Spacecraft

Today it was time to go see the exhibition NASA—A Human Adventure at the National Museum of Science and Technology, so I gathered up friends and we descended on the museum. Most of us eschewed the audio guides, but it turns out that they really are necessary for making sense of most exhibits, as the signs next to the exhibits are pretty limited, and, embarrassment of embarrassments, the Swedish-language versions seem to have been generated by an automated translation service with a sketchy idea of spelling.

Further, I was quite shocked to find that they’d emptied out the entire Machine Hall (except for the mine pump, which I guess keeps the entire building in place) for the exhibition, where have they moved all the stuff that’s normally there? Now it was populated by replicas and engineering mockups of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo craft.

Just as horrible as I suspected. (Note that this large panorama window is there for the benefit of visitors, fitted in place of the egress hatch.)

I spent some time staring at the Apollo module: how does one live for close to two weeks basically strapped into a seat? (Only later, as I was reading up on the matter, did I realise that astronauts did a two-week mission in the even smaller Gemini.)

Space shuttle passenger seats, surpassed in comfort by any airline. The view is also not so hot.

The front section of a Space Shuttle was displayed next to the tiny 1960s spacecraft that could easily have been stored on its flight deck. Still, I was surprised by the very basic construction of the Space Shuttle seats, I had expected the launch forces to require much sturdier structures.

The “standard” exhibition space of the museum contained, among other items, (replicas of) both the Apollo lunar rover and the Lunokhod, which I’ve always been fond of. (Here’s a documentary on it.)

Further in were exhibited models of space stations. I hadn’t really grasped how big the ISS is by now, why isn’t it in the news more often?

The previous Teknorama space contained the hands-on exhibits, though the centrifuge was out of order. This was also where the museum shop had relocated, now containing only NASA-related merchandise which did not arouse my interest.

On the whole it was an enjoyable excursion, though using the audio guide is definitely indicated.