Aerospace and Our Changing Environment: Presented in the Allan and Shelley Holt Innovations Gallery

Aerospace innovations contribute to understanding, monitoring, and mitigating climate change.

The new Aerospace and Our Changing Environment exhibition focuses on how aerospace innovations help us understand climate change while providing new technologies to respond to the challenge. Aerospace and Our Changing Environment aims to explore both the science of climate change and the efforts of individual and collective actions within aerospace industries to mitigate it. This exhibition covers:

How data is collected, monitored, and analyzed using satellites and aircraft to understand Earth's environmental changes.
How aerospace innovations are aiding in the ways we produce energy and food.
How aviation industry innovators have responded to changes in our environment.

The exhibition will be presented in the Allan and Shelley Holt Innovations Gallery. This dynamic space will feature exhibitions that rotate every 18-24 months and explore the different ways aerospace innovations are a central feature of contemporary life and are transforming our future.

Learn about all the ways we're transforming the Museum.

About Our Donors

Location in Museum

National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC

Gallery 105

A drawing of the floor plan of the national air and space museum's national mall building. The top of the map has a label for the national mall and the bottom of the map has a label for independence avenue. The map is gray with a yellow square in the bottom lefthand corner, denoting the location of gallery 105.

Plan Your Visit

What Visitors Will See

Aerospace and Our Changing Environment covers three main areas: earth observation, energy & agriculture, and transforming transportation.

Weather vs. Climate

Weather refers to the environmental conditions at any given moment. Climate describes weather patterns over decades or centuries. Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns.

Since its formation, Earth’s climate has been changing. Those shifts can be natural, like changes in the Sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800's, human activities that rely on fossil fuels have caused changes to our climate.

Earth Observation

Aerospace innovations help us study the climate.

Satellites, airplanes, and drones help us observe and gather data about our planet. Scientists analyze this information to better understand Earth’s climate. These findings show us what the climate was like in the past, how it’s changing now, and what the future might hold.

Oblong hexagonal satellite body with solar panel mounted on boom, perpendicular to satellite.

NASA launched TIROS-Next Generation (TIROS-N) in 1978. It was the first satellite to measure the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere. Data from it and later satellites show that temperatures have risen over time.

A boxy object with a mostly silver metallic surface that also features from gold.

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) carry sounders like this one. They read temperature and pressure in the atmosphere and on Earth’s surface. This type of sounder flew onboard GOES N, O, and P.

A large rectangular device with golden foil.

This is an Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) flight spare. A similar instrument flew on Landsat 7 between 1999 and 2017. The instrument collected high-resolution images of land, water, ice, and plant cover.

Energy and Agriculture

Innovations are generating greener electricity and changing how we grow our food.

Today, innovators are working to lower the emissions caused by how we produce energy and food. They’re using lessons learned from aerospace to find better ways to capture and use solar and wind energy, grow more food on less land, and reduce the use of greenhouse gas-emitting resources, such as fertilizers and pesticides.

A rectangular panel with two smaller rectangular panels attached to it that are dark in color and made up of smaller rectangular cells. Two alligator clips are attached to each dark panel with wires.

In 1960, NASA used this panel to test the concept for the solar cells that later powered the Mariner spacecraft. Compared with other space-based power sources, solar panels are lightweight. They can also produce power for years. The solar cells on this Mariner test panel still work after 60 years.

A small black and white drone-like craft suspended from the ceiling. It has the

Swiss company TwingTec harnesses wind power at higher altitudes with stronger winds. Its Twings (short for tethered wings) generate power in flight. This Twing prototype tested flight systems.

A small drone with a rotor at the top that is white and red in color and suspended from the ceiling.

Built in the 1990s, the RMax was one of the first agricultural drones. It can fly low to get close to crops for spraying, allowing farmers to reduce the amount of pesticides they apply. Drones can also access areas where tractors can’t go. This can result in more efficient land use.

Transforming Transportation

Innovations are changing how we transport people and goods.

Globally, transportation makes up 15 percent of climate emissions, with a portion of that from aviation. We can reduce our climate impact by finding more efficient ways to move people and goods. Innovations in aviation can help.

A white aircraft with streaks on blue on it suspended from the ceiling. It has the word Velis written on it in blue text.

The Velis is the first electric plane to be certified for normal operation. Its batteries provide up to one hour of flight time. That makes it suited for training and short sightseeing flights. In the nose of the Electro sits an electric motor, powered by two battery packs. The electric motor provides clean, quiet power.

A engine fan, with a cylindrical body and a black fan on the right side. It has a slightly curved futuristic shape.

This open fan engine design can make flight more efficient. It can cut fuel use by 20 percent. It’s being developed as part of a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran. In the future, more efficient open fan turbines like the CFM could replace existing engines on a range of aircraft.

A model of an aircraft with wings that are blended into its body, making it more aerodynamic.

Blended Wing Body aircraft are one of the most promising pathways to more efficient flight. They are also well adapted to alternate fuel sources, like liquid hydrogen.

A rendering of a museum gallery with a small aircraft suspended from the ceiling visible in the foreground and a weather balloon in the background, with interpretive panels throughout the space.

Gallery Preview

Read Article

Explore More About Climate and Aerospace

A photograph of Kelly with a view of the Earth in the background.

Dive Deeper

An image of Hurricane Florence taken from a GOES satellite on September 14, 2018.

Blog

Photo of the Earth rising in the sky with the Moon in the foreground

Dive Deeper

Dive Deeper

The Museum gratefully acknowledges those who have generously supported this gallery.

The Aerospace and Our Changing Environment exhibition is generously supported by:

Amentum

GE Aerospace
Linde

Founding support for the Allan and Shelley Holt Innovations Gallery is generously provided by:

The Hillside Foundation – Allan and Shelley Holt

Visit

One museum, two locations

What's On

At the museum and online

Explore

Dive deep into air and space

Learn

For teachers and parents

Give

Be the spark

Aerospace and Our Changing Environment

Location in Museum