Things on my desk: Part 2

[nanila]

In the continuing saga of things on (or in) my desk, pin badges from various NASA missions, 1999-2004.

Back row, large badges:
Cassini-Huygens Earth flyby: August 19, 1999
Cassini Jupiter flyby: December 30, 2000
Voyager 1 & 2 25th anniversary (2002)
Mars Exploration Rover Project (2003)

Front row, small badges:
Spitzer telescope
SIRTF (became Spitzer)
Deep Space Network 40th anniversary
Jason-1 (Earth observation mission)
Cassini MAG
Genesis (solar wind sample return mission)
Heroes of Columbia (...yeah, I was working at NASA in 2003. That...was not a good day)
Mars Odyssey 10,000 orbits
Mars Exploration Rovers 2003
Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit & Opportunity

I've never worked out a way to display these, so they live in plastic bags in a drawer. I quite like having them, though.

Comments

[sorrillia]

Neat! My dad used to give me all the mission patch decals and pins he got---he works at Goddard---but at some point he stopped doing so. The ones I have probably live in a tin somewhere in my room, somewhere near my political button collection. I don't really have any way to wear pins, or anything useful to do with them.

[nanila]

They were starting to slow down on the patch/shirt/pin freebies while I was at JPL. I think there have been cutbacks on that sort of thing.

One reason I don't wear them is that I'm very good at losing small things worn upon my person. This is also why I only ever wear cheap jewelry. I end up getting annoyed at things (apart from chokers and rings worn on specific fingers), removing them, and then forgetting about them.

[lark_ascends]

Yeah, we seem to mostly get lithographs now. I don't think I've seen any pins (other than NASA pins) arrive in the time I've been where I am.

[gominokouhai]

> I've never worked out a way to display these

On one's lapels, dear.

[nanila]

I'm trying to remember the last time I wore an item of clothing with lapels. I think it might have been when I last went to a job interview, which makes it a number of years ago!

[gominokouhai]

But you have so many excellent possibilities!

[alexseanchai]

My mom has a shadow box my sister made to display some of Mom's dad's Marine Corps stuff, which includes pins. This is an image I found on Google searching for 'shadow box' and doesn't look anything like my mom's shadow box—actually what it looks like is a bunch of pins stuck to a backing in a picture frame—but seems to me either would be an effective display method.

Also: SHINY.

[nanila]

A shadow box is a good idea, thank you! I'd like to put them in the toddler's room and that would be a good way to keep her from hurting herself on them...

[lurkingcat]

I used to have a badge collection pinned onto a piece of cloth with the cloth pinned onto a cork board for display. Bit studenty and got rather dusty though.

[nanila]

Yes, I think I'd like them to be a bit protected from dust and sunlight (some of them have faded from sitting on my desk in direct light). Also, I'd like to put them in the toddler's room and I don't want her to hurt herself on them, so a display box is probably best...

[weaverbird]

That is a very cool collection! I second the shadow box picture frame idea as a means of display.

[nanila]

I'm glad I hauled it across the pond with me! A shadow box seems like the right idea.

[duccio]

That's a very cool collection.

Maybe you could have someone make a desk lamp with revolving orbit bands, like those old brass devices from the past that showed the celestial bodies revolving around the sun, or earlier, the astrology constellations and planets revolving around the earth, and mount the pins on the orbit bands. Then when you turn on the lamp, the orbit bands would rotate around the light (maybe a glowing planet earth - the pins and badges would be like satellites) and you could see each one as it slowly turned and faced you.

That this idea recalls older ideas and models about how we thought space must work, these pins would then take their place in the evolution of scientific thought and the ever evolving quest for knowledge and truth about our place in the universe (and at our desks).

Just an idea that flashed into my head. Of course, the lamp would have to be expandable with more orbits, as more buttons and pins are sure to come your way - Dr. Nanilla being still at the beginning of her long, distinguished career.

[nanila]

An illuminated pin badge orrery! That's a neat idea. Would be a good thing to make with the toddler when she's a little older. :) Thank you.

[duccio]

orrery New word! Thanks, Dr. Nani Nani.

[nanila]

I'm glad you like it - it's wonderfully alliterative!

[duccio]

I loked a little further about the device I originally had in mind, and see that instead of an orrery, I actually was thinking of an ARMILLARY SPHERE, the thing with the metal rings circling around the earth. I thought you could mount all the pins and buttons on the rings, and if the rings were mechanized somehow, the little items would circle around the globe, slowly presenting themselves one after the other to the curious eyes of visitors.

Oh well, It looks pretty complicated to make even if it weren't mechanized.

[lark_ascends]

I'm thinking eventually, because I have picked up some pins that hadn't been used up at work, black velvet on a board, then you can pin them on it.

I do recognise a few of those. You'll find an additional pin in the package I sent you - doesn't look like one you have.

[nanila]

I AM EXCITE about the package. \o/ I haven't sent yours yet - I'm still collecting a few more things for it from work.

[lark_ascends]

:-D

I was hoping to send it in ecofriendly packaging, but ecofriendly packaging was going to cost $20 MORE in postage. O_o

[miss_s_b]

I used to have cool pins on my bag, but so many of them got knocked off over the years last time I took them off to wash it I didn't put them back on

[nanila]

This is part of why I've never put them on my clothing. I know I'd lose them!