Purdue Dedicates Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong made history as he became the first human to step foot on the surface of the Moon. Nearly 40 years later at his alma mater, Neil Armstrong joined officials from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana to dedicate the new $53.2 million Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering.

In a press release by Purdue University, Purdue’s Dean of Engineering, John A. Edwardson, said, “This building represents a physical and intellectual gateway to the College of Engineering. Having materials engineering and aeronautics and astronautics under the same roof reflects engineering’s reach from the nanoscale to the galactic.

Neil Armstrong was an undergraduate student at Purdue University in the 1950’s. In front of the new Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, a bronze statue of the young Armstrong shows his right hand resting on a stack of books and his slide rule ready for action. Armstrong provided the sculptor, Chas Fagan, with family photos, his slide rule and his original Purdue notebooks to assist with creating a precision sculpture. Kirk Plaza, where the statue sits, is named after Mary Jo Kirk and her husband Bob Kirk of Washington D.C., who donated the money to create the sculpture.

Fagan says students will “really be able to walk in Neil Armstrong’s footsteps.” The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum provided Fagan with a moon boot used to create a path of 20 lunar footprints that lead away from the statue. Some of the footprints are spread apart creating the effect of an astronaut leaping in zero gravity. Next to the statue, a half circle was created on the ground to simulate a spacecraft trajectory. One of the most famous quotes in history, made by Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the surface of the moon, is emblazoned in the circle: “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

At least 16 living astronaut alumni were present on Saturday, October 27, 2007 to share in the dedication of the engineering building. Neil Armstrong, commander of NASA’s Apollo 11 Moon landing mission, earned his bachelor’s degree from Purdue in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1955.
Purdue’s Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering also pays tribute to another alumnus astronaut, Roger Bruce Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander of Apollo 1. Chaffee, along with Gus Grissom and Ed White, were killed in 1967 when a fire broke out in the Apollo 1 command module during a training mission. A full-scale replica of the Apollo 1 command module will be showcased in the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. During the first year, a giant photomural of Chaffee’s life will be displayed along with a sample of a moon rock collected during the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17. Martha Chaffee loaned the sample to the Hall of Engineering.

The Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering will help Purdue lead the nation in the field of engineering with improved facilities for researching effects of zero-gravity, polymer synthesis, electron microscopy, and materials research, particularly in the fields of processing, manufacturing, and nanoscale technology. The facility will be able to accommodate more students with a lab size of about 12-20 students each. New equipment will allow students to learn using their own high-powered microscopes instead of sharing during professor lectures.

Sources:

Neil Armstrong Hall is new home to Purdue engineering
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007b/071027CelArmstrongDedication.html

Neil Armstrong sculpture, lunar footprints, unveiled at Purdue
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007b/071026CelArmstrongSculpt.html