Nightscape Survey

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 14:27:09 -0400

Hands in Space

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:18:05 -0400

The place is Washington, D.C., where some of America’s most cherished history is enshrined. Of the many Smithsonian collections on the National Mall, the Air and Space Museum’s is the most popular, the world’s most popular. The Romans built an empire and engineered the Colosseum, the United States put a man on the Moon...it was “a giant leap” shared by everyone back on the good earth.

The time is the last week of June 2008. School is just out, and summer is here. It’s hot and humid. The grass between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building is covered by an ocean of white tents, punctuated by colorful banners. The spacious crushed-stone walkways are bustling with sunburned crowds soaking up live music and old-fashioned lemonade. The festive atmosphere swirls with the aroma of food and wood fires. This is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which for 37 years has showcased cultures from around the world. Its emphasis on genuine personal interaction has made it one of the largest summer attractions in the United States.

This summer’s festival celebrates the cultures of Bhutan, the state of Texas, and NASA. NASA? Why is NASA at a folklife festival? We can start with the fact that NASA turns fifty this year, but NASA is really here to celebrate the same culture of exploration that draws eight million visitors into the Air and Space Museum each year…a culture that took humans to the moon in less than a decade. NASA’s people are here, out in the open, ready to talk about their work and why they do it. It’s all about telling stories - the folklife of the Space Age. I’ve come here to see how the public reacts to the story of Peter Homer’s prize-winning astronaut glove.

The same vacuum experienced by astronauts

It is here that “The Hands in Space Astronaut Glove Experience” is being presented to the public for the very first time. Peter Homer has set up our transparent “box of space,” as we like to call it, so that anyone can reach into the same vacuum as an astronaut.
Our aim is to share the challenges faced by astronauts and engineers as we ventured into space. The exhibit grew out of lessons learned in elementary school rooms and NASA space expos across the country.

I’m here to observe how the public interacts with our new exhibit, to gauge its potential for science museums and school outreach programs. It’s clear from the endless stream of curious people that we’re on to something. I can’t help but jump in next to Peter and start answering questions. I quickly learn from Peter that it’s best to spend time setting the stage for each person’s experience.

Letting them touch an uninflated glove beaks the ice and starts the conversation flowing. Next we begin filling the glove with just enough pressure to keep them alive in space.

Everyone is amazed at how stiff the outside of the glove gets, just from so little air. Many people ask how anyone can be expected get any work done. Now we’re ready to share the long history of NASA’s struggle with this decades-old problem, a problem so persistent that NASA selected it for one of the seven Centennial Challenge Competitions. The Challenge involves a contest to design and build an easier to use, more flexible glove; an act of Congress put up a $1,000,000 purse to be awarded in three phases.

Peter does not get a break all day long. Even with the two of us, the demand for the glove experience cannot be met, as we take turns passing the inflatable glove back and forth. Peter tends to concentrate on the technology of his invention, while I like to share the story of why NASA chose the glove for the Centennial Challenge and how Peter won $200,000 in round one for his engineering genius.

Primed with this hands-on understanding of space history, the stage is set for their reach into space.

“So would you like to feel what it’s like to work in space, just like an astronaut?...This box is filled with space. It holds a vacuum, the same amount an astronaut is exposed to.”

Some people take a little while to make the connection between the first glove we pressurized with air, to an air-filled glove placed in a vacuum...but they soon get the feel of it; and that’s the magic of the exhibit.

No matter how abstract our discussions become, people get to feel what we are talking about.... some move on to the next exhibit, but for many this direct, personal experience of space draws them in even further.

“Try the different sizes...the closer the fit, the better the performance. Yours would be made to fit you... the crosses on each finger would line up with where your knuckles are.”

This is human curiosity in its most uninhibited and elemental form, a primal urge all parents understand. Two young French girls need no English to be drawn in. They linger with their hands in the box, as their father translates haltingly. Who doesn’t want to know what it feels like to be an astronaut, to reach into space, in the same spirit of exploration that took us to the moon.

While we both find things to fix and improve, bringing the Hands in Space exhibit to the Folklife Festival has shown us that is holds all the potential we had hoped for, and so much more.

I came to Washington expecting to see the makings of a static museum exhibit, needing but a few giant spacewalk images and some text for it to be complete. Thanks to the Folklife Festival, I discovered something unexpected. The astronaut glove is not about presenting an artifact of the past or giving a glimpse of some distant day in the future. It is about creating a moment of discovery right here and now on earth. In just nine days on the National Mall the “Hands In Space Exhibit” shared the culture of the space age with well over 10,000 people.

Peter W. Lord

Nightscape Survey

Hands in Space