Smithsonian Increases Goal For Spacesuit Crowdfunding Effort

An anonymous reader writes: The recently launched Kickstarter campaign by the Smithsonian to preserve Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit has surpassed its goal. As of Saturday, the campaign raised about $525,000, and now The National Air and Space Museum has increased its goal to $700,000 in order to save Alan Shepard's Mercury spacesuit.

Comments

Re:Budget

[hankwang]

This is what they say on the Kickstarter page:

Isn't the Smithsonian federally funded? Good question! Federal appropriations provide the foundation of the Smithsonian's operating budget and support core functions, such as building operations and maintenance, research, and safeguarding the collections. Projects like Reboot the Suit aren't covered by our federal appropriations, which means we can only undertake them if we can fund them some other way. In other words, we won't be able to do this project without the participation of Kickstarter backers.

Re:Why is it so expensive?

[AmiMoJo]

Someone from the Smithsonian was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 in the UK and explained the cost. They need to find and hire historians to figure out what the suit is made of (believe it or not the records are incomplete) and what modifications were made after it returned to earth (they intend to restore it to its original state when used on the moon). They then need to get materials experts to figure out how to clean, restore, maintain and preserve it indefinitely. It's not easy, especially when you have a mixture of unusual materials that were made using obsolete techniques back in the 1960s. It's also fairly unique, as later suits were improved versions, often with informal undocumented mods and changes made by staff and crew.

They also want to 3D scan the whole thing, inside and out. That will require some careful disassembly and reassembly.

Half a million bucks doesn't seem like a lot when you consider the salaries involved, the contracts and materials etc. You can't just grab some cotton swabs and alcohol.