From the archive: Preparing the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft for public display

This capsule, which brought Major Tim Peake safely back to Earth in June 2016 after his six-month mission aboard the International Space Station, was displayed at the museum in January 2017. The conservators recount the spacecraft's journey to London, the preservation challenges it presented, the start of its national tour, and the incredible public enthusiasm it sparked.

Introduction / acquisition

Soyuz TMA-19M is the first flown, manned spacecraft to be owned by the Science Museum. Acquiring it from The Russian Space enterprise Energia was complicated to say the least. As the contracts went back and forth to Russia with amendments and new translations, the conservators started to worry about what condition Soyuz TMA-19M would be in when it arrived, whether it would need any conservation, how much original material might be left on it, and how the re-entry into the atmosphere had affected the surface.

Fortunately, there was the opportunity to go to Russia and inspect the spacecraft first-hand. Sadie Wilson examined the capsule with the Curator Doug Millard and international co- ordinator Sasha Smirnova. They established that the overall structure of the capsule was stable but that the surface had, as would be expected, sustained significant damage from re- entry.

The majority of the surface had been varnished by Energia to preserve as much of the original PTFE-based composite surface as possible, but two vulnerable areas remained with surface loss exposing the base layers beneath. In these areas, edges of the surface material were lifting and distorted, but the surface which was attached appeared secure and stable. Inspection of these areas plus discussions with the Russian engineers concluded that the areas of vulnerability were not actively deteriorating and did not require further intervention at this stage. The museum team decided that focus would be placed on moving and installing the capsule. Once the capsule was installed and acquisition was complete a full condition survey could be undertaken.

From what was learned in Russia we could start planning our display. An existing plinth with barriers was decided on, located in the Wellcome Wing on the ground floor in the museum. This was a good location choice for installation as the plinth was near the loading bay, with few obstacles and all on one level. On the other hand, working with an old plinth was a challenge as the structural capacity was unknown and its size did not allow for a 1 meter distance between the Soyuz and the public. Due to the potential vulnerability of the surface, conservators insisted that this aspect of the design be revised, so an interpretive panel was designed for outside the plinth to extend the clearance to 1m.

The Soyuz capsule was successfully installed over one evening using object handling contractors (Martinspeed) and supervised by Sadie Wilson and Jannicke Langfeldt. The install received a lot of press attention, and both Tim Peake and Helen Sharman came to the opening.

Condition

Once the capsule was installed a thorough examination of the surface condition was undertaken to produce a referenceable condition report. This enabled the team to monitor changes and make decisions on whether treatment was required. This was done by taking detailed photographs of each external side and ‘mapping the damage’ onto the images.

The interior of the capsule was also condition checked. As well as recording the condition, the originality of the instruments and technology of the Soyuz were documented as Energia had replaced elements of the capsule with replicas prior to our acquisition in order to re-use parts. Although the entire capsule will be preserved in the same manner despite these additions, having knowledge of these replica parts in the future will inform future conservation decisions. Removing original parts for re-use or to protect intellectual property is relatively common in Space Technology collections.

Energia did not tell us what varnish they had used on the outside and we therefore removed a small sample of the capsule for chemical analysis to identify the materials present. Fourier Transform Infra Red – Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR) was used to identify the varnish applied to the surface by Energia Engineers. It indicates that some type of acrylic resin, probably poly(butyl methacrylate) (PBMA), was used.

On display

The condition report concluded that the vulnerable areas were generally stable, showing that the surface is relatively flexible. It was felt that the risk of further deterioration was low, so long as handling of the area was kept to a minimum and monitored.

After hearing that the surface had been damaged by overenthusiastic visitors, we set up discussions between design, exhibition managers, curatorial, security and conservation on how to address this. To increase protection and minimise the risk of repeated damage, security altered the alarms and increased invigilation. The design was also adapted to create more distance using additional interpretation panels, and extra ‘do not touch’ signs were added.

Conservation created a shorter version of the condition report focusing on the vulnerable areas to help duty managers immediately identify damage and report it to conservation. This appeared to improve the situation while maintaining our visitors’ experience of the Soyuz.

The experience of the visitor damage taught us that the public were keen to interact with the Soyuz as much as possible and the tactile nature of the surface means that it is a tempting object to touch. The fact that it is not your usual historical museum display, where most of the public would be familiar with the need to not touch, also suggests that extra measures should be considered for protection. It was decided, therefore, that treatment should be carried out on vulnerable areas to stabilise the lifting surface, thus minimising the temptation to touch and break off a small souvenir. This reduces the risk of damage while maintaining public access.

Conservation

The overall aims of conservation treatment were:

• Stabilise lifted surface areas by adhering the lifted surface layer to the underlying structure or consolidating to strengthen the layer itself.
• Minimise the lifted areas to reduce the tactile appearance of the surface while maintaining the damage of the surface which shows its history and re-entry into earth’s atmosphere.
• Establish a simple treatment which could be easily recorded and replicated if needed in different venues and on tour.

We wanted to use only one type of adhesive; it needed to be strong (because the surface was thick), mixable or available in different concentrations for a variety of methods e.g consolidation and straight adhesion, and we wanted it to be similar to the varnish Energia had applied.

As the FTIR-ATR results indicated that the varnish was an acrylic, we decided to use Paraloid B72, a poly methyl methacrylate, similar to the varnish layer already applied. The solvents we used were IMS and acetone. We made solutions ranging in concentration from 10 to 70%. We used a mixture of pipettes, syringes and brushes to get the adhesive in the right places in the right quantities. The varnish had significantly stiffened the surface layer and we used solvents to soften pieces before laying them flat and re-adhering them.

The result is a flatter surface. Damage to the ablative layer from touchdown is still visible, but not so inviting to pick loose pieces off. We did not in-paint or fill the missing areas as these are part of the damage sustained in the Kazak steppes. Being flatter, the surface is also less likely to be damaged during packing and transport during its grand tour.

All the work was done between 8 and 10am, to avoid museum opening hours. In an ideal world, we would have moved the capsule to storage following acquisition to assess the condition and carry out treatments. However, as with many objects acquired into contemporary science collections the timing of a display is mostly dictated by current events to ensure maximum exposure.

Coming to a venue near you

Soyuz was getting a lot of interest from the public and the Museum decided to send it on a national tour. The tour is presented by Samsung and the Science Museum Group. Accompanying Soyuz on the tour is Samsung’s VR Lounge, a ticketed experience offering visitors the ‘Space Descent VR with Tim Peake’, a virtual reality experience of the journey narrated by Tim Peake himself. Samsung also provided a replica ‘selfie spacesuit’, which is proving very popular with visitors of all ages.

As conservators, we felt that Soyuz was well protected in its original location at the Science Museum, but we needed to consider what would happen at the different venues. The initial tour sites are within the Science Museum Group; It started out at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford in September 2017, then went to Locomotion in Shildon, National Railway Museum in York and it was at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry until 13 May 2018.The capsule will now tour to other UK venues: National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Peterborough Cathedral, National Museum of Wales in Cardiff and Ulster Museum in Belfast. Peterborough Cathedral was chosen as a venue after a national competition, and it is the first time that we know of where a spacecraft has been on display in a cathedral.

While we welcomed the increased exposure of the Soyuz to the public we also worried about the security of the surface and ensuring that so many different venues would all comply with our display requirements. So for the tour we worked with our internal design team and came up with a flexible, modular barrier design that will tour with the capsule.

Let's add a little parachute…and maybe a spacesuit

The majority of the conservation efforts focused on the capsule itself, but it came with the descent parachute. This parachute is made from a Russian version of nylon, in orange and white, with light brown straps, it is twenty-five meters in diameter, seventeen meters long when not deployed, and the straps that attaches to the parachute are so long we have had to daisy-chain them together.

It is huge and at the Science Museum we could suspend it above the capsule because we had the space. We have had to be creative in the other venues and at each one we have had to adapt our approach, and no two venues look the same. We have made an effort at the venues to reduce the light levels as far as possible using blackout curtains and films. It is not possible to reduce the light to suitable levels in the display locations at the National Museums of Scotland and Wales, and so the parachute will not be included in the exhibition at those venues. This highlights one of the challenges of touring these exceptional objects; owing to the capsule’s size and weight, it is sometimes being displayed in spaces not normally used for sensitive objects and so not designed to comply with environmental requirements.

In February 2018 the Science Museum purchased Tim Peake’s space suit, and we wanted to add this to our touring display. The suit was padded out inside with Plastazote® and an external mount fabricated by Science Museum Gallery Services. Sokol suits cannot be easily mounted on traditional mannequins because they open at the chest and the boots are attached to the suit.

The suit joined the tour in Manchester and is displayed in a case which fits into our flexible barrier system and can be easily transported between venues. We are currently investigating options for protective film to cover the outside of the case, to reduce the light affecting the spacesuit to an acceptable level. This approach will allow Sokol to be displayed at all future venues.

Conclusion

The Soyuz TMA-19M is now well underway on its national tour. We are confident it will be safe, we have a plinth design with a barrier that we are all happy with, and that we can re- use.

The project highlighted issues of open display, a topic we regularly return to at the Science Museum, as many of our objects are too large to comfortably fit into a showcase. It got conservation thinking about visitor interaction and the necessity to consider the level of popularity when making display recommendations.

The decision to send the Soyuz on tour added new challenges, and gave us the opportunity to work collaboratively across departments to develop a new design for a barrier which is made in sections; this ensures a 1.5m distance that is versatile and can accommodate the layouts of different venues.

The Soyuz tour has really fired the public’s imagination and visitor numbers so far have been astonishing: Since the tour started at the National Science and Media Museum to 25 March, over 316,000 people have seen the Soyuz.

Finally we would like to thank staff at the Research, Development and Production Enterprise ‘Zvezda’ and the S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation ‘Energia’, Doug Millard and Sasha Smirnova and the touring and conservation departments and all other staff involved across the Science Museum Group. It has been a fascinating object to work on, and we hope you have an opportunity to go and see it at a venue near you.