🗣 Locals you need to know: Meet Sam Moore, the man who helps deliver Pittsburgh to the moon

It’s time for the next edition again The Incline’s Locals to Know series. This is when we give way to a local person or organization that has left its mark in the wider Pittsburgh community. Stay tuned for more of these interviews in the coming weeks, and if you know anyone or any organization we need to show, feel free to send them our way.

Name: Sam Moore

Social networks: @MoonshotMuseum

Website: https://moonshotmuseum.org

Tell us about your work – your work and / or any volunteer work.

I’m biased, but I have the best job on the planet. As CEO, I lead the creation of a living laboratory and museum unlike any other on Earth in Moonshot Museum in northern Pittsburgh. From exhibition design to programming, fundraising and building partnerships, my ten months in the pilot chair have been out of this world! I have the privilege of working with partners ranging from engineers and astrophysicists to space robotics companies Astrobatic to the creators of Carnegie Science Center and Pittsburgh Children’s Museumfor thinkers the big picture in our local community is charitable, and every day my personal mission is to make space more accessible to our community in Pittsburgh and inspire a new generation that is diverse to learn how they fit into the future of space exploration.

What is your favorite memory of Pittsburgh?

I had the opportunity to work a lot with Joan Rogers when I oversaw programming Heinz History Center. As a lifelong admirer of her husband’s work, every moment spent with Joan, with laughter or in conversation, I cherish the memory. Fred and Joan Rogers embodied all my favorite things about Pittsburgh as my host hometown – a community where people care about each other, support each other, and a community that is always ready to try something new!

Choose your favorite local outdoor experience. What is it? What are we doing? Who’s coming with you?

As a resident of Northside (Manchester!), Some of my best outdoor experiences here in Pittsburgh were a few steps from the front door. In spring and summer we play with my husband on the promenade on the North Shore, drink in the courtyard Federal galleyand hanging out with our dog Hank Allegheny Commons Dog Park remember right away!

If you could eat just one meal at a local restaurant for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Another Northside-based answer here! 40 North opened last year at the City of Asylum restaurant, and their menu is there phenomenal. Set me their bread with khachapuri cheese, fried chicken and “This Lifethyme” cocktail every day of the week and I will be a happy holidaymaker.

What is your favorite local Instagram or TikTok account and why?

I love how @KeepPittsburghDope consistently demonstrates the inherent stupidity of Pittsburgh. Chancellor Humphrey is an insanely good photographer, and for some reason always manages to capture Pittsburgh, which I have not seen before. This is a consistent stop in my Instagram feed!

What project are you working on (large or small) and how can our readers help you with this?

We’re taking Pittsburgh to the moon at the Munshot Museum and building a whole new nonprofit with a whole new way of doing things, completely from scratch. We tell the story of the space industry today and tomorrow and reveal the enormous potential that exists for young people in our communities with diverse backgrounds, interests and experiences. This is a great project and we are very grateful for any support that readers are willing to provide! You can learn more about our mission at the Moonshot Museum and donate to support our discovery and construction in moonshotmuseum.org/donate.

What are you waiting for this year?

2022 in Pittsburgh will be literally out of this world. We plan to open the Moonshot Museum in the second half of the year and we will have a place in the front row when Peregrine falcon from Astrobotic becomes the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in nearly 50 years, and the first commercial company to ever land on the moon’s surface. And it all happens here at the Pittsburgh Mission Management! I look forward to space becoming more part of the conversation about Pittsburgh’s leadership in technology and innovation, and we are excited to help bring about this shift with our work at the Moonshot Museum.

Are you interested in being represented and want to share your own class project in ‘Burgh? Send an email to [email protected] with the theme “Locals to know 2022” and you can just see yourself in a future newsletter.