Moon Launch by Intuitive Billionaire
Odysseus | Myth, Significance, Trojan War, & Odyssey | Britannica
“NASA science is set to land on the Moon aboard Odysseus, Intuitive Machines’ uncrewed autonomous lander. Touchdown is now targeted for 6:24 p.m. EST (2324 UTC) Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. The NASA payloads aboard the lander aim to help us learn more about terrain and communications near the lunar South Pole.”
“What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon and we are transmitting,” Tim Crain, Intuitive Machines flight director for the landing attempt, said. “So, congratulations, IM team.”
In my capacity as intuitive viewer of world events I was astounded. Exposed to the daily salad of news I had not learned about this new attempt by Elon Musk to conquer space, until 5 pm when I stopped by at a surprise birthday party in Washington Heights on February 22, just an hour before the imminent launch everybody talked about.
The most important news was that by virtue of IM, contemporary artwork is now showcased on the moon, for everyone to see. The piece by Jeff Koons features a cube packed with spheres disguised as the moon in different phases, as visible from earth. Moon inhabitants knowing nothing about earth would seem to learn nothing, except how their own habitat would look from there.
Jeff Koons’ “Moon Phases” installed on the lunar lander Odysseus. (from Jeff Koons/Instagram)
Last time I paid attention to artistic payload was when Pioneer 10 was launched, on March 2, 1972, with a golden plaque depicting man and woman variety of our species, naked, as they would only appear in Spencer Tunick’s fishbowl view of humanity.
Gold plaque launched on Pioneer 10 on March 2, 1972
I would have thought Koons’ sculpture of Michael Jackson all glazed in gold would have much more newsworthiness for inhabitants of the moon. Thinking of this, his signature moves when performed on the moon would have given us a truly lofty experience not found anywhere on our own heavy planet.
Jeff Koons: Michael Jackson and Bubbles
.
.
This entry was posted in Blog and tagged art, earth, Elon Musk, Jeff Koons, machines, Michael Jackson, moon, Pioneer 10, planet, sculpture, space, Tim Crain, Ulysses. Bookmark the permalink.
Leave a Reply