Monthly Archives: April 2011

An Easter Airlift

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Easter Photo

Photograph by Rudy Arnold - Image XRA-0856

Why is the smiling Pan American Airways flight attendant holding a box of baby chicks, and why have the chicks been dyed in festive colors? Presumably, it was for an Easter-themed photo shoot, but it’s a shame that we don’t know the story behind this Rudy Arnold photograph from the 1950s. Still, It’s a nice image from the Museum’s Archives Division’s Rudy Arnold Collection, and who doesn’t like baby chick shots at this time of year? We’ve posted examples from the Arnold Collection before; always pleased to have an excuse to post another.

Allan Janus is a museum specialist in the Archives Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

The Real Wright Flyer

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The Smithsonian literally has millions of objects in its vast collections.  Everything from specimens of flora and fauna from around the globe, to machines that have shaped the modern world, to cultural artifacts that reflect our rich diversity, to important works of art.  Even live animals at the National Zoo.  Every aspect of human endeavor and creativity and the natural world can be found at the Smithsonian.

Among this great store of history, science, and art objects, some stand above the rest for their uniqueness, historical importance, and cultural value.  In addition, they are objects that are powerfully associated with the Smithsonian.  I like to call these “signature Smithsonian objects.”  Things such as the Hope Diamond, the Star Spangled Banner, the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington, and Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis airplane are good examples—one-of-a-kind items, familiar to all, and widely known to reside at the Smithsonian.  Also in this subset of signature objects is one of the most significant in the entire Smithsonian collection—the Wright Flyer, the world’s first airplane.

Wright Flyer

The original 1903 Wright Flyer at the National Air and Space Museum

The flying machine with which Wilbur and Orville Wright made those historic first flights at Kitty Hawk on a cold December morning in 1903 represents a moment when the world changed.  The ability to fly has so dramatically refashioned human existence that the achievement of the Wright brothers defies measure.  When the Wright Flyer was installed in the Smithsonian in 1948, a visiting dignitary at the ceremony remarked, “It is a little as if we had before us the original wheel.”

For the last 25 years, I have had the great privilege to be the curator of the Wright Flyer.  During that quarter century I have pored over every detail of the airplane, studied every aspect of its design, written three books about the Wright brothers, mounted a major exhibition, and given countless lectures about this artifact.  I have spent a career with this object and at this point have a very personal connection with the Flyer.   I’ll even admit to a bit of an emotional attachment to this machine.  Needless to say, I never tire of talking about the Flyer and sharing its wonderful story.  But there is one thing that always frustrates me when I hear it—when people say the airplane in the Smithsonian is not the real Wright Flyer!  Let me assure you, the airplane on view at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is indeed the actual machine with which the Wrights made their pathbreaking first flights at Kitty Hawk.  IT IS THE REAL WRIGHT FLYER.

So how could anyone doubt this?  Most of the reasons are simple.  First, the Flyer currently doesn’t look old.  The near pristine white fabric on its wooden framework doesn’t look to be a century old.  Well, it isn’t.  In 1984 and 1985, the museum did conservation work on the Flyer.  It was disassembled, inspected, cleaned, and documented inside and out.  The most important decision we had to make was whether or not to save the tattered fabric.  There was much internal debate about this, but in the end we put new fabric on the Flyer.  Critical to that decision was that the fabric then on the airplane was not on it when it flew in 1903.  In 1928, Orville Wright loaned the Flyer to the London Science Museum, where it stayed for 20 years.  In preparation for the trip to England, Orville recovered the Flyer entirely.   So when the Smithsonian received the airplane in 1948, none of the fabric on it dated from 1903.  Considering its condition and that the airplane never flew with that fabric, for the long-term preservation interest of the artifact, new fabric was put on in 1985, precisely to the specifications of 1903.  So to the uninitiated, the Flyer currently doesn’t look old and people sometimes make the assumption that it is not the original airframe.

Fabric

New fabric being sewn on to the original framework of the 1903 Wright Flyer.

Another reason visitors sometimes think the Wright Flyer in the Smithsonian is not real is because so many modern reproductions of the Flyer are on view in other museums.  Especially leading up to the centennial of the first flights in 2003, many reproduction Flyers have been built.   With so many copies out there and the real Wright Flyer having relatively new fabric on it, one can see how visitors might get confused.

Finally, many people know that after the Wrights made their last flight on December 17, 1903, the Flyer was upturned by a strong gust of wind and severely damaged.  Thinking the airplane was destroyed, some of these folks are under the impression that the original 1903 Wright Flyer doesn’t exist at all.

So let me make clear for all, when you visit the National Air and Space Museum and stand before the Wright Flyer you will be just a few feet away from the original, real, world-changing 1903 Wright Flyer—not a copy.  There is also a good chance you’ll find me in the gallery spending time with my old friend, the endlessly fascinating world’s first airplane—a signature Smithsonian object.

Peter Jakab

Peter Jakab seated in front of the 1903 Wright Flyer

Peter L. Jakab is the associate director for collections and curatorial affairs at the National Air and Space Museum

What Can You Really See From Space?

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Most people know that satellites in orbit do useful things such as collect images of the Earth’s surface. At the National Air and Space Museum I use satellite images in my job to understand changes in the Earth’s land surface. Today millions of people are acquainted with satellite imagery on internet map services. People sometimes ask me if it’s possible to see even more detail from space. In this post I’ll explore what is really visible in different types of satellite data.

There are dozens of orbiting remote sensing satellites, and the level of detail they see depends on its precise mission. “Remote sensing” just means looking at something from a distance. In this case we’re talking about viewing the Earth from at least hundreds of miles above the atmosphere.

The images on internet map servers are provided by a recent generation of satellites that collect detailed images, including the GeoEye and WorldView satellites. Objects smaller than automobiles are visible in some of these images. In the past, only military and reconnaissance satellite were capable of this kind of detail.

IKONOS

Image from the IKONOS satellite showing downtown San Francisco. This type of image shows great detail over small areas.

Other satellites observe large areas and discern things the size of agricultural fields. These spacecraft, including the Landsat satellites, are useful for mapping cities or regional changes in land cover.

Landsat 7

Image from the Landsat 7 showing the metropolitan area of Mexico City in the upper left. On the right is the volcano Popocatepetl, which appears dark red in this false color infrared image. This image covers an area about 100 miles across.

Another class of satellites orbit thousands of miles out in space. These spacecraft, including the GOES satellites, are designed to observe changing weather over an entire hemisphere of the Earth. They cannot discern small details.

GOES

View from GOES satellite showing weather systems moving across the entire globe.

In the past, it was often incorrectly stated that the Great Wall of China was the only man-made thing visible from space. Although an astronaut would probably not be able to see it with unaided eyes, the Great Wall is visible using orbiting sensors. However, plenty of other things made by humans are also visible. It was sometimes even stated that the Great Wall is visible from the Moon, but that’s definitely not possible. If you stood on the Moon, the entire Earth would appear to be about the size of a quarter held at arm’s length.

In some Hollywood films, satellites provide moving images from space. The hero immediately targets a satellite to search for evildoers. While this type of real-time imagery looks very cool, it’s not really how satellites work. Orbiting satellites pass over a particular point only every couple of weeks, and they cannot be immediately moved or collect moving images.

There is a way to get imagery like that, but it’s from unmanned airplanes. Drone aircraft can provide real-time imagery and even be equipped with weapons to attack targets.

In reality, satellite imagery is used for “before” and “after” images. These can be used for research purposes and for responses to emergencies. Recently media outlets widely used imagery from the GeoEye-1 satellite to show tsunami devastation in Japan.

Sometimes a satellite passes overhead at just the right time to capture a rapid change. The Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004 was one of those times. The QuickBird satellite just happened to pass over Sri Lanka when the wave of water crashed ashore, providing an amazing (and scary) image. In 2005 the same satellite provided images of New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina. I had an opportunity to closely examine those images at the time, and I remember making a sobering calculation of how much of the city remained submerged.

So the detail visible in a satellite image all depends on the mission of each satellite and the scale of its observations. A few non-military satellites can see objects down to about half the size of a car. Some military satellites can still see even smaller things. But that does not tell us the whole story. For most applications we need to see larger areas, which requires other satellites that observe at a different scale.

For each satellite imaging project, we need to choose between seeing small details or seeing a large area. You can’t usually have both. But  increased computing power has made it possible to combine highly detailed images to cover very large areas. The seemless imagery on internet map servers actually consists of many thousands of individual images that have been combined. Scientists use the same kind of approach to view fine scale vegetation changes across continents. Methods of combining small images will continue to be valuable for making detailed observations of the Earth in the future.

Andrew K. Johnston is a geographer in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum.

Transit Authority

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On the morning of March 2, I got an excited text message from fellow astronomy educator Shelley Witte, telling me that the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Discovery would be coming very close to transiting the Sun from our position at the National Air and Space Museum’s Public Observatory at exactly 3:08 pm.  A transit is when one object in space passes in front of another object; in this case it was the ISS and Discovery passing in front of the Sun, appearing as a dark shape on the Sun’s disk. She got this information from calsky.com, a website that lets observers know when and where the ISS will be passing overhead at any location, including any encounters with the Sun, Moon, planets, or bright stars.  We were unsure about whether or not we could actually see the transit across the Sun, since we were just outside of the predicted path, but we decided to try our luck.

We have several telescopes, which let through different types of light that highlight different features on the Sun. For the transit of the ISS, we used our Tele Vue-85 refracting telescope equipped with a filter that significantly dims the Sun’s light evenly, letting through the light from the Sun’ surface. Using this filter, we can see sunspots in great detail.

sun

Sunspots through Tele Vue-85

We set up our Sun imaging laptop, telescope, and video camera at about 3:00 pm, and waited for the big moment. Fellow Astronomy Educators Katie Moore, Shelley Witte, and other Museum staff and volunteers eagerly watched a large monitor connected to the laptop displaying a live image of what the video camera could see through the telescope.  We began recording a video at 3:07 pm, and waited. At 3:10 pm, we were still waiting for something to happen, and concluded that the ISS and shuttle Discovery must have been too far away from the Sun after all.

The next Friday, I decided to look more carefully at the video just to make sure that we had not captured anything.  About one minute into the video I saw something streak across the top left corner of the Sun and disappear as quickly as it had come. We HAD caught the ISS and Discovery passing in front of the Sun!  Somehow none of the six people watching in real time had seen it with their own eyes.

I was able to process each frame of the video that caught the ISS streaking across the Sun, and make it into a series of images that shows its progression.  I also processed a nice still image that shows most of the ISS’ silhouette against the bright Sun. Unfortunately you cannot see Discovery, even though it was docked with the ISS at the time of the transit. We were all overjoyed to have captured such a rare and fleeting event!

ISS Transit

This image of the International Space Station transiting the Sun was taken on March 2, 2011 at 3:08 pm from the terrace outside of the Pubic Observatory. The ISS is transiting the Sun to the upper left.

ISS Transit

This series of images shows the ISS moving across the Sun in slow motion, and repeats to allow you to see the details.

Erin Braswell is an astronomy educator in the Public Observatory of the National Air and Space Museum.

Jumping In Tweet First

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On Saturday, March 19, I was thrilled to participate in the first ever Sun-Earth Day Tweetup organized by the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. It was also the first time the Smithsonian officially participated in a Tweetup. The event was a great opportunity to give twitter fans (aka “tweeps”) some face-to-face interaction with our research scientists, curators and educators, and provide some fun hands-on learning that illustrated the Sun-Earth connection.

We had discussed the idea of holding a Tweetup at the National Air and Space Museum for some time, so when Aleya Van Doren at NASA Goddard asked our Museum to participate in the Sun-Earth Day Tweetup, it was  a no-brainer for me and co-host Isabel Lara in our Office of Communications. We jumped at the opportunity to partner with NASA, learn from their experience, and meet some great Twitter fans. Museum educators, scientists, and volunteers were eager to participate as well, and we enlisted two of our social media friends at the Smithsonian, Sarah Banks (National Museum of Natural History) and Sarah Taylor (Public Affairs), to help us host.

On the big day, 100 Tweetup participants and NASA Goddard team members arrived at the Museum before we opened to the public.  Usually, this is a quiet time in the Museum, but that day there was a great deal of activity as staff and volunteers prepared for the Kites of Asia Family Day.  After watching the “3D SUN” IMAX film (as perhaps the first group of theater patrons ever encouraged to use our phones – we had to tweet, after all!), everyone split up into groups and took off to explore learning stations setup around the Museum.

RT JoeCLucas: Watching the surface of the sun in 3D on an IMAX screen. Freaking awesome. #nasatweetup#sed2011

The pace was very fast as we moved through the activities. Educator Dr. Steve Williams described Galileo’s observations of the Sun some 400 years ago, and showed copies of his original drawings, which are in the Smithsonian collection. Participants were able to touch a 4.6 billion year old Allende meteorite, leftover debris from the formation of the solar system. Astronomy curator Dr. David DeVorkin talked about telescopic observations of the Sun made from the Skylab Orbital Workshop in the 1970s, and the legacy of Skylab’s Apollo Telescope Mount in today’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Planetary geologist Sharon Wilson Purdy described her work on the Mars HiRISE mission and explained the role of the Sun in studying seasonal and global climate change on Mars. Tweeps got a chance to view the Sun through three different telescopes outside by our Public Observatory.  The forecast had been for cloudy skies all week, so we were relieved when Saturday came and the skies were clear. The viewing of sun spots and solar prominences was great!  Our three astronomy educators Katie Moore, Erin Braswell, and Shelley Witte, and volunteer Heather Goss, were all on hand to answer questions.  Tweeps were excited to learn one of the telescopes they were looking through was a real Dobsonian telescope built by amateur astronomer John Dobson in 1988. Everyone was tweeting the experience and sharing photos using the #sed2011 and #NASATweetup hash tags.

RT @chaalz: Just touched a rock that was created before our solar system was created. #NASATweetup#SED2011

A Tweetup participant views the Sun through an original Dobsonian telescope. Photo by Todd Stowell.

RT: @pilotconway: Saw some sun spots. So cool. #sed2011#nasatweetup

 

Tweetup participants could view solar prominences through two telescopes. This image of the Sun’s chromosphere was taken through one of the telescopes at the Public Observatory that day. Image by Shelley Witte.

Last but not least, tweeps took a quick tour of Museum highlights led by our knowledgeable volunteer docents, many of whom are pilots, engineers, or scientists and have had amazing careers in the aviation and space industry. Days before the event, I told them not to worry if the group was looking down at their phones a lot; it just means they’re telling everyone about the cool things they’re learning on their tours!  Participants saw objects representing early powered flight to landing humans on the Moon and beyond, including the 1903 Wright Flyer, Spirit of St. Louis, Moon rock, Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, and SpaceShipOne.

RT @CG____: Amazing. Only 66 years elapsed between Wright Bros flight and landing on the moon. #NASATweetup @airandspace

RT @adcunningham: Do you want to inspire a kid today? Bring him/her to @airandspace#sed2011#nastweetup

All of the Tweetup participants were friendly and fun, but I have to say I have a particular fondness for NASA SDO’s BFF Camilla Corona SDO (aka @Camilla_SDO). She was a big hit with tweeps and visitors alike, posing beside many of our most famous objects and tweeting photos and fun historical facts.

Camilla checks out sun spots on the monitor connected to one of the telescopes at the Public Observatory. Photo by Camilla Corona SDO.

 

The entire morning was buzzing with excitement. There was plenty of sharing going on, not just among the Tweetup participants, but also via @NASA and others who were following on Twitter.  So much so that at one point, we discovered, @airandspace and @Camilla_SDO were trending on Twitter in the DC region. In the end, we all had a great time, learned and shared a lot, and we made a lot of new friends. Before the Tweetup group left to return to NASA Goddard, they posed for a photo outside the Museum.

NASA Goddard Sun Earth Day Tweetup participants and Smithsonian hosts. Photo by Mark Avino.

RT @Smithsonian: Group photo of super fun tweeps who came to @airandspace for the #sed2011#NASATweetup. Enjoy @nasagoddard! http://ow.ly/i/9kRx

RT @bsettlemyer‎ My fave was probably the solar telescopes. But the description of galileo telescope and drawing was interesting too. #NASATweetup #SED2011

Sarah Banks and I were also able to attend the NASA Goddard portion of the Tweetup, where participants watched a NASA EDGE webcast and toured the NASA Goddard facilities, meeting many of the scientists and engineers working on missions like Solar Dynamics Observatory (@NASA_SDO), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (@LRO_NASA) and more.  The NASA Goddard team produced an amazing event and we were so glad to be a part of it.

What’s next? I’m eager to see the Smithsonian host Tweetups to engage more directly with Twitter followers and provide some great behind-the-scenes access to our experts and collections. My Tweetup co-host Isabel and I are actively planning an official Tweetup at the National Air and Space Museum. Stay tuned and follow @airandspace on Twitter for more info!  Also, look for the Public Observatory to start tweeting soon!

Would you like to participate in a National Air and Space Museum Tweetup?  What would you like to see?  Help us plan by sharing your thoughts!

Vicki Portway is Chair of the Web & New Media Division in Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the National Air and Space Museum.