WASHINGTON – The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum is hoping to save a relic from the early days of space exploration – the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore during mankind’s first moonwalk on July 20, 1969. But the Smithsonian needs a little help.
This month, the museum launched its first ever crowdfunding campaign, using Kickstarter to ask for $500,000 to conserve the spacesuit, build a climate-controlled exhibit to share it with visitors and 3-D scan it to share it with the world.
Why is a federally funded institution turning to the Internet for help? The Smithsonian’s government funding only covers its core operations, and while preserving the spacesuit in closed-off storage falls under that category, restoring it and putting it on display does not.
The museum relies heavily on private donations to make new exhibits and preserve aging specimens, and this year it will be rolling out several Kickstarter campaigns to help make up the difference.
If the fundraising campaign is successful, the suit will be featured in a 50th-anniversary exhibit honoring the moon landing (in 2019), then move into a permanent exhibit about the moon scheduled to open in 2020.
Fixing the suit up properly will be a tricky business: Stored behind-the-scenes in a climate-controlled area for years, the suit has plenty of wear-and-tear that it acquired during the moon landing – and plenty that it’s acquired since. Surprisingly delicate, spacesuits are prone to strange stains and deterioration, but Smithsonian workers will have to take care not to “fix” defects that are part of the suit’s official history. In other words, they’ve got to keep the moon dust looking nice and moon dusty, while patching over shoddy repair jobs done in previous years. Some stains will have to be studied closely so workers can determine whether they were formed on the mission or later, in storage.
All project backers – even those who donate just $1 – will be privy to in-depth updates on the restoration. Other rewards include Apollo 11 boot-print decals ($20), a mission patch designed by Star Trek graphic designer Mike Okuda ($55), and even Smithsonian flags that have flown in space ($2,500) with lots of other options in between. And unlike most Kickstarter projects, most or all of donations made in the United States will be tax deductible.
