Neil Armstrong famously took "one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" 46 years ago, on July 20, 1969. Those words will forever be preserved, and now the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has launched a Kickstarter campaign to ensure that the spacesuit in which Armstrong took that historic step is preserved, too.
It's shocking that the Smithsonian, a federally funded institution, must turn to the public to raise the $500,000 needed to prevent this invaluable artifact of science history and American history from deteriorating. Officials explain on the Kickstarter page that federal appropriations do not cover projects like this one, which is why the spacesuit has not been displayed since 2006. The aim is to use crowdfunding to preserve and digitize the spacesuit so that it can be put back on display in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first moonwalk, in 2019.
Spacesuits are actually some of the most fragile artifacts housed at the National Air and Space Museum. As the Smithsonian puts it on the Kickstarter page, "The Apollo suits were made to take astronauts to the Moon and back safely — not to last hundreds of years in a museum."
Keeping the spacesuit in the best possible condition is going to require a lot of research. To determine the best conditions in which to keep the spacesuit when it goes on display again, researchers at the Smithsonian will perform 3D and CT scanning, chemical analyses and other advanced techniques.
In the process, they will also create a 3D model of Armstrong's spacesuit that people can explore from anywhere. The project would even make it possible to 3D print parts of the spacesuit and try them on yourself.
Armstrong was not alone during the first successful moon mission, of course. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin (shown above), who joined Armstrong on the moonwalks, and Michael Collins, who orbited the moon in the spacecraft, were just as integral to the Apollo 11 mission.
Only 10 astronauts have made it to the moon since the Apollo 11 mission, their missions taking place in the short window between the beginning of 1969 and the end of 1972. According to a press release from NASA, the commander of the most recent Apollo mission, Gene Cernan, departed from the moon in 1972 with these words:
"We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
