Design Museum
Moving to Mars
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/nobody-knows-whats-creating-oxygen-on-mars/ar-BBWKq25?ocid=spartanntp
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/this-18-billion-pixel-panorama-of-mars-is-out-of-this-world
An exhibition of the planet Mars, about life there and whether it would be feasible to go and live there.
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An exhibition of the planet Mars, about life there and whether it would be feasible to go and live there.
The Design Museum was out 1st port of call on the Wednesday 6th of November. We had come here to see the Moving to Mars Exhibition. The museum based in Kensington is a very modern and light building , with friendly welcoming staff. As it was around 10am when we got there the museum wasn't busy, and we were able to go straight to the Mars exhibition. I wasn't sure what we were going to see, but there was plenty to see and videos to watch, including Mars Ranger vehicles satellites, old book with drawings of Mars dating from the 16thC, posters and so much more. At the end of the exhibition there is a board where you can place a magnet to show whether you would want to move to Mars, my answer to that is definitely a no.!
After leaving this exhibition we had time to wander around the rest of the museum, I found the exhibition on new ways to cut down plastic waste on aircraft very interesting and then moved onto one of the main area with a large board with lots of design items including sign for the Underground. All these items have been designed at some in the point and have been good enough to go into manufacture. I then moved onto the 3rd floor where I spent some time looking at the 3D printer which was working, but the lady with it was unable to tell me what it was making . On some shelves behind there were plenty of examples of what the machine had produced.
The museum was much more modern than I expected . Generally you expect these place to be housed in older buildings
The entrance was light had airy with stairs straight ahead leading to the upper floors and a café area on the right hand side
Once we had collected our tickets to enter the exhibition, everyone spread out to take a look. There was an incredible amount of gear to look at including small lunar rovers which were powered by solar power . Books going back to the 16c with drawings which were difficult to photograph as the lights shinning were reflected though the glass. The exhibition was much larger than I expected with videos to watch and explanation of what life would be like there. personally as much as I love travel this is one place I really wouldn't want to live. It would be a very tricky existence and though in years to come maybe people will move there , but I don't know whether people are ready for it just yet and I feel there are enough problems with this planet without worrying about another.
The selection of posters shows that Mars has always figured in the public's imagination and even David Bowie sung Is there life on Mars
There were various Space Suits, some from Russia others from NASA some showing underclothes with heated elements in them to keep you warm . What ever nation they are from , wherever they are all built you couldn't go outside with out them death would be very quick from cold and lack of oxygen. The other problem with Mars is the lack of water, although there looks like there might have been at one time and possibly still some there , but would it be potable , pretty unlikely
There was also futuristic designed furniture which you could try . I didn't as I wasn't sure whether I would get out of it again.
I enjoyed the videos that were shown and because I feel they had so much in the exhibition it was almost difficult to take it all in at the one visit and a 2nd visit you would probably notice things you hadn't seen before .
I feel our group loved the exhibition, there was plenty to keep you interested there were few other people there at that early time so difficult to gauge reaction .
The museum has plenty of places to roam and items are set out well and clearly marked . I felt maybe I should have spent more time with the exhibition but I did want to get a feel for the other exhibits in the museum.
The lighting was good with large glass front doors and windows and quite subtle in places as he stairs leading to the 1st floor where it shone down and gave the handrails a glow.
Rowan Moore from the Guardian Newspaper called it a very thought provoking exhibition and intelligent I would say this was definitely a thumbs up The comments on his article were all from people who hadn't visited the exhibition and wouldn't want to go there to live.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/20/moving-to-mars-design-museum-london-review
The article in the Daily Mail also gave a favourable review as such in the above article. No comments other than you would die quickly if a window got broken. !
What the Press said
'As this fascinating show makes clear, colonising the Red Planet will require technical genius – plus an eye for fashion and coffee you can drink upside-down'
★ ★ ★ ★ The Guardian
'Immersive at every turn' Evening Standard
★ ★ ★ ★ Londonist
'This show will help you become a real Martian' New Scientist
'An intelligent and thoughtful exhibition. Its most compelling sensation, though, is one of wonder' The Observer
'A thrilling leap into the future' Financial Times
'A thought-provoking look at man's fascination with Mars' Metro
So we can see from the comments below that the press thought this was a good exhibition to visit.
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/moving-to-mars
Step into a full-scale Mars home, immerse yourself in the untouched beauty of the landscape and learn how rethinking daily life for a zero-waste, clean energy-powered civilisation might help future generations on Earth.
Children born today are the first who might witness a human mission to Mars in their lifetime. It’s one of humanity's great challenges and everything will need to be designed – but should we even be going?
The exhibition features immersive environments, about 200 objects including contributions from NASA, the European Space Agency and SpaceX; NASA's 3D-Printed Mars Habitat Challenge winners, AI Space Factory; robotic builders by Foster & Partners; the first sustainable urban design for Mars, Mars City Design; the first spacesuit designed for the Mars surface; Christopher Raeburn's new fashion collection inspired by the red planet and much more.
Age guidance 8+
You hit the link here to pull the video up, but when I tried to add to this site I was told nothing matched my search !
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/moving-to-mars/your-mission-starts-here
The above is a short video by Tim Peake British Astronaut describing what a trip to Mars and asking people to design eating spaces for the crew as it takes 7 months to get there.
I thought this was a very good exhibition , very informative plenty to look at, much more than I would have expected .
After visiting this part of the museum we were at liberty to tour around the rest of the building. I went up to the 1st floor where there was an exhibition based on how they are trying to remove the amount of plastic used with in the aviation industry, for foods and water bottles and make it more eco friendly .
There were good ideas here with lids for food which were made to be eaten, plastic trays with areas cut out to place dishes which could then be reused. noted that on my trip at Christmas time, we were only metal cutlery instead off plastic which was certainly improvement , but noticed none of these new refinements which I saw at the DM.
I then wandered around to the other side of the museum where they had a couple of walls covered with cameras from older to new ones .
I spotted a camera like I had used years, There was also a wall covered with what you ight say are everyday items , but they had to start life somewhere with a design on an artists board.
I then went upstairs again to see what was on this floor, here I found a 3D printer a large one which was working . I aske a lady beside it what it was printing and she wasn't able to tell me , which seemed rather silly as you would think people would ask .She pointed to a shelf on the other side of the machine where there were articles which had been printed by the machine..
This seems the way to go with some articles, as there are people printing prosthetics for youngsters who have not got limbs either born without or had accidents or similar and let them choose colours that they would like.
I know we were on a short time scale as we had more places to visit but this was a really worthwhile visit and worthy of a 2nd visit.
