Event name: Excursion To The National Air & Space Museum (AMNH)
Event time and place: February 24, 2024 in Washington, DC
Exploring The Planets
The Exploring The Planets exhibit primarily focuses on the planets within our Solar System, and the ways in which we have tried to explore it and get as far from Earth as possible. Some examples of concepts portrayed here are an explanation of what constitutes a planet versus a dwarf planet, demonstrations of the differences between the surfaces and interiors of rocky planets, and the Mariner 10 Probe. This exhibit primarily used text to convey its concepts. For example, the text describing the Mariner 10 probe included details such as how it kept its electronics cool while flying near the sun: it used a large shade to accomplish this. Also, the vast majority of the information in the planet versus dwarf planet explanation was conveyed through text. However, there were other ways in which this exhibit conveyed its concepts. For example, when demonstrating the composition of the surfaces and interiors of rocky planets, the exhibit allowed visitors to physically touch a model of an opened-up rocky planet. This exhibit also contained some interactive components. For example, there was a touchscreen that would give additional information about any of the planets, such as more facts about Saturn's rings. This exhibit was, in my opinion, very effectively done: the screen was very responsive, the animations were smooth, it didn't take long to get to the information that you wanted, and there was much more information that would realistically fit in a blurb of text, justifying the use of an interactive component here. This exhibit seemed to be aimed at younger visitors: many of the concepts would already be familiar to adults (such as what a planet is), the textual descriptions used simpler language, and the physical demonstration of rocky planet composition works well for younger visitors. That being said, there were a few exhibits that were more in-depth and would satisfy the curiosity of an adult visitor.
One Connected World
The One Connected World exhibit primarily focuses on the relationship between air or space technology, and how humans connect with each other, both in terms of transportation and communication. Some examples of concepts portrayed here are the Kepler Space Telescope, the Iridium phone and how satellite technology was used for it, and satellite imagery that provided evidence of the ozone hole. For some of these concepts (such as the Kepler Space Telescope), the gallery presented physical models of the technology in order to convey information such as the size, shape, and components of the object. The gallery also gave texts that explained the background behind them. For example, the exhibit that showcased the Iridium phone contained a blurb that described how the antenna on the Iridium phone connects directly to a satellite network that continuously covers every inch of the globe, as well as a physical Iridium phone for reference. The exhibit had some interactive components: one example of such was an exhibit that demonstrated the many different combinations of methods to transport goods. It had four concentric disks that you could rotate: the outer disk selected the time period (Pre-1950 or The Modern Day), the next disk selected for mode of transportation (plane, truck, ship), the third one selected for range (local, national, international), and the innermost disk selected for type of good (food, manufactured goods, recycled goods). For each of these 54 combinations, it would tell you whether it was carbon effective, cost effective, or time effective. This exhibit did a great job showing the tradeoffs between different combinations, so I believe that the interactivity significantly enhanced the presentation of the material. It was much more fun adjusting the wheels to try different combinations than it would be to read a blurb about this. Overall, this exhibit appears to be aimed at a general adult audience, probably with a high school diploma but not necessarily with any particular science education. The bulk of the main content was in textual descriptions, which indicates a target audience of adults, but these descriptions are very accessible to the layperson. However, there were also a good number of interactive exhibits, so even if the primary audience is adults, younger visitors would also get a decent amount of value from this section, provided that they were at least tall enough to reach the interactive exhibits.
Destination Moon
The Destination Moon exhibit primarily focuses on the technology that was used to allow humans to land on the moon in the 1960s. Some examples of concepts that this exhibit portrayed are the F1-engine, the Apollo 11 command module, and a showcase of recovered, preserved F1 parts. This exhibit mainly portrayed these concepts through physical objects: we were given an up-close view of all of these exhibits previously mentioned. The physical space actually had several floors, because it requires a lot of space to display these objects in full and to scale. It also used lots of textual explanations of what each of these parts were for, to supplement the presentation of the physical objects. This exhibit had much fewer interactive components than the other ones. An example of an interactive component was a touchscreen that would play videos that answered common questions, such as "What materials were used for the Apollo spacesuits?" This type of interactive component is somewhat less effective than the interactive components in the other exhibits, because the videos do not add that much compared to a blurb and possibly an accompanying diagram. Videos also have the disadvantage that the viewer cannot go at their own pace, as they would be able to with a textual explanation. This exhibit seemed to be aimed at two distinct sets of visitors: young visitors and people with higher-than-average scientific knowledge. Young visitors would be able to admire the physical objects, as they were a much bigger part of the story this exhibit is trying to convey, as well as being physically larger and more salient overall. On the other hand, this exhibit goes more in-depth into the science behind the moon mission. The descriptions are still accessible to a general adult audience, but are more interesting for those who have some science background.
Keeping It Updated
Although it is difficult to update the galleries with new information, the exhibit designers were able to incorporate new information well using technology and interactive exhibits. For example, there was a TV in one of the exhibits that showed some news in space. One of these news stories was of India landing on the moon on August 23, 2023, with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. It also incorporated images that Chandrayaan-3 took, and a photo of Mission Control upon receiving news of its success. Physical objects would be harder to update, since they have to be constructed, transported in, and space needs to be available for them. For this reason, I did not see any extremely recent physical objects. However, for the time being, updating interactive exhibits proves to be sufficient, as I did not encounter any egregiously outdated information.