Dominique Cetale's Blog Desma 9: Extra Credit Event #2: Air and Space Museum

The last museum I attended was the San Diego Air and Space museum. I had never been to this museum, and I have lived in San Diego my whole life. I really enjoyed learning about naval aviation, Sputnik, Atlas, and how rockets are built. I felt that this does pertain to our Desma course because artists undoubtedly look to space for inspiration. In addition, the technology of all of these definitely influence art.

While at this museum, I learned even more information about the Space Race and the ways that Sputnik affected the world. It stated that Sputnik started the space age, and the U.S. and U.S.S.R rivalry. I also learned about the ATLAS, and its facilities. The ATLAS stands for the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System, and it is the world’s first superconducting linear accelerator for heavy ions at energy in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. Its is the primary facility for nuclear structure research. It is known to be the forefront of nuclear research. By studying these neutron rich species, this is definitely a frontier in nuclear physics research which could change the way that we see nuclear energy. Any new finding could affect the technology of today, which would simultaneously affect art. When technology is being worked on and improved, art is affected well.

Another part of the museum that I was really interested in was how rockers are built. In a picture I have inserted below, it shows a rocket engine and what is needed. There has to be a turbine, an oxygen pump, combustion chamber, and a nozzle. All of these components help to fuel the rocket engine in order to get into space. The pump is the first step in this process which lifts up the pressure of the propellants. Next, because there are burning propellants, the fuel is pumped through a combustion chamber. Then the pressurized fuel is passed to the turbine, which operates the pump. Immediately affter a high pressure gas is ignited, and it goes through the nozzle. Lastly, the gas accelerates through the nozzle and there is an action reaction. The rocket is then ready to go. This is of vital importance because humans have always been fascinated with space and what is up there, and this technology shows everyone just how getting into space is possible. This set of technology can be described as art, because everything has to mechanically work, and it is truly art when everything is working together in order to propel the rocket into space. With this technology that is becoming even more advanced, the possibility of building a space elevator is highly increased. As we talked about in the space lecture, an elevator from earth to space is becoming a reality largely in part because of various fields working hard on new technology. With the new research on nano technology, really anything can be possible.