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Kickstarter Campaign Launched To Save NASA's Mission Control (kickstarter.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader yzf750 shares sad news about the facility where NASA conducted the Apollo moon landing in 1969:
Mission Control at Johnson Space Center is a wreck and this Kickstarter project is trying to save it. The nearby city of Webster, Texas has promised to match Kickstarter funding up to $400,000. The goal is to raise $250,000 to add to the $3.5 million already budgeted by the city of Webster to restore Mission Control.
Contributors on Kickstarter can receive rewards including models of the Apollo 11 command module, lunch with Apollo flight controllers, VIP tours, or a free download of the documentary Mission Control: the Unsung Heroes of Apollo. The Kickstarter campaign was launched by Space Center Houston, which is also contributing $5 million to preserve what's been called a "cathedral of engineering."
In December the Houston Chronicle noted that though Mission Control is listed in America's National Register of Historic Places, "plans to restore it have been discussed for more than 20 years. But its restoration and preservation remain in limbo, with no set date for work to begin."
Contributors on Kickstarter can receive rewards including models of the Apollo 11 command module, lunch with Apollo flight controllers, VIP tours, or a free download of the documentary Mission Control: the Unsung Heroes of Apollo. The Kickstarter campaign was launched by Space Center Houston, which is also contributing $5 million to preserve what's been called a "cathedral of engineering."
In December the Houston Chronicle noted that though Mission Control is listed in America's National Register of Historic Places, "plans to restore it have been discussed for more than 20 years. But its restoration and preservation remain in limbo, with no set date for work to begin."
Just give me a bucket of paint and a 1980s' mix tape for a montage.
somebody's pork barrel project. Especially from a State whose House Members and Senators fight against mine. Let's face it, once we could reliably launch satellites there wasn't much point to further space travel outside outside that. Maybe if their Congress Critters would stop trying to shut down Medicare & Medicaid (I've got buddies that depend on it to live) I'd be a little more charitable.
And yeah, the current climate has made me bitter as hell...
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I bet your fun at partys.
In only one more generation, everybody will believe that the moon landings were a hoax, that the holocaust never happened, that the destruction of the twin towers was due to explosives planted by the governement, that forces like gravity don't exist, that climate change is a conspiracy by the evil science conglomerate, that Donald Trump was the greatest philantropist that ever lived, and that the world is flat.
There is no hope for humanity.
This is preserving history not some red vs. blue argument. So many key things came of the Apollo program and while it was driven for cold war purposes the people involved in accomplishing it on the ground were heroes to science. I'm surprised this isn't a national park supported fully by tax dollars but I'm happy to back it. Can't wait to see it restored for the big 5-0!
Remember those bumper stickers that said, "It will be a great day when the air force needs to have a bake sale to buy more bombs"?
This is sort of along those lines, but not quite what we envisioned.
Here we see, thanks to trump, that amerikkka has to essentially have a bake sale to preserve a key component in the most important achievement in the history of mankind. The government, headed by trump, can't even spare $4 million to help with this project. Sad.
Sorry, but the perks seem like BS to me given that an annual membership is only 35 USD. I want the world to remember what scientists and engineers have been able to accomplish when given full backing and freed from monetary constraints. On the other hand this looks like they are just going to blow the money on some kind of project that is going to overrun on costs and schedule.
I hope they are successful. Interestingly, the first reaction you get when you see the MCR for the first time is "Wow, it's small." A wide angle lens at the rear makes it look bigger than it is.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
We could have Mexico pay for it.
I don't think everything from the past needs to be turned into a museum. Lots of old technology hits the scrap heap.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Re-create/Scan it for VR with movie-grade assets (pared down for the current level tech, we can always scale up later) and be done with it. This would even give people the proper scale of standing in Mission Control. All the wide-angle shots make it seem bigger.
No physical location to maintain, and anyone in the world can 'visit' easily.
Good-bye
"Mission Control at Johnson Space Center is a wreck " is highly misleading. I don't think there has been unlimited access to the area since I was a kid. Last time I went there you had to pay Space Center Houston a fee and take a lame tour. The kickstarter money, according to the linked article, will be spent acquiring equipment and furniture so they can"accurately portraying how the area looked the moment the moon landing took place on July 20, 1969." While this is a fine goal, I really doubt that they are going to do any net good. Tearing out fragile equipment that no one understand anymore and replacing it with even more fragile equipment that someone got off eBay, claiming that it is original. Seems like someone is obsessed with period instruments.
I am really concerned with a bunch of unskilled amateurs tearing apart mission control. It is part of my life and part of the gulf coast legacy. Sure, if there is damage and existing items need to stabilized or restored go for it. But if we are going to recreate something to make it better tourist trap, that it a problem.
I think that the priority will be tourist over historical integrity. The area has been really pushing for tourist dollars, heavily advertising i the boardwalk and expanding amenities. It is embarrassing to admit, but Space Center Houston is crap, and one reason is that it does prioritize aesthetics over the science. This is fine for the audience, little kids, but now they want to destroy mission control. Restore, yes. Try to return it to a the way it looked on a certain day? Madness. Like all engineering pursuit, Mission Control was always a work in progress, and pretending you can retcon it for tourist dollars is delusional.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Maybe it can be, again with the right kind of kickstarter project.
From a state that has wasted so much federal funds, no way.
Texas Wasted Homeland Security Money On Sports Cars, Neckties, And A Hog Catcher.
https://thinkprogress.org/after-9-11-perrys-texas-wasted-homeland-security-money-on-sports-cars-neckties-and-a-hog-catcher-9304068ab9f8
(Sarcasm on) I would rather Kickstart a madrassa in Pakistan. At least you get what's on the box. (/sarcasm off)
Can we start a kickstarter campaign to fund an effort to stop these people? The control room ought to be maintained as-is in the configuration in which it was operating. How is it better to have people who know nothing about it muck around and try to make it "look" like the Apollo era?