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Happy Holidays from the Museum!

2010-01-20T22:35:00Z

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Where were you when Apollo 11 landed on the moon?

2009-06-29T22:27:00Z

In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy had a challenge for NASA – and the nation. The challenge was to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. The race to meet his goal would require the greatest technological achievements the world has ever seen. The first Apollo missions were spent getting ready for the moon landing. Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 even flew all the way to the moon, around it, and back to Earth. Finally, everything was ready. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

On July 20 at 4:18 p.m. EDT, the Lunar Module Eagle touched down on the Moon at Tranquility Base. Astronaut Neil Armstrong reported "The Eagle Has Landed." And at 10:56 p.m. EDT, Armstrong, descending from Eagle's ladder and touching one foot to the Moon's surface, uttered these famous words:

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, with “The Apollo Legacy: The Moon and Beyond” on Monday, July 20 at 11:30 a.m. MDT in Ricketson Auditorium.

Do you remember where you were when Apollo 11 landed? Leave us your story below!

Double-Whammy – Living Through a Chicago Flood and an English Storm in 1987

2009-04-13T18:48:00Z

In 1987 we began the process of moving from Chicago to England. First step: pack our furniture and everything we owned into shipping containers, and send it by boat across the Atlantic to the Old World. However, just as we were preparing for The Great Pack-Up, Chicago experienced an incredible downpour, and our house was flooded. Water came up through the drains and under glass doors to flood our wood-floored, antique-filled living room. What is more, those glass doors led in from the pool room, so before entering the living room the water had first overflowed the pool and mixed with pool water, adding chlorine to the situation, while the water entering through the drains had originated in outdoor storm gutters – altogether, quite a concoction. I remember wading around in it and my mother saying to us, “Humor me, and get out of the water when it hits the level of the electrical outlets,” which it did shortly thereafter. No big sparks occurred, though - a disappointment to my 12-year-old self, but likely a relief to my parents.

Once the water finally drained away, we spent the short weeks before packing up trying to dry out the lovely furniture; every fan we had, and those of our neighbors, were blowing full blast on couches, lounge chairs, and all the “stuff” of daily life. Even so, some beloved pieces never dried out, and we couldn’t pack them for fear of them molding during the 6 weeks they would be sealed in containers on the boat.

We arrived in England at the end of September 1987. Two weeks later on October 16^th, we were hit again when England experienced the worst storm in 300 years; 90-plus mile-an-hour winds knocked down trees in all directions, chimneys collapsed through roofs, cars were crushed, and later the newspapers were filled with stories of parents who had gotten up to check their children, and come back to bed only to find half the roof piled where they had lain just short time before.

My grandparents were visiting at the time, and it took my parents several hours to pick their way across the short mile or two to their hotel. They certainly weren’t expecting this during their visit. I was in boarding school, and that night I remember shooting up in the bed of my top bunk (8 girls to a room), yelling, “the windows are breaking, the windows are breaking!” Gravel from the formal gardens was hitting the 8-foot tall, single-pane windows which, despite my proclamations, held strong. I finally made it home a few days later – school was closed for a week – and helped my parents with the slow, steady cleanup of over 100 trees on our farm. Ultimately, many of those old fallen oaks were made into hefty rustic benches and bridges, like tributes to the storm. Many roads in England are 10-20 feet below the field on either side, due to having been worn down over centuries, and so trees that collapsed onto them could not be “simply” pushed aside, nor could one just drive around them; rather, over the coming weeks and months they had to be sawn down and removed piece by piece. Power was out for several weeks at our house, and phone lines for even more. Wood fires and a lamp rigged up to a tractor battery provided light in the evenings. We still had a coal-stoked Aga, the traditional English oven used to cook food, warm the house, and heat water, and so we were quite fortunate to still have the luxury of warm baths.

My parents told me later that they had actually gone out and walked around in the midst of the storm. It had happened on my father’s 50^th birthday; my dad says he’s never had such a memorable birthday in his life.

Chicago’s downpour: http://blogs.trb.com/news/weather/weblog/wgnweather/2008/08/chicago_flood_of_august_1987.html

England’s storm:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/16/newsid_2533000/2533219.stm

Testing, testing, testing

2009-03-13T19:57:00Z

It's been an exciting week for Expedition Health. We officially started testing all the cool interactive exhibit components. Today was a staff/volunteer walk-through where we got to try everything out and simulate for the research team what a real day would be like inside the hall. I was so excited to actually get to use the Peak Pass that I'd only read and heard about for so long. Check-in was really easy... I just put my Peak Pass (which is like a credit card) into the sign-in station, entered my name, age and birthday and then picked my Expedition Buddy. I chose Danielle :)

After that, I entered the hall and was instantly overwhelmed with how awesome everything looked. The graphics were so colorful and the interactives were extremely unique and fun to play. My favorite was Food is Fuel. The goal of the game is to try and pick out a balanced meal for your buddy so they can make it to the top of Mt. Evans. The first time I tried, I chose too many proteins. Poor Danielle tumbled right down the mountain!

Another really cool exhibit was the Full Body Viewer. It let you see straight through your skin to what your bones, muscles, and nerves look like. It even mimicked the movements I made. When I waved, my skeleton waved right back at me. So cool.

The Summit Science Stage was also up and running with a heart dissection. I get a little queasy when it comes to blood and guts, but I didn't have to get too close because the details of the dissection were projected up on a large screen. Other people just dove right in, getting right up next to the staff member conducting the dissection, and asking tons of really great questions.

A few staff members brought their kids, and they were instantly hooked on Tykes Peak. The giant pin-screen was especially popular. One mom made an impression of her face, and her little 2 1/2 year old son took one look at it from the other side and said "I smash!" That game probably went on for a good 10 minutes. He also couldn't get enough of the slide and the pair of binoculars he packed in his expedition backpack.

Overall the exhibit experience was excellent. Once I made it through, I printed out my Peak Pass Personal Profile. I've got it on the wall in my office now. Next time I'm hoping to get my heart rate down -- I guess I was just excited to see this all finally coming together!