User:Found5dollar/Art on the Moon



Works of art on the moon have been placed there over the course of manned moon landings. Known artworks range from small sculpture to an elegantly drawn goodwill message from the Vatican. There is also supposedly a small "museum" on the moon with work from artist such as Robert Rauschenberg,Claes Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol. The artworks are all small in size do to weight and size constrictions in the lunar module. This size constrcton may change if the Astrobotic Technology team, lead by William "Red" Whittaker, complete their attempt to win the Google Lunar X Prize in May of 2011 as a collection of artworks are meant to be either created or left on the Moon.

Moon museum
The Moon Museum is a small ceramic wafer three-quarters of an inch by half an inch in size, containing artworks by six prominent artists from the late 1960s. The artists with works in the "museum" are Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Forrest Myers, and Andy Warhol.

This wafer was supposedly covertly attached to a leg of the Intrepid landing module, and subsequently left on the moon during Apollo 12. The moon museum is considered the first Space Art object. While it is impossible to tell if the Moon Museum is actually on the moon without sending another mission to look, many other personal effects were smuggled onto the Apollo 12 lander and hidden in the layers of gold blankets that wrapped parts of the spacecraft.

Olive Branch


After Apollo 11 landed on the moon, one of the actions that they carried out was to lay a small gold olive branch on the lunar surface. The branch, less than six inches in length, was inside a small pouch Neil Armstrong was the astronaut that physicaly placed the branch. This sculpture is less than 6 inches long and represents the goal of "peace for all mankind"

The olive branch was placed "very close to the landing module"



Vatican Goodwill Message


 

Fallen Astronaut


 

Planned Works
A group at Carnegie Mellon University, lead by Lowry Burgess and comprised of artists, engineers, musicians, and robiticists, is planning to create new works of art on the moon in may 2011. This is to be achieved through the Astrobotic Technology team, lead by William "Red" Whittaker,  and their attempt to win the Google Lunar X Prize.

The team plans to create a lunar rover and land it on the moon. While there it will be creating and/or releasing the following three artworks:


 * Moon Marks will use the rover as a drawing implement. The tracks left by the rover will be the art. The rover will follow designs submitted over the internet and when it finishes a design the rover will send back images of it's creation.


 * Moon Bell involves receiving and sending radio waves to and from the moon. Doing this basiclly turns the moon into a giant stringed instrument. The sound created will be used by the Carnegie Mellon orchestra to create now musical works.


 * Moon Fragrance is a work in which the team will was create a fragrance and release it on the Moon. The public will be asked to describe what the Moon smells like and their suggestions will be used to create the scent. According to Lowry Burgess, "We are going to perfect some lunar essences, put together by some of the great perfumiers of the world... We're going to take a lunar essence and say: 'Hey Moon, here's what we think you smell like.'?"