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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.
Its allowing us to put our money where our mouths are
I dont expect taxes to pay for a lot, taxes should be for the basics needed. crowd funding is giving us a chance to do it different, back the things we want done without being forced to pay for the things we dont
the IRS should look into this
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
The Smithsonian budget for 2015 is $851 million. Surely they can afford this?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Its a government contract, cost overruns due to inadequate or changing specifications are to be expected. :-)
Citizen of Earth ? Where's that paperwork with would allow me to travel and work anywhere I want ?
So space enthusiasts, contribute $700,000 or the Smithonian (Budget $800 million a year, currently opening an extra museum in London), won't maintain this space suit.
Sounds like blackmail to me. It's one thing to ask for donations is another to do a kickstarter to do something that is their job to do anyway.
$800 million, 6000 staff is enough to do their job, if they can't or won't do their job, the exhibits should be handed to other museums.
That's a lot of money. Are they hiring 1000 people to do the work?
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Why does it cost half a million to "preserve" a suit? If you were to go looking, you could find suits and dresses well preserved from a hundred years ago. What's so special about these suits? Yeah, they're historical, and you don't want just any idiot fumbling around with them. Still, half a million dollars?
Maybe they should have advertised, and taken bids. These folk look qualified to do the job - http://www.coff.com/home.htm
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I've read all the gripes about the cost of $500,000 to preserve Armstrong's suit, the $200,000 stretch to get Carpenter's suit, and Smithsonian's $851M budget. Let's get the whole picture into our heads before we judge.
First, go to ALL of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall and at Udvar Hazy. Not just the aerospace related ones, all of them. Keeping relics in a closet for decades is easy; restoring and keeping these relics for public display and appreciation while avoiding deterioration is hard, tedious, laborious work, and it requires the efforts of passionate specialists who understand the original fabrication methods and know the means for slowing degradation. That means researchers who have to understand everything about the history of a particular item, possibly a one-of-a-kind item. Protecting these items often means careful climate control for individual artefacts, sometimes storage in inert gases, etc.. When you go to the Smithsonian and look at the exhibits, look carefully for the technology that surrounds and protects these artefacts. It is not cheap. Restoring and maintaining America's cultural and technological relics for $851M per year? I'm surprised it is not more. Yeah, they are tax dollars, but for all the crap that is done with our tax dollars, I'd say restoring and protecting the relics of America's cultural and technological achievements is money well spent.
Second, these space suits were worn by the first humans to set foot on another world and the first American into space. Armstrong's small step is arguably one of the greatest achievements of humankind, not just of America. $500,000 for restoration and arrangement of long term protection and display of this suit does not seem unreasonable at all. Another $200,000 for Carpenter's suit, leveraging the effort applied for Armstrong's suit, again seems sensible. If they are smart they'll keep tacking on reach goals of $100,000 for additional suits. And this is a Kickstarter campaign - if people really think this is an egregious waste of money, they simply don't contribute. People who want their kids to see these relics and understand what goes into preserving these things understand the size of these monetary goals and contribute.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
The ones that do things that don't actually have to be done. Nothing would control budget bloat better.
The amount they're asking for is odd... but what do I know.
I did some calculations and found it very hard to claim more than 170k to actually restore one of the suits. So the 500k initial ask was odd. And now they're adding another suit and apparently that is costing an extra 200k... which is suspiciously close to my initial calculation of 170k.
The question I have on all that is where is the other 300k going because THAT appears to be going for "pictures and websites"... and that simply baffles me.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Through reinforcement of US nationalism / patriotism.
The Smithsonian budget for 2015 is $851 million. Surely they can afford this?
To repeat what I said the other day:
The Smithsonian preserves about 138 million artifacts.
$851 million divided by 138 million artifacts yields $6.17 per artifact for conservation, restoration, display, research, physical security, insurance, educational outreach, administration, and so on.
Why it is it so expensive?
No one knows what Columbus was wearing when he set foot in the New World, but on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong took his ''one giant leap'' onto the Moon, he was clad in this custom-made spacesuit, model A7L, serial number 056. Its cost, estimated at the time as $100,000 (more than $670,000 today), sounds high only if you think of it as couture. In reality, once helmet, gloves and an oxygen-supplying backpack were added, it was a wearable spacecraft. Cocooned within 21 layers of synthetics, neoprene rubber and metalized polyester films, Armstrong was protected from the airless Moon's extremes of heat and cold (plus 240 Fahrenheit degrees in sunlight to minus 280 in shadow), deadly solar ultraviolet radiation and even the potential hazard of micrometeorites hurtling through the void at 10 miles per second.
The Apollo suits were blends of cutting-edge technology and Old World craftsmanship. Each suit was hand-built by seamstresses who had to be extraordinarily precise; a stitching error as small as 1/32 inch could mean the difference between a space-worthy suit and a reject. While most of the suit's materials existed long before the Moon program, one was invented specifically for the job. After a spacecraft fire killed three Apollo astronauts during a ground test in 1967, NASA dictated the suits had to withstand temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The solution was a state-of-the-art fabric called Beta cloth, made of Teflon-coated glass microfibers, used for the suit's outermost layer.
For the suit's creator, the International Latex Corporation in Dover, Delaware, the toughest challenge was to contain the pressure necessary to support life (about 3.75 pounds per square inch of pure oxygen), while maintaining enough flexibility to afford freedom of motion. A division of the company that manufactured Playtex bras and girdles, ILC had engineers who understood a thing or two about rubber garments. They invented a bellowslike joint called a convolute out of neoprene reinforced with nylon tricot that allowed an astronaut to bend at the shoulders, elbows, knees, hips and ankles with relatively little effort. Steel aircraft cables were used throughout the suit to absorb tension forces and help maintain its shape under pressure.
Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit Was Made by a Bra Manufacturer [Nov 2013]
This project (Armstrong suit conservation) is a no-brainer for good PR. Some congressman, grant manager, or corporate donor should jump to sponsor this. Congress has been a mess the last few years, but no one at NASA, NSF, or on their donor list was willing to step up? They get $1.1 billion in federal set asides and grants and $200 million in big donations, but no one in those funding streams was interested in being linked to preserving Armstrong's space suit? Really?
My problem is the implication they're making that they can't do the project without crowdsourcing it. I just don't believe that at all, and I think it's terrible to mislead the public like this.
I would rather they had just said they were working on a multi million dollar display of artifacts for the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, that they wanted to give everyone a chance to contribute, and that this suit restoration kickstarter is how they've chosen to do that. I think they'd raise the same money, but it would be a much more honest engagement with the public. The Smithsonian isn't a startup or a struggling artist, they don't need urgency and hyperbole to get people's attention.
I wonder where Mrs Gorsky is putting hers.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Backers are simply enabling these people and not actually helping to cure their hoarding illness, 138 million items is really nothing to be proud of, they should be actively encouraged to de-clutter and to let go of these things, they will thank you for it in the long run.
Idiot. Alright - WTF is in that suit that people haven't been preserving for hundreds of years already? Seriously - why is the suit so much more complicated and expensive? Half a million dollars. WTF is going on here?
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-...
You tell me - what is in that suit that is so very difficult to preserve? Mostly, it's composed of various kinds of plastic. Preservation for plastic? Avoid direct sunlight - and ???? You might go over them with something like Armorall now and then. The early suits had cotton linings in them - which probably wouldn't like to be Armorall'd very much. Hmmm - zip out the linings, and clean them separately?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
As long as we're fantasizing, how about a "line-item veto" for the taxpayer.
Presidents have wanted this for several administrations now, but I think the power should rest with the taxpayer instead.
Once upon a time I would have thought like that. Funny how history seems to open your eyes on these subjects.
Taxes very much so have a purpose. To paraphrase Hamilton, "If men were all angels, there would be no need for government"
Place something witty here
I did some calculations and found it very hard to claim more than 170k to actually restore one of the suits.
Wow Karmashock! I'm impressed to meet one of the designers of these one-of-a-kind, literally one of the few in existence suits! I mean, that's the only way you could have "done some calculations" and known how complicated it would be to restore it, right? You definitely didn't just pull that number out of your ass?
all of my utterances deserve to be listened to with the same amount of consideration as those that actually know what they are talking about. Mind if I use your post as a textbook example of the Dunning Kruger effect?
you would realize that a lot of that technology came about due to the space program. Maybe you'll have it in history class next year.
but not expe3cted from someone who obviously does not have a single clue, yet thinks he can impress everyone with his delusions of adequacy.
http://www.theatlantic.com/bus...
Interesting enough, many of the states that suck really hard at the federal government tit are states that really really hate the federal guvmint and those socialist taxes that interestingly enough - provide them wit a lot of money.
It's really too bad they don't refuse all that money. They'd be able to build a self sufficient economy based on free market principles, and possibly no taxes at all. This would prove the failure of the liberal economic agenda - but those folks were always a bit hypocritical it might seem.
Like Oklahoma - They've done pretty well lately.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Don't forget that Shepard had to urinate in his suit because of delays in his launch. Seems like his suit should cost more to "preserve"...
Brawndo: It's what plants crave!
Idiot. Alright - WTF is in that suit that people haven't been preserving for hundreds of years already?
As posted upthread, they don't know. The records are incomplete. They'll have to start by hiring a historian to try and find out what it is made out of, what changes have been made to the suit, and what condition it was in when it was on the moon. If they can't they'll have to find somebody who can find out in a non-destructive way. Then they'll need somebody to figure out how to preserve it as well as somebody to do the work. Then comes taking the 3D scan of the thing. Then they'll probably also need somebody to make stands for it, set it up, and transport everything. Add in a project manager as well as somebody else that will have to manage the KS as all those people who donated money will be wanting updates as well as the stuff they were promised. There's salary for about ten professionals before even talking about what actual equipment is needed.
of course, both of these would show you to be lacking in any sort of knowledge so I guess we will just have to put up with you tugging on the adults coattails trying to get their attention.
to admit it. you would do better to simply crawl back into your hole until the grownups once again forget that you exist.
The question I have on all that is where is the other 300k going because THAT appears to be going for "pictures and websites"... and that simply baffles me.
Besides restoration, the plan also includes documentation of the suit including photos, a 3D scan, online display of that 3D scan, climate controlled case, and special stand for the suit that will climate control the inside of the suit also so it can all be ready for the 50th anniversary in 2019.
Link to BBC
Another video that is a bit longer that states that the documentation will also include a research into the complete history of the suit and address the price question.
clownfunding was for people who did not have money. not giant established entities that have more or equal to the amount of money that god would have.
It is what it is.
when the South was solidly Democratic, its congressional representatives in both the House and the Senate, enjoying great seniority, came to hold leadership positions on powerful committees, which they used to send federal dollars back to their home states in the form of contracts, projects, installations."
Care to try again, or would you like to take your troll for a walk somewhere else?
You are oh so damn right, the Southern Democrats, or th Dixiecrats, used the federal coffers like sailors in a whorehouse bar.
!00 percent, not a possibility of being wrong, and very glad you admit it. They were racist as hell, very conservative, Many were in the KKK. All Democrats.
One small issue.......
http://cjonline.com/blog-post/...
During the "Civil Rights" era when the liberals in Washington were trying to ram their agenda down the South's throat. The Dixicrats became Republicans. This is the problem when trying to force-fit the Democrat and Republican labels to all times. The DIxiecrats eventually became what is now the ideological core of the Republican party.
So yes, I agree, the Southern Democrats were a nasty racist, pseudo-states rights group who opposed the federal Government except when they could extract money from it. Not a whole lot unlike today's Republicans. Not surprising - because they are today's Republicans.
Great to find common ground, eh?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.