Space art, also known as astronomical art, is a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

that visually depicts the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

through various artistic styles. It may also refer to artworks sent into

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

. The development of space art was closely linked to advancements in telescope and imaging

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

, which enabled more precise

observations Observation in the natural sciences is an act or instance of noticing or perceiving and the acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perceptio ...

of the

night sky The night sky is the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a night sky include moonlig ...

. Some space artists work directly with

scientists A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature ...

to explore new ways to expand

the arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of m ...

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

, and

cultural expressions Cultural expressions are creative manifestations of the cultural identities of their authors. They are treated in the international legal system in terms of cultural rights, intellectual property law and international trade. Definition The obj ...

relative to space. Space art may communicate ideas about space, often including an artistic interpretation of

cosmological Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...

and scientific discoveries. For many decades,

visual artists The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

have explored the topic of space using traditional painting media, followed recently by the use of

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

for the same purpose. Science-fiction magazines and picture essay magazines were some of the first major outlets for space art, often featuring planets, spaceships, and dramatic alien landscapes.

Chesley Bonestell Chesley Knight Bonestell Jr. (January 1, 1888 – June 11, 1986) was an American painter, designer, and illustrator. His paintings inspired the American space program, and they have been (and remain) influential in science fiction art and illust ...

, R. A. Smith,

Lucien Rudaux Lucien Rudaux (; 1874–1947) was a French artist and astronomer, who created famous paintings of space themes in the 1920s and 1930s. The Rudaux crater on Mars and the Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award are named in his honor. The asteroid 357 ...

, David A. Hardy, and Ludek Pesek were some of the artists actively involved in visualizing topics such as

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

and

colonization 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

in the early days of the genre.

Astronomers An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either observ ...

and experts in

rocketry Rocketry may refer to: Science and technology * The design and construction of rockets ** The hobbyist or (semi-)professional use of model rockets * Aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned wit ...

also played roles in inspiring artists in this genre. NASA’s second administrator,

James E. Webb James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA, Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to Octob ...

, created the space agency's Space Art program in 1962, four years after its inception. Bonestell's work in this program often depicted various

celestial bodies An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are of ...

and landscapes, highlighting both the destinations and the imagined technologies used to reach them.

Astronomical art

Trouvelot- The great nebula in Orion - 1875

Astronomical art is a genre of space art that focuses on visual representations of outer space. It encompasses various themes, including the space environment as a new

frontier A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. Australia The term "frontier" was frequently used in colonial Australia in the meaning of country that borders the unknown or uncivilised, th ...

for humanity, depictions of alien worlds, representations of extreme phenomena like

black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

s, and artistic concepts inspired by

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

. Astronomical art emerged as a distinct genre in the 1940s and 1950s.

was recognized for his skills in addressing perspective challenges and creating visual representations of astronomical concepts.

Contemporary artists This is a list of artists who create contemporary art, i.e., those whose peak of activity can be situated somewhere between the 1970s (the advent of postmodernism) and the present day. Artists on this list meet the following criteria: *The person ...

continue to contribute to the visualization of ideas within the space community, such as depicting theoretical capabilities for

interstellar travel Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft between star systems. Due to the vast distances between the Solar System and nearby stars, interstellar travel is not practicable with current propulsion technologies. To travel between ...

and illustrating hypothetical deep-space phenomena. Astronomical art is the most recent of several art movements that have explored ideas emerging from the ongoing exploration of Earth. Finding its roots in genres such as the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

or Luminism, most astronomical artists use traditional painting methods or digital equivalents in a way that brings the viewer to the frontiers of

human knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

gathered in the exploration of space. Such works usually portray things in the

visual language A visual language is a system of communication using visual elements. Speech as a means of communication cannot strictly be separated from the whole of human communicative activity which includes the visual and the term 'language' in relation t ...

of realism extrapolated to exotic environments, whose details reflect ongoing knowledge and educated guesswork. An example of the process of creating astronomical art would be studying and visiting desert environments to experience something of what it might be like on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

and painting based on such experiences. Another would be to hear of an astronomical concept, and then seek out published articles or experts in the field. Usually, there is an artistic effort to emphasize the favourable visual elements, just as a photographer composes a picture. Notable astronomical art often reflects the artist's interpretation and imagination regarding the subject portrayed.

Science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

magazines such as ''

Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional un ...

'', '' Amazing'', ''Astounding'' (later renamed ''

Analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

''), and ''

Galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

'' were platforms for space and astronomical art in the 1950s. Picture essay magazines of the time, such as ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'', ''

Collier's } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'', and ''Coronet'', were other major outlets for such art. Today, astronomical art can be seen in magazines such as ''

Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly magazine covering all aspects of amateur and professional astronomy, including what to see in the sky tonight and new findings in astronomy. Other topics covered include: *observing guides for planets, ...

'', '' The Planetary Report'', and occasionally in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

''. The NASA fine arts program has been an ongoing effort to hire artists to create works generally specific to a particular space project. The program documents historical events in recognizable form for professional artists. The NASA Fine Arts Program operated in an era of forward progress under its first head director, James Dean. Even then, pictorial realism seemed a subset rather than a dominant visual influence. The works that document

space flight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such a ...

situations, such as those referenced above, are similar in concept to government efforts during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to send artists to battle zones for documentation. Much of which appeared in contemporary ''

'' magazines. Most of today's widely published space and astronomical artists have belonged to the International Association of Astronomical Artists since 1983.

Photography

The first photographs of the entire Earth by

satellites A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

and crewed Apollo missions brought a new sense of Earth and promoted ideas of the unity of humanity. Photographs taken by explorers on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

evoked the experience of being in another world. The '' Pillars of Creation'' taken by the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

and other Hubble photos often evoke intense responses from viewers; for example, Hubble's

planetary nebula A planetary nebula is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to planets. The ...

images.

Artistry

Artists have experienced

free-fall In classical mechanics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. A freely falling object may not necessarily be falling down in the vertical direction. If the common definition of the word "fall" is used, ...

conditions during flights flown with NASA, the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and French Space Agencies, and the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium. Early efforts by artists to have art pieces placed in space have already been accomplished with painting,

holography Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interfe ...

micro-gravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...

mobiles, floating

literary works Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, th ...

, and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

History

Early examples of space art are depictions of celestial bodies in

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

artifacts. The 'Land Grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya Kudurru,' a Babylonian

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

artifact from the 12th century BC, features early representations of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, the lunar crescent, and the solar disk.

Albrecht Altdorfer Albrecht Altdorfer ( – 12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Da ...

's painting '' The Battle of Issus'' (1529) shows the

curvature of the Earth Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. ...

from a great height.

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

's sketches of the Moon from the ''

Sidereus Nuncius ''Sidereus Nuncius'' (usually ''Sidereal Messenger'', also ''Starry Messenger'' or ''Sidereal Message'') is a short astronomical treatise (or ''pamphlet'') published in Neo-Latin by Galileo Galilei on March 13, 1610. It was the first published ...

'' (1610) were published among other early descriptions of the Moon's

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. In 1711, Donato Creti painted a series of astronomers viewing other planets of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

through a telescope to interest the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

in establishing an

astronomical observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

19th century

In the early 1870s-1900s, Étienne Léopold Trouvelot published a series of Chromolithographs of his pastels of astronomical subjects. In 1874, James Carpenter and

James Nasmyth James Hall Nasmyth (sometimes spelled Naesmyth, Nasmith, or Nesmyth) (19 August 1808 – 7 May 1890) was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, ...

's work ''The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite'' included photographs of sculpted models of Lunar features, in the marked vertical exaggeration of the actual relief of the Moon. In 1877, Paul Dominique Philippoteaux and engraver Laplante illustrated

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's story '' Off on a Comet,'' including an imaginative view looking up at the

rings of Saturn Saturn has the most extensive and complex ring system of any planet in the Solar System. The rings consist of particles in orbit around the planet made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of Rock (geology), rocky material. Parti ...

from the planet itself.

20th century

In 1918,

Howard Russell Butler Howard Russell Butler (March 3, 1856 – May 20, 1934) was an American painter and founder of the American Fine Arts Society. Butler persuaded Andrew Carnegie to fund the construction of Carnegie Lake near Princeton University, supervised the cons ...

deliberately made use of the dynamic range of

human vision Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

in painting a

total eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

based on direct observation. In 1927, Scriven Bolten created lunar landscape images for the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

'' using painted photos of plaster models. In 1937,

painted many works for ''Sur Les Autres Mondes.'' In 1944,

's paintings of Saturn seen from its different moons appeared in ''Life'' magazine, introducing astronomical art to a wide American audience. Books featuring Bonestell's art include ''The Conquest Of Space'' (1949), ''The Exploration Of Mars'' (1956), and ''Lifes ''The World We Live In'' (1955). The second

Hayden Planetarium The Rose Center for Earth and Space is a part of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Center's complete name is The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. The main entrance is located on the ...

Symposium on Space Travel, held in New York in October 1952, resulted in a series of widely read space flight articles in ''Collier's'' magazine, illustrated by Bonestell and others. In 1963, Ludek Pesek's paintings filled the large volumes of ''

The Moon And the Planets ''Earth, Moon, and Planets'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published approximately ten times per year by Springer Science+Business Media. It was established in 1969 under the title ''The Moon'', was known as ''The Moon and the Planets'' fr ...

'', and the 1968 volume ''Our Planet Earth-From The Beginning''. The 1980

Cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television show and book used the work of many space artists. Host

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including e ...

used such art in several of his books. The 21st century expanded to sending art into space. File:Creation-and-the-expulsion-from-the-paradise-11291.jpg,

Giovanni di Paolo Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (''c.'' 1403–1482) was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts. He was one of the most important painters of the 15th cent ...

, ''The Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise'' (ca. 1438–44) Tempera & gold on wood (46.5 x 52 cm )

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. File:Albrecht Altdorfer - Schlacht bei Issus (Alte Pinakothek, München) - Google Art Project.jpg, Albrecht Altdorfer, Schlacht bei Issus,

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pin ...

File:Galileo's sketches of the moon.png, Galileo's sketches of the moon. File:Donato Creti, Le osservazioni astronomiche, Saturno, 1711 -FG.jpg, Donato Creti, ''Astronomical Observations - 07 - Saturn'' (1771) Oil on canvas (51 cm x 35 cm) Pinacoteca Vaticani. File:'Off on a Comet' by Paul Philippoteaux 087.jpg, Paul Philippoteaux, illustration from '' Off on a Comet'' (1877). File:HowardRussellButlerEclipse.JPG,

. ''Eclipse''.

Art in space

Gold Olive Branch Left on the Moon by Neil Armstrong - GPN-2002-000070

First art created in space

The first active artist in space was

Alexei Leonov Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut and aviator, Soviet Air Forces, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a Extravehic ...

, who produced the first drawing in space onboard

Voskhod 2 Voskhod 2 () was a Soviet crewed space mission in March 1965. The Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft with two crew members on board, Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov, was equipped with an inflatable airlock. It established another milestone ...

in 1965, depicting an orbital sunrise.

The first original oil paintings flown into outer space

art conservation conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preve ...

experiment from Vertical Horizons, founded by Howard Wishnow and Ellery Kurtz, was flown aboard the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' STS-61-C on January 12, 1986. Four original oil paintings by American artist Ellery Kurtz were flown in one of NASA's

GetAway Special Getaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals, or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Over the 20-year history of the program, over 170 individual missions were flown. The program, whi ...

(G.A.S.) containers mounted to a bridge in the shuttle cargo bay. These original works of art are the first oil paintings to enter Earth's orbit. This NASA GAS canister, designated G-481, was the 46th such canister flown aboard a Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' orbited the Earth 98 times during its mission duration of 6 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 51 seconds. ''Columbia'' was launched from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

Cape Canaveral, Florida Cape Canaveral is a city in Brevard County, Florida. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 9,912 at the 2020 US census. History After the establishment of a lighthouse in 184 ...

, on January 12, 1986, and landed at the Kennedy Space Center on January 18, 1986.

Zero-G space art

Small art objects have been carried on several Apollo missions, such as gold emblems and a small ''

Fallen Astronaut ''Fallen Astronaut'' is a aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck. It is a stylized figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit, intended to commemorate the astronauts and Astronaut#Cosmonaut, cosmonauts who have died in t ...

'' figurine that was left on the Moon during the 1971

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the Apollo program and the fourth Moon landing. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greate ...

mission. Visual observations have been recorded in drawings and commentary by earlier cosmonauts and astronauts of difficult-to-photograph phenomena such as the

airglow Airglow is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diffuse sky radiation, diffuse ...

, twilight colors, and outer details of the

solar Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

corona. Another work, later brought to Earth orbit sometime in the mid-80s, was a study of the golden sunlight on a Soviet space station by Russian artist Andrei Sokolov, carried aboard the Soviet Mir space station starting with modules in February 1986. In 1984, Joseph McShane and Lowry Burgess had their conceptual artwork flown aboard the Space Shuttle utilizing NASA's 'Get Away Special' program. The first sculpture specifically designed for human habitat in orbit was Arthur Woods' '' Cosmic Dancer'' which was sent to the Mir station in 1993. In 1995, Arthur Woods organized ''Ars ad Astra, the first art exhibition in Earth orbit.'' consisting of 20 original artworks from 20 artists and an electronic archive also took place on the Mir space station as part of ESA's EUROMIR'95 mission. In 1998,

Frank Pietronigro Frank Pietronigro is an American interdisciplinary artist, educator and author. He was the first artist to create "drift paintings", where his body floated within a three-dimensional painting that he created in zero gravity aboard NASA's KC135 a ...

flew Research Project Number 33: Investigating the Creative Process in a Micro-gravity Environment, where he created 'drift paintings' and danced in microgravity space. In 2006, the artist returned to micro-gravity flight to create three new works, one in collaboration with Lowry Burgess; ''Moments in the Infinite Absolute, Flags in Space!,'' and a new form of microgravity mobile. The Slovenian theater director Dragan Živadinov staged a performance called ''Noordung Zero Gravity Biomechanical'' during a

parabolic flight A reduced-gravity aircraft is a type of fixed-wing aircraft that provides brief near-weightless environments for training astronauts, conducting research, and making gravity-free movie shots. Versions of such airplanes were operated by the NA ...

organized through the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for tra ...

facility in Star City in 1999. The UK arts group The Arts Catalyst, with the MIR consortium (Arts Catalyst, Projekt Atol, V2 Organisation, Leonardo-Olats), organized a series of parabolic 'zero gravity' flights for artistic and cultural experimentation with the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, as well as with the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

, between 2000 and 2004, including ''Investigations in Microgravity,'' ''MIR Flight 001,'' and ''MIR Campaign 2003.'' Artists who participated in these flights and visits to Russia and ESA have included the Otolith Group, shortlisted in 2011 for the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

, Stefan Gec, Ansuman Biswas and

Jem Finer Jeremy Max Finer (born 25 July 1955) is an English musician, artist and composer. He is one of the founding members of the Pogues. Early life Finer was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, the son of political scientist Samuel Finer, and the nephew ...

, Kitsou Dubois, Yuri Leiderman, and Marcel·li Antunez Roca.

Richard Garriott Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (''né'' Garriott; born 4 July 1961) is a British-born American video game developer, entrepreneur and private astronaut. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer ...

visited the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

, via the

Soyuz TMA-13 Soyuz TMA-13 (, ''Union TMA-13'') was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft was launched by a Soyuz-FG rocket at 07:01 GMT on 12 October 2008. It undocked at 02:55 GMT on 8 April 2009, performed a deorbit burn ...

on October 12, 2008, where he displayed an art exhibition, ''Celestial Matters'', during his 12 days in orbit. ''Celestial Matters'' included works by ten American artists as well as work Garriott created himself while in orbit, honoring his heritage in art and science. The art was later exhibited at the Charles Bank Gallery in New York City in October 2011.Chow, Denise. 2011.
Space Art Launching from NYC Gallery This Weekend
'' NBC News, Oct. 14, 2011, 11:48 AM CDT (Source: Space.com). Accessed June 15, 2024. Garriott also exhibited ''Astrogeneris Mementos'', two small works, somewhat reminiscent of

memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die")

hairwork Hairwork, or jewelry or artwork made of human hair, has appeared throughout the history of craft work, particularly to be used for private worship or mourning. From the Middle Ages through the early twentieth century, memorial hair jewelry remain ...

, containing locks of hair from Richard Garriott and

Owen Garriott Owen Kay Garriott (November 22, 1930 – April 15, 2019) was an American electrical engineer and NASA astronaut, who spent 60 days aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 during the Skylab 3 mission, and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 on a Spac ...

sealed in chambers by Steve Brudniak, the first assemblage sculptures exhibited in outer space.Gupta, Anjali (editor), 2013. ''The Science of Surrealism - Assemblage Sculpture of Steve Brudniak''. Merrid Zone. Austin, Texas. 198 pp. (see pages 159-162) Brannon, Mike, 2018.
Profile, Steve Burdniak: Psychedelic Surrrealism Texas Style.
' 71 Magazine, Jan/Feb 2018: 66-75 pp. (see page 71). Accessed June 15, 2024.Challenger Center, Youtube

Richard Garriott Space Video Blog, 2009: Conservation of Momentum
'. (Brudniak’s ''Astrogeneris Mementos'' wo black squares framed in silvercan be seen at the top of the green bulletin board on the left). Accessed June 15, 2024. In 2009, NASA astronaut

Nicole Stott Nicole Marie Passonno Stott (born November 19, 1962) is an American engineer and a retired NASA astronaut. She served as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 and was a mission specialist on STS-128 and STS-133. After 27 ye ...

having brought watercolor paint and watercolor paper with her for the long-duration Expedition 21 mission to the International Space Station became the first astronaut to paint in space. The Mexican artist and musician Nahum directed the art and science project ''Matters of Gravity'' (''La Gravedad de los Asuntos'' in Spanish), a project reflecting on

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

in its absence. The first mission consisting only of Latin American artists was executed in a

zero-gravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...

flight at the

in 2014. The participating artists include

Tania Candiani Tania Candiani (born in 1974) is a Mexican artist known for her interdisciplinary, large-scale, multimedia installations. In 2011, she was named a Guggenheim Fellow. Candiani was born in Mexico City. Work Candiani has shown her work around t ...

, Ale de la Puente, Ivan Puig, Arcángelo Constantini, Fabiola Torres-Alzaga, Gilberto Esparza, Juan Jose Diaz Infante, Nahum, and Marcela Armas. The project included the participation of Mexican scientist Miguel Alcubierre and

curators A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

Rob La Frenais and Kerry Anne Doyle.

Performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

has also occurred in space, as with

Chris Hadfield Chris Austin Hadfield (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. As the first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and ...

's 2013, edited performance of

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's 1969 song "

Space Oddity "Space Oddity" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips and Mercury Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album, ''David Bowie''. Produce ...

and

Thomas Pesquet Thomas Gautier Pesquet (; born 27 February 1978) is a French aerospace engineer, aviator, pilot, European Space Agency astronaut, actor, musician, and writer. Pesquet was selected by ESA as a candidate in May 2009, and he successfully completed ...

's 2017 edited performance of "L'Art de la joie par les Spacelatorz" ."

Sojourner 2020 project onboard the International Space Station

In the Sojourner 2020 project from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, the Space Exploration Initiative took nine selected artists to develop art projects on board the International Space Station. Sojourner 2020 was a 1.5U size device (100mm x 100mm x 152.4mm) that was launched into low Earth orbit between March 7 and April 7 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It featured a three-layer telescoping structure that simulated three different "gravities":

zero gravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...

, lunar gravity, and Martian gravity. Each layer of the structure rotated independently. The top layer remained still in weightlessness, while the middle and bottom layers spun at different speeds to produce centripetal accelerations that mimicked lunar gravity and Martian gravity respectively. Each layer carried six pockets that held the projects. Each pocket was a container with a diameter of 10 mm and a depth of 12 mm. The artist proposed and accomplished artworks in a variety of different mediums, including carved stone sculptures by Erin Genia, liquid pigment experiments by Andrea Ling and Levi Cai, sculptures made of

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

hormone replacement medicines by Adriana Knouf, and living organisms, like marine

diatoms A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...

of the genus '' Phaeodactylum Tricornutum'', by Luis Guzmán. The nine artist groups selected onboard Sojourner 2020 were: Moon Gallery onboard the ISS

* Luis Bernardo Guzmán - bio architectures (Cosmo biology) - Chile * Xin Liu, Lucia Monge - ''Unearthing the Futures'' - China and Peru * Levi Cai & Andrea Ling - ''Abiogenetic Triptych'' - USA, Canada * Kat Kohl - ''Memory Chain: A Pas de Deux of Artifact'' - USA * Henry Tan - ''Pearl of Lunar'' - Thai * Janet Biggs - ''Finding Equilibrium'' - USA * Masahito Ono - ''Nothing, Something, Everything'' - Japan * Adriana Knouf - ''TX-1'' - USA * Erin Genia - ''Canupa Inyan: Falling Star Woman - American Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate''

Artworks launched into outer space

* The Golden Record: Greetings and Sounds of the Earth * ''The Contour of Presence'' by Nahum * '' Orbital Reflector'' by Trevor Paglen * ''Enoch'' by Tavares Strachan * ''Moon Gallery'' by the Moon Gallery Foundation * ''Echoes From the Valley of Existence'' by

Amy Karle Amy Karle (born 1980) is an American artist, bioartist, and futurist whose work focuses on the relationship between technology and humanity, specifically how technology and biotechnology impact health, humanity, society, evolution, and the futur ...

* ''In Praise of Mystery'' by Ada Limon Humans have engaged in many cultural activities in space, particularly on space stations, recontextualizing terrestrial culture and art. Expedition 54 watching The Last Jedi

References

{{Reflist

External links

International Association of Astronomical Artists numerous space art site links
Space advocacy Spaceflight Visual arts genres Space Age