wnycradiolab:

John Cleese almost explains the human brain, while the automated closed captions struggle to keep up.

Spending the day in the Air & Space archives.

I’ve been thinking about evidence of the hand in the construction of space suits. I was able to collect a few examples at the Air & Space Museum today- a Soviet shuttle component that is hand-sewn, a stitched Mercury 7 glove, the repaired steel mesh of an Apollo glove. I’m so drawn to this little interventions- interruptions in the master narrative of modernity and the takeover of machines. I’ll spend the day in their archives tomorrow looking for more examples as well as ways in which such types of labor were valued/not valued in US popular culture.

Nick Russell’s blog

Wiki of Animals in space

Butterfly experiment on the Columbia flight designed by high school students.

From the Air & Space registry:

Dimensions:
3-D Test: 15.2 x 12.7 x 3.8cm (6 x 5 x 1 1/2 in.)

Materials:
Plastic, metal

This is a duplicate of the habitat flown for a butterfly metamorphosis experiment aboard space shuttle Columbia on the STS-93 mission in July 1999. This box was used in the ground control experiment conducted concurrently with the flight.

The habitat housed Painted Lady (Cynthia cardui) butterflies in different stages of development, as well as a food supply in the tray of circles. The habitat was enclosed in a larger environmental container that controlled light, temperature, and a video camera to record progress of the experiment. A team of high school students and their instructors developed the experiment to investigate the effect of weightlessness on the butterfly life cycle. The project was sponsored by SPACEHAB, Inc. BioServe Space Technologies manufactured the habitat and donated it to the Museum.

Need a satellite or a missile or a rocket engine or a metal arm with articulated joints? Here’s the Air & Space Museum’s Deaccession list. Looking for good homes.

Russian Spacesuits

via Nick Russell!

Dressing for Altitude: US Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle, by Dennis R. Jenkins

via Nick Russell!

Scientists unveil 3D map of the universe, complete with 43,000 galaxies!

Spacesuit: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Collection

This was written by Amanda Young, the woman who takes care of all of the spacesuits at the Smithsonian.