Beyond Planet Earth at the American Museum of Natural History
There’s a certain enigmatic appeal that comes with deep space—the complete uncertainty of what could possibly be out there beyond the atmosphere, or solar system, or galaxy. But the reality is space is a very simple thing; and that’s everything else, or, to put it more simply, everything beyond us. Still, that everything is unbelievably, shockingly vast, and that’s why I’ve always had a special admiration for the people at the world’s space programs. They are cartographers and explorers not unlike Magellan or Verrazano, instructed to discover and map things no human being can boast to describe in their entirety—the infinite emptiness that is outer space. How they do it and what their plans are is on display at the beautifully staged and surprisingly in-depth Museum of Natural History Exhibition, Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration, running through August.
Beyond Planet Earth lays bare the details of why our space program is so very necessary. From the rocky plains of the moon, which, I can accurately report after testing out a blast of its stench from a “Smell the Moon!” booth, smell not unlike pungent cigarette smoke, to the simulated red, rolling hills of Mars, where manikins in skintight space-suits bounce x-rays off the rocks, the future of NASA and its sister organizations around the world is explored. The space race, the exhibit insists, is not yet over. There are milestones yet unreached, and we may be the first to reach them.
The past is documented as well, and our arrival on the moon is primary among the clear, interesting information laid out near the entrance to the exhibit. The theme of national triumph, however, continues throughout, inspired by exhibition curator Michael Shara, also a pioneer of the plans for a lunar elevator (which is exactly what it sounds like). He surely gets his point across. There is innovation everywhere when it comes to space travel, as this exhibit, in itself innovative, explains quite nicely, and to halt the process of innovation is an intellectual crime.
But it’s not only the facts and figures Beyond Planet Earth dives into, although those provide nothing but delight to the viewer. It also looks into public perception of space, as in science fiction or doomsday theories. Chief among reference in the Mars section is Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds: the radio show, the book, and both movies. War of the Worlds, of course, documents the Earthly visitation of a malevolent Martian race bent on—you guessed it—war. Why go this route in a purely scientific exhibition? Maybe because the one thing astronomers have wanted more than anything throughout history is to discover life somewhere else but here, to know that we are not alone in the universe. And indeed, every mission we have undertaken and every venture described in the exhibition has a final product of finding or introducing life on another planet. Terraforming Mars, scientists hope, would either help us discover some microbe or—dare I say—fungus that grows in the frozen poles, any probe that studies any planet in the universe is only looking for signs of life, and we’ve even sent out satellites with inscribed and recorded greetings from the humans. Forgive me if I overstep my boundaries, but might the aliens find us a bit desperate if our little gold-plated machine says “Hello” in 55 different languages?
Scientists don’t just hope for life in space, of course. Beyond Planet Earth declares that one day we will mine the asteroids and the moon, set up bases on secondary planet after secondary planet, and be self-declared lords of the solar system, and one day, the galaxy. But the truth is that all the wonderfully organized data and exquisite dioramas set up in the exhibit are only a hope, and are far from reality. We can only hope that the space program workers are as good at their jobs as the researchers at the museum are at theirs, and, as the show’s slogan encourages, “Look up. Above you, the universe.” Hopefully somewhere out there is something we can reach, and achieve the great triumph that the majesty of space deserves.
No comments:
Post a Comment