Starship Museum
For many years I have been thinking about the concept of a new and innovative type of museum exhibition, which also doubles as a research/conference centre for scientists. This is on the basis of my belief that building an interstellar movement would be aided by one or many central organising authorities so as to professionalise the community.
A comparison business model would be the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, but with a public museum added on. The museum would be located in the UK and this would provide one of the main sources of revenue to fund the research. The research would also lead to small grants for independent researchers or work by undergraduate/postgraduate researchers.
Over the years I have collected vast amounts of unique artwork and documents related to the exploration of deep space. This includes art work by John Berkey, David Hardy, Rick Steinbach to name a few. I own the original engineering drawings and paintings as shown in episode 8 of the television series Cosmos narrated by Carl Sagan.
I also own many original letters and documents from famous physicists that have worked on the problem of interstellar flight including from Carl Sagan, Robert Bussard, Robert Forward, Arthur C Clarke, Freeman Dyson and others.
I own a massive collection of space history documents associated with many famous space missions. This particularly pertains to the Voyager missions when they conducted their grand tour of the solar system. But also for many other types of deep space missions. This includes original power point presentations, media briefing packages, reports, papers and models.
This is an ongoing project and I am currently at the concept design phase and constructing a business plan. No efforts have yet been made to raise the initial seed capital to begin the project which I anticipate will be several million pounds depending on the scale of concept adopted. Although a very basic skeleton version can be started on a much lower sum.
There are several potential models to bring this project to fruition where it is operational:
0. Minimum concept using existing building, seed capital required: £500,000.
1. Basic concept using existing building, seed capital required: £1 - £1.5 million.
2. Medium concept using existing but larger building, seed capital required: £1.5 - £3 million.
3. Advanced concept bespoke minor construction, seed capital required: £3 - £4 million.
4. Advanced concept bespoke major construction, seed capital required: £4 - £6 million.
5. Advanced concept bespoke full vision construction, seed capital required : £6 - £8 million.
If you are interested in getting involved to help make this vision a reality then please get in touch. The images below illustrates just one possible concept for a fully fledged model that would host a museum but also scientists for conferences, workshops and seminars.
Architectural concept illustration of a potential starship museum open for public visits and featuring a gorgeous space related sculpture garden. The building would also have offices for visiting scientists to conduct fundamental research and host meetings. It would also have a large conference room with a capacity exceeding 100 people where events would be held. The museum would also undertaken educational activities for public and for school visits. It would also feature a small observatory.
