The Smithsonian Wants Your Help Preserving Neil Armstrong’s Moonwalk Suit

The Smithsonian Institution is out to make the most of the Pluto flyby hype, launching its first Kickstarter campaign ever centered around the one man who still stands as NASA’s brightest beacon: Neil Armstrong. The Smithsonian wants to preserve and put back on display Armstrong’s moonwalk space suit. They’re asking $500,000 to do it.

The Reboot the Suit Kickstarter campaign launched on July 19. As always, the Smithsonian Institution has 30 days to reach its funding target, or it receives nothing. As to why the Smithsonian, a federally-funded entity, needs your money at all, here’s the official line:

“Federal appropriations provide the foundation of the Smithsonian’s operating budget and support core functions, such as building operations and maintenance, research, and safeguarding the collections. Projects like Reboot the Suit aren’t covered by our federal appropriations, which means we can only undertake them if we can fund them some other way. In other words, we won’t be able to do this project without the participation of Kickstarter backers.”

Also:

“No matter the outcome of this project, Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit will be cared for and safeguarded for as long as the Smithsonian Institution exists (and we’ve been around for 169 years so far). But we want to do more than keep the spacesuit safe — we want to display it for all to see. The only risk we have is not meeting our deadline to have it conserved, digitized, and on display in time for the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.”

Of course, that doesn’t really explain why Kickstarter is being used for the first time right now, but it’s understood at this point that a crowd-funding campaign can serve as marketing almost as equally as it serves funding purposes. After all, I’m writing about it at this very moment. But on to the details.

A rendering of the upcoming Destination Moon exhibition.

A couple of things will happen if the $500,000 gets funded:

1. The Smithsonian will embark on a conservation process with the Apollo 11 suit itself, documenting, stabilizing and protecting it as a historical artifact.
2. The suit will be “digitized,” entailing a full 3D scan to be used as a mold for personal recreation using 3D printers.
3. The suit will be displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum as a part of the upcoming Destination Moon exhibition. The Smithsonian wants the suit on display in time for the Apollo 11 mission’s 50th anniversary in July 2019.

As for backer rewards, in stark contrast to the ideal Kickstarter campaign from a company lacking in resources, what the Smithsonian is offering is almost surreal. Highlights include an exclusive mission patch at $55, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Air and Space Museum at $1,000 and a Smithsonian flag that flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery in to actual freaking space at $2,500; with plenty more rewards spread around. The $10,000 reward is a whopper, but I suppose if you’re in a position to throw around $10,000 then whoppers are all you’re eating.

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