Connected, located on the second floor, which focused on the global interconnectivity achieved by our technological achievements over the last century. Satellite advancement was the main focus of the exhibit as they’ve been the cause of increased human connections.

Prior to satellites, communication between people was limited to far shorter distances, slower, and low-quality as it relied on undersea telegraph cables, and radio and TV receivers and reflectors that weren’t even implemented everywhere around the world. Telegraph cables allowed people to make calls across the Atlantic, but each cable could only carry 36 calls, limiting the amount of communication. Shortwave radios were also commonly used, receiving shortwaves that bounced off the atmosphere but were unreliable and couldn’t be used across continents. (write about shortwave tuning in the caption). The cold war’s space race prompted the invention of satellites with the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 then the U.S. launched SCORE in 1958 and by the mid-1960s communications satellites were sending and receiving signals from and to distant places around the world. It filled the communication gaps that the cables and shortwaves had. Millions of people could be updated on breaking news and images in real time, and telephone connections were nearly worldwide. Not only that, but satellites also transformed the way we perceive weather and climate change.

Meteorologists use it for daily weather forecasts for a more accurate report from clouds and weather patterns. Images from satellites of the Earth inspired the environmental movement of the 60s and 70s as it provided people with a sense of connection to the Earth and its beauty. Satellites are used to study changes in CO₂ concentrations and patterns over years, carry Earth Radiation Budget Experiment instruments for gathering data on Earth’s radiation budget, and measure atmospheric temperature all to support the prevalence of climate change. Monitoring of animal movements and migrations of sharks, birds, elephants, and others also allowed scientists to devise better wildlife conservation programs. Other advancements like planes and jet engines increased our connection by providing a faster and efficient form of transportation that boosted trade and diplomatic relations.

Much of the information in this exhibit was presented at a middle school and older level. This is due to the amount of information that wasn’t always broken down to its very basics, but rather explained in more general terms. However, children in elementary school could understand the material if explained to them by a guardian during their visit. The exhibit was filled with specimens of the technology that existed before and satellites that came about which all included plaques that described the items and their importance.

There were also interactive components such as screens that let you explore the timeline of the technology and their impact, examples of mapping data collected by satellites for monitoring climate change, and even child friendly “games” that demonstrated the old technology (such as shortwave radios and undersea cables) that satellites improved. A diagram breaking down the components of a communication satellite was also included in the exhibit. These interactive displays helped museum goers visualize the multitude of different types of technology and exactly how it is related to human connectivity. For example, the display that allowed you to “phone” in from one location on the map to another location helped illustrate the uses and limitations of undersea cables, ground cables, and satellite link depending on the distance of the call.

Destination Moon

Moving down to the galleries on the second floor, we arrived at Destination Moon, an exhibition focused on the motivations, developments, and technologies that took us to the Moon. Recognizing that rockets could push a spacecraft through a vacuum of space and the generation of larger amounts of power from liquid fuel allowed people to begin considering spaceflight as a possible reality. With the Cold War and growing technological advancements that indicated the possibility of such an endeavor, the Moon Race began between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Luna 1, 2, and 3 created by the Soviet Union became the first spacecrafts to reach the Moon. Pioneer, a U.S. Air Force and Military project managed by NASA, saw much failure as the spacecrafts burned up before leaving Earth with Pioneer IV being the first U.S. spacecraft to leave Earth but missing the Moon. Both the Soviet Union and the U.S. used animals as flight subject tests to gauge safety and stress that space flight would put on humans. NASA’s Mercury Project to bring man to space used ballistic missiles like the Army’s Redstone rocket and the Air Force’s Atlas rocket to send a capsule into orbit. Freedom 7, a Mercury capsule, took Alan Shepard on a 15-minute suborbital flight. Meanwhile, the Soviets had Vostok, an automated spacecraft that carried one astronaut, that ran 6 missions to bring 6 different astronauts (Yuri Gagarin, German Titov, Andrian Nikolaev, Pavel Popovich, Valery Bykovsky, and Valentina Tereshkova) to space.

For astronauts to reach the Moon, advancements in the spacecrafts and spacesuits were necessary. The Gemini program that brought about Gemini VII among other Gemini spacecraft helped NASA understand the various medical, spacewalking (extravehicular activity), and docking problems that astronauts had to overcome. Spacesuits had to be constructed of layers of material, a strong Teflon-coated fiberglass outer layer and multi-layers of lightweight synthesis materials, that allowed astronauts to work and move safely around the Moon. This was paired with backpacks that supplied oxygen, water, and communication equipment to converse with Mission Control that included engineers and scientists that could be on standby to solve any complications the astronauts may face. Other considerations like food storage on the spacecraft led to innovations such as freeze-dried space food that was highly nutritious but compact, cleaning of wastewater produced from the generation of electricity for human consumption, and various methods of personal waste management.

Then came the Apollo program, with Apollo 11 accomplishing the goal of humans landing on the Moon. Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket to date, that had five F-1 engines that the scientists realized was required to produce the amount of power needed for the Apollo spacecraft to leave Earth. The F-1 engines were composed of a turbopump, LOX dome, injector plate, and thrust chamber and is still the most powerful liquid propellant rocket engine. To protect Apollo spacecrafts from burning in the pressure of exiting the Earth, heatshield manufacturing became crucial. Production of these shields added onto each other, creating a strong and sturdy material.

Smaller technologies were worked on for the astronauts to use after reaching the Moon. This includes a solar wind composition experiment device that collected solar wind from the Sun, a contingency soil sampler to test the composition of the Moon, a passive seismic experiment device of four seismometers that measured lunar shock waves, and a laser ranging retro-reflector that measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon using a reflected beam of light (this is still used to this day).

Overall, the exhibit seemed to aim at the same audience as One World Connected due to the large amount of written information explaining the complex systems that were created for spaceflight. This exhibit contained fewer interactive components, rather focusing on providing images and specimens (real and models) relating to the topics discussed in the text. For example, a real F-1 engine was showcased with diagrams and explanations of the function of its various components displayed next to it for museum goers to understand the technological feat and prowess of the engine. Various variations of spacesuits were on display for people to look at with casts of Armstrong’s hand in comparison to the spacesuit gloves allows people to see the layers of protection that the suits provided. For interactive components there only seemed to be one computer that referenced the decisions of spaceflight to the Moon. While effective in explaining why NASA decided on their specific mission plan design, other activities like rebuilding a F-1 engine like a puzzle or layering of heatshields could be included.

Exploring the Planets

Then we went to the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery which focused on our understanding of our solar system. Many of the discoveries like exoplanets were compared to Earth to understand the difference of the planets’ conditions and environments. These comparisons make it apparent that we are unable to survive beyond Earth due to the inadequate conditions. Earth’s water availability, pressure, gravity, tectonics, gas concentration, among other factors are precisely suited for human survivability.

Telescopes such as the Kepler Telescope were technological advancements that shaped our knowledge of planets as they were used to discover numerous stars, exoplanets, and other solar systems. These discoveries helped us understand how planets evolve as they catch precise changes in light emissions from far distances, filtering out miscellaneous information that we could never catch on our own.

Spacecraft was also developed and deployed to orbit other planets to gain insight on other planets in our solar system. These spacecrafts take thousands of photos that we then analyze. Pluto was discovered using one of these photos as it appeared in the background. The Zeiss Blink Comparator is used to confirm this discovery by switching between two photos taken of the same area to detect movement.

Probes were then used to venture the surface of planets to gather more specific data regarding the surface of a planet. These devices had to overcome high pressures and extreme heats. Mass spectrometers advanced and developed by Toshiko Mayeda are used to analyze the samples gathered from the explorations such as lunar soil from the Apollo 11 journey.

This exhibit seems targeted to a slightly younger audience as there is even more imagery and models displayed throughout the exhibit but much of the information is still written in a way to convey to a middle school and older audience. There is only one interactive component in the exhibit where you can design your own space exploration mission, choosing the specific technology suited for the conditions of the planet you’re venturing. Other than that, there were many panels of text accompanying text again, diagrams of the solar system, models of technology, and models that you could touch. This includes the Mars Science Laboratory Rovers in a display case, and samples of rocks in our solar system that you can feel the texture of. A interactive components that the museum could employ is designing your own planet and seeing what could survive in those conditions.

Overview

While astronomy is a difficult subject to portray in museums as new discoveries are being made on the daily. To adapt to this problem, the National Air and Space Museum includes interactive exhibits such as monitors with games and timelines that can be easily change with the new information. Exhibits are also closed at for certain amounts of time for revision to be up to date. Even when I visited, there were exhibits that were closed, leading to us visiting the three exhibits mentioned over. However much of the information that was presented in the exhibits that I explored included historical facts that are not changing. The only exception was Exploring the Planets that contains information regarding the planets that are still being explored to this day. To address any inconsistencies from being outdated, the website could be used to keep museum goer from the being misinformed.

Last modified: 9 May 2024