• Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos' moon rocket engines preserved in Kansas

    Robert Z. Pearlman / collectSpace.com

    An Apollo Saturn V F-1 engine thrust chamber, recovered by Bezos Expeditions, at the Kansas Cosmosphere's SpaceWorks conservation facility. The engine's nozzle would extend from the top as positioned in the wooden basin.

    By Robert Z. Pearlman
    Space.com

    Although they stood up to the immense thrust needed to launch the mighty Saturn V rocket toward the moon, it turns out that the mammoth F-1 engines that powered the booster's first two-and-a-half minutes of flight were no match for the Atlantic Ocean.

    The twisted and tattered remains of at least two engines, salvaged from the seafloor by an expedition organized and funded by Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, are set to go on public view in Kansas on Friday as conservators work to preserve them for generations of museum-goers to come.

    "I personally didn't think the impact with the surface of the ocean would rip the engines apart like it did," Jim Remar, president of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, told collectSpace.com during a preview of the F-1 engines' observation gallery on Monday. "Given that these are comprised of some of the strongest superalloys known to man, I thought to some degree that the engines would have remained virtually intact."

    "Obviously, that wasn't the case," Remar said.

    It isn't known how fast the engines — still attached to the rocket's first stage — were falling when they impacted the ocean more than 40 years ago. Having finished their job, accelerating the Saturn V to more than 6,000 miles per hour (9,600 kilometers per hour) and pushing the rocket to more than 40 miles high (64 kilometers), they were allowed to drop back to Earth for a violent splashdown.

    "It was almost like the ocean ripped these things apart like an aluminum can," said Remar. [Gallery: First Look at Amazon CEO’s Moon Engines]

    Robert Z. Pearlman / collectSpace.com

    A Kansas Cosmosphere SpaceWorks technician cleans up a small part of an F-1 engine recovered from the ocean floor by Bezos Expeditions. Reflected in the window is a size comparison between a complete F-1 engine and a human, one of the several informational displays included in the observation gallery.

    Space-age sculpture garden
    Found strewn across the seafloor by Bezos Expeditions in 2012 and raised to the surface earlier this year, the 25,000 pounds (11,340 kilograms) of historic engine parts arrived at the Cosmosphere's SpaceWorks conservation facility in March to be stabilized, preserved and documented.

    Looking somewhat like a space-age sculpture garden, the F-1 engine parts are "planted" in two large wooden basins where they are constantly being bathed in freshwater and intermittently sprayed with a corrosion inhibitor. Over the next couple of months, the larger parts will be moved into tanks to be immersed in corrosion-halting chemicals, while the finer parts are hand cleaned by conservators.

    "Once we have stabilization, what we'll do is a process of systematic disassembly, assuming that the disassembly doesn't damage the artifact," Remar described. "If we feel at any point that taking the artifact apart is going to harm its integrity, then we won't take it apart."

    After being carefully cleaned and doused in a lacquer-like protective sealant, the parts will be reassembled into the same pieces they were in when salvaged from the ocean floor. They will not be rebuilt into intact engine displays.

    "What we're going to do here is preserve the artifact and allow the entire life of the artifact to tell the story," Remar explained. "Equally important to the history of the artifact is the fact that it was used to boost the Saturn V, but then it also has as part of its story the impact with the surface of the ocean as well as the time it spent at the bottom of the ocean."

    "Our objective is to remove all the corrosive process, halt it and then preserve it for generations to come," he said.

    Awesome, impressive and robust
    The Cosmosphere's glassed-in observation gallery offers a close-up view of the conservators at work, set against the backdrop of the basins filled with the larger engine parts. A total of 13 major components were raised and are now undergoing conservation.

    "If you think of an engine as having four components — the turbo pump, the heat exchanger, the thrust structure and the LOX (liquid oxygen) dome — we have two prime pieces of each of those," said Remar. "We actually have five thrust structures, three LOX domes, two turbo pumps and two heat exchangers, and then we have one nozzle." [Apollo 11 Moon Rocket's F-1 Engines Explained (Infographic)]

    Despite the significant dents and torn edges, most of the parts are recognizable, if you are familiar with the build of the F-1 engine. Most, that is, except the nozzle, or engine bell, which is a spaghetti-like mound of tubes and strips.

    "The state that (the F-1 parts are) in is sort of sad," former space shuttle astronaut Steven Hawley, who serves as an adviser to the Cosmosphere, told collectSpace as he got his first look at the engines on Monday. "(But) I think the fact that there are big pieces left shows how robust (the F-1) really was."

    "The fact that parts like the injector plate are in such good shape shows you how well it was constructed," he added.

    Eventually, the preserved F-1 engine parts will be moved to other museums for display, but the process to conserve them will take about two years.

    "Sometime in late spring or early fall 2015 is when, at this point, we anticipate having the process completed," said Remar.

    In the meantime, visitors to the Cosmosphere are invited to see the engines being conserved.

    "It is awesome to stand here in the presence of this (F-1 engine) hardware with the knowledge that it was what put people on the moon. That is really impressive," remarked Hawley. "The fact that it could be recovered after 40 some years is also pretty impressive."

    Click through to collectSpace.com to take a first look at the F-1 engines being conserved at the Kansas Cosmosphere's SpaceWorks Observation Gallery.

    Follow collectSpace.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSpace. Copyright 2013 collectSpace.com. All rights reserved.

    Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Houston's mock shuttle to go atop historic NASA 747 carrier

    Space Center Houston

    An artist's concept of the new "The Shuttle and 747 Carrier" exhibit to open at Space Center Houston in 2015.

    By Robert Z. Pearlman
    Space.com

    HOUSTON — They say that everything is bigger in Texas, and that certainly goes for Space Center Houston's newly announced space shuttle exhibit.

    Space Center Houston, which serves as the official visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center, revealed plans on Thursday to display its full-size space shuttle mockup atop the historic jumbo jetliner that ferried the real orbiters after their return from space and delivered them to their museum homes.

    NASA transferred ownership of its original Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747 jet, to Space Center Houston on Thursday, setting in motion the visitor center's plans to pair the replica shuttle it received last June with the airplane that landed in Houston five months later. [How NASA Flew Space Shuttles on 747 Jets (Photos)]

    "This is an exciting day for Texans, as we accept the SCA from NASA and assume the awesome responsibility for its modifications, showcasing its legacy and adding a one-of-a-kind experience to our complex," said Richard Allen, president and chief executive officer of Space Center Houston. "We look forward to accepting the challenge of raising funds for this amazing endeavor as we prepare for the next phase of this major expansion."

    The new $12 million outdoor complex, named "The Shuttle and 747 Carrier," is to open to the public in February 2015.

    Space Center Houston

    Space Center Houston's full-size space shuttle mockup went on display outside the NASA Johnson Space Center visitor center in 2012. In 2015, it will be displayed atop NASA's historic Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

    "The Shuttle and 747 Carrier will give visitors the world's first and only all-access pass to an authentic and realistic journey through the inside of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft as well as an unforgettable experience aboard the full-scale shuttle model," Space Center Houston stated in a release. "The up close and personal access to American aviation history will reveal the shuttle program's amazing ingenuity, clever innovation and awe-inspiring complexity."

    An artist's rendering of the planned exhibit shows the 747 jumbo jet, known by its tail number "NASA 905," parked outside Space Center Houston where the space shuttle mockup sits today. A gantrylike structure sits next to the air- and spacecraft combo that will provide visitors the opportunity to climb inside both vehicles.

    The carrier aircraft is currently at Ellington Field, home to Johnson Space Center's aircraft operations, located about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Space Center Houston. To get the aircraft to the visitor center, its wings and tail will be removed, and its fuselage will be sectioned in three.

    The jumbo jet is expected to be in place at Space Center Houston by this November. The work to hoist the 130,000-pound (60,000-kilogram) shuttle mockup atop the airplane will follow during the first quarter of 2014.

    Before the model orbiter leaves the ground however, it will need to undergo some repairs and modifications, including the installation of attachment hardware to mount it on the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Space Center Houston also plans to upgrade the interior of the mockup, including replacing its early-shuttle analog flight deck displays and controls with the "glass cockpit" digital version that was in use later in the program.

    The shuttle mockup arrived in Houston by barge from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, where it debuted in 1993. Known then by the name "Explorer," it was designed and built by aerospace replica manufacturer Guard-Lee Inc. using schematics, blueprints and archival documents provided by NASA and the shuttle contractors.

    NASA 905 was one of two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft in the space agency's fleet. The final ferry flight for the shuttle program delivered the retired Endeavour orbiter to Los Angeles for the California Science Center last year. The jumbo jet's final overall flight was in December, when it was flown for an hour-and-a-half proficiency flight from Ellington.

    In service to the shuttle program for 35 years, NASA 905 flew 70 out of the 87 ferry flights during the space shuttle program's operational phase, including 46 of the 54 post-mission flights from the Dryden Flight Research Center in California to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Converted from an American Airlines passenger jet, 905 was NASA's first SCA and it flew the 1977 approach and landing tests with the prototype orbiter Enterprise.

    Space Center Houston plans The Shuttle and 747 Carrier exhibit to be more than a public attraction, but also serve as the centerpiece for new educational programs to inspire students to consider careers in math and science fields.

    Click through to collectSpace.com for more renderings of Space Center Houston's new The Shuttle and 747 Carrier exhibit and to keep updated on the status of the display.

    Follow collectSpace.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSpace. Copyright 2013 collectSpace.com. All rights reserved.

    Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Exhibit shows how whales' ancestors left land behind

    Brandon Cole

    The male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest living toothed predator on Earth. Its submarine-like shape is perfectly adapted for deep diving — it can swim down to at least 6,500 feet to feed.

    Chris Bangs / AP file

    A sperm whale calf swims next to its mother and a pod of sperm whales. The male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest living toothed predator on Earth. Its submarine-like shape is perfectly adapted for deep diving — it can swim down to at least 6,500 feet to feed..

    By Wynne Parry
    LiveScience

    NEW YORK — By moving into the water full-time, the ancestors of whales paved the way for their descendants to become behemoths, largely free from gravity's constraints. Today, the blue whale is the largest animal ever to live.

    But even before the move, this lineage was setting size records. One ancient cousin to modern whales and hippos, called Andrewsarchus mongoliensis, ranks as the largest mammal known to have stalked the land as a predator. A skull from this creature — the only fossil found so far from this beast — greets visitors on their way into a new exhibit on whales here at the American Museum of Natural History.

    "It's odd to have a big predator in this hoofed plant-eating mammal group," said John Flynn, co-curator of the exhibit, referring to the group to which whales and the now-extinct Andrewsarchus belonged. "But if you think about it, some of the other relatives like pigs and peccaries are pretty ferocious and will eat just about anything."

    In an artist's rendering, the 45-million-year-old Andrewsarchus has a profile not unlike a giant feral pig with a more streamlined snout. This 6-foot-tall (1.8 meters) creature lived solely on land, but its relatives began taking to the water and eventually left land completely. [Whale Gallery: Giants of the Deep]

    The "first whale," a creature whose lifestyle (living on land but eating fish from the nearby sea) represented the early stage of this transition into the water, was a wolf-size fish eater that lived about 50 million years ago on the edges of the ancient Tethys Sea, according to the exhibit. Whereas this creature had a body clearly adapted for land, its relatives began acquiring features better suited to life in the water, such as webbed feet and a more streamlined, hairless shape.

    The basilosaurids, which lived about 34 million to 40 million years ago, had a more familiar shape than their ancestors. Basilosaurids had nostrils situated toward the top of their heads, an ear structure that suggested they could hear well underwater, and forelimbs that took the shape of paddlelike flippers.

    Their hips and legs were on the way out. A basilosaurid on display, Dorudon atrox, displays a tiny pelvis and legs detached from its spinal column.  [Top 10 Useless Limbs]

    These leftovers from land are still visible in some modern whales. For instance, the skeleton of a pygmy right whale hanging from the ceiling displayed two tiny bones, the remnant of the pelvis, Flynn pointed out. 

    "Imagine your hip bones just started to float off your body — that is what that is," he said.

    Nowadays, there are two varieties of whale. These are the baleen whales, such as the blue whale, which use plates of baleen, made from fingernail-like material, to filter food from the water, and toothed whales, such as dolphins, killer whales and narwhals, which kept their teeth. (In the case of narwhals, one tooth becomes a modified tusk.)

    Around 30 million years ago, these lineages split and evolved into the more than 80 species living today.

    The exhibit also explores whale biology, and includes a life-size replica of a blue whale heart. Whales' relationships with humans are also a focus. The exhibit addresses the whaling industry, modern dangers, such as ship collisions, as well as coastal peoples' interactions with them.

    Formally known as "Whales: Giants of the Deep," this exhibition traveled to New York from New Zealand, where it was developed by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. (It was modified by the American Museum of Natural History.) In traditional Maori culture, whales were the source of important resources, such as oil, protein, bones and teeth, and the inspiration for stories of whale riders, ancestors transported to New Zealand atop a whale.

    A preview of the exhibit opened with a Maori blessing intended to invoke the gods, the spirits of ancestors and spirits of the whales on display.

    The exhibitis on display until Jan. 5, 2014.

    Follow us @livescience, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

    Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • It's all systems go for space shuttle Atlantis exhibit

    collectSpace.com / Robert Z. Pearlman

    Since entering its six-story exhibit building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida in November 2012, space shuttle Atlantis has been raised off the ground, shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of plastic and tilted 43 degrees, the latter designed to give guests a view of what the shuttle looked like to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

    By Robert Z. Pearlman
    Space.com

    With just about four months remaining before its public debut, the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is taking shape — both inside and out.

    The $100 million exhibit is scheduled to open June 29 and will bring the public nose-to-nose — and nose-to-wing and nose-to-tail — with NASA's space shuttle Atlantis, the last orbiter to fly in space before the fleet was retired in 2011. Since entering the six-story building in November 2012, Atlantis has been raised off the ground, shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of plastic and tilted 43 degrees, the latter designed to give guests a view of what the shuttle looked like to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

    collectSpace.com / Robert Z. Pearlman

    The steel skeleton for the solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit's entranceway begins to rise off the ground at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

    With Atlantis shielded from dirt and dust, work is under way to finish walkways and theaters that will lead visitors through the history of the space shuttle program as they tour around Atlantis and more than 60 related exhibits. Come May, when the shuttle is unwrapped, its payload bay doors will be carefully opened, a replica of its Canadarm robotic arm will be extended and a full-scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope will be installed to span two floors.

    Meanwhile, outside the facility, the finishing touches are being put on the building's glimmering orange facade that was designed to evoke the space shuttle's re-entry into the atmosphere. Nearby, the steel skeleton of what will be two towering 185-foot-tall (56 meters) replica solid rocket boosters have begun to rise off the ground. Visitors will walk between the two rockets — and underneath a massive external fuel tank suspended from them — to enter the exhibit.

    CollectSpace.com, a Space.com partner site, recently had the chance to tour the construction site, where even in its still-under-wraps condition, the space shuttle Atlantis is already impressive sight.

    Click through to collectSpace.com for a full gallery of the shrink-wrapped space shuttle Atlantis and its exhibit’s boosters beginning to rise off the ground.

    Follow collectSpace on Facebook and Twitter @collectSpace and editor Robert Pearlman @robertpearlman. Copyright 2012 collectSpace.com. All rights reserved.

    Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.