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

I like this

[ganjadude]

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

Re:I like this

[gumbi west]

Good idea. The IRS traditionally doesn't go after the rich for their full taxes because they hire good lawyers and it takes about 10 years to get a settlement. But I'd throw in money to go after billionaires tax cheats.

The Price is Right!

[Irate Engineer]

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.

138 Million Artifacts

[westlake]

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.

Re:138 Million Artifacts

[Dutch Gun]

I'd bet the vast majority of those artifacts are likely sitting in shelves full of boxes and bins in the basement, and are not in need of any costly preservation measures, short of maintaining a dry, climate-controlled environment.

Good on them for figuring out how to generate some more revenue, but it tends to remind me of how local governments spend their entire budget, then come begging to taxpayers in the form of additional bonds to fund critical police programs, fire protection services, parks, schools / education, or emergency services infrastructure. They know taxpayers have a harder time saying "no" to these types of services.

Don't get me wrong... I'm really happy these suits are being preserved. It just seems strange that they couldn't have figured out how to do this within their existing budget. Given the historical importance of these suits, it makes me think that maybe their priorities are a bit off regarding their budget expenditures. What would they have done if the money hadn't been raised? Let the suits rot in a locker in the basement? Auction them off to a private collector? And what happens the next time they have some important American historical artifact? Is this sort of fundraising going to happen again?

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.