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Among the Intellectualoids

(Page 2 of 2)

Part of that diversity is NASA. ("Houston, we have a problem.") But it has its own exhibit, marked by miniature rockets, and replica telescopes, located right under the Washington Monument.

In the past, Folklife has stretched the bounds of culture to feature such noble occupations as lawyer, White House worker, and -- wait for it -- Smithsonian employee, as a way to emphasize the importance of such governmental work, and -- a cynic might add -- to help secure more funding.

AS GOVERNMENT agencies go, this one's not a bad choice. A NASA exhibit has a bit more pizzazz than, say, a Department of Energy display. And just try to imagine a movie starring Tom Hanks that promotes the Department of Agriculture.

Take astronaut Joe Edwards, for example. He recounted his experiences in space flight to an audience of mostly children, who lined the front rows.

Edwards said that his sister asked him if he felt any closer to God when he was up in Outer Space. Given that he was moving at 25 times the speed of sound, he explained, and with a swimming pool's worth of hydrogen and oxygen pumping through the rocket per second, and strapped inside a 275-pound space suit, he had told her "it would be good to get intimately familiar with the Almighty before I headed into space."

NASA's particular angle in all this was to get America back to the moon and beyond. Jessica Wood, who works at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, told TAS the "purpose for another moon visit is to gain experience for living in an extraterrestrial environment before we go to Mars."

If they succeed, perhaps 30 years from now we can expect the Mall exhibits to include, say, Alaska, the United States Postal Service, and a Buddhist Martian delegation -- with the highest Gross Planetary Happiness rating in this solar system.

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Religion, Environment, Law, Africa, Energy, Alaska