Museum seeks to save Neil Armstrong's spacesuit with $500,000 Kickstarter

Extract from The Guardian

National Air and Space Museum’s first crowdfunding campaign launched Monday to conserve Armstrong’s deteriorating suit so it can go on display

Neil Armstrong leads Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins out of the space centre on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

Ellen Brait in New York

Tuesday 21 July 2015 02.11 AEST 

The US National Air and Space Museum has launched its first crowdfunding campaign to raise money to conserve the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on the moon.
The campaign, which launched on Monday, coincided with the 46th anniversary of Armstrong’s moonwalk. The museum hopes to raise $500,000 on Kickstarter – the online crowdfunding platform – to help safeguard the spacesuit, digitize it with 3D scanning, and build a climate-controlled display case
Conservators say spacesuits were built for short-term use with materials that break down over time, which explains why Armstrong’s suit is deteriorating.

The spacesuit worn by astronaut Neil Armstrong, Commander of the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon on 20 July 1969. Photograph: Eric Long/Associated Press

“Nasa made [spacesuits] basically for that one purpose, just to get astronauts into space, to protect them while they’re there, and get them home,” Alison Mitchell, public affairs specialist at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum said. “They didn’t think about materials that would last hundreds of years like we’re trying to do.”
The conservation process will take between three and four years, according to Mitchell.
The suit won’t look vastly different, as specialists only plan to stabilize the deterioration. The Smithsonian’s statement on Kickstarter says the research and work they do with the suit will “literally write the book on the proper techniques for spacesuit conservation for every suit in our collection”.
Armstrong’s spacesuit hasn’t been displayed since 2006. The museum plans to display it for the 50th anniversary of Armstrong’s moonwalk in July 2019.
“It’s really important for us to conserve it so that we can share it again with the nation,” Mitchell said. “It’s one of our premier artifacts … one of our most iconic artifacts so it’s extremely important to us to be able to show it off.”

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If they don’t reach their fundraising goal within 30 days, they will adhere to Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing policy and not charge anyone who pledged a donation. But if they do reach their goal, donors will receive various rewards depending on the amount they contribute, ranging from a 3D print of Armstrong’s spacesuit glove, to a Smithsonian flag that flew in space.
The suit will be a centerpiece in “Destination Moon”, a gallery opening in 2020 that will be an updated version of the museum’s current “Apollo to the Moon” exhibit.
“It’s one of our largest, most popular galleries so we’re really excited to redo it and have this in there for one of the first times,” Mitchell said.
The Smithsonian has entered into a partnership with Kickstarter to help back projects that are not federally funded and Armstrong’s spacesuit “is the first of hopefully many projects”, according to Mitchell.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.