NASA makes a call to artists interested in space, but in a different manner than the one you would expect. it’s unclear whether this is another method of raising awareness of human advancement when it comes to space travel, or simply a method of expressing the wonder of exploration. And the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is also giving artists a chance at it too.
The subject of the artistic pieces expected to be received by NASA is what the artists envision a journey aboard NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer – also known as OSIRIS-REx – spacecraft would be like. This is not just a hypothetical expedition though; the OSIRIS-REx will, in fact, be the first task of this sort to be commissioned by the United States. The craft will be sent to an asteroid where it will collect samples which it will then return to Earth.
However, the launch won’t happen until September this year, which gives artists plenty of time to prepare their entries, as part of the #WeTheExplorers campaign. The pieces submitted will be saved on a data chip and sent away with the spacecraft. And they won’t be alone either, as OSIRIS-REx already carries the data stored from more than 442,000 names submitted through a different campaign that took place in 2014, known as “Messages to Bennu”.
Both of these endeavors succeed in showing the trip that this mission has represented up until now, starting with the creation and building of the craft and ending with its ultimate goal of reaching an asteroid in order to study it closely.
But the campaign holds more than just room for painters. You can submit almost every kind of art: sketches, photos, poems, videos, songs or any other form of artistic manifestation you can think of that could be stored on a chip and sent out on a craft to outer space. As long as it reflects what you think it means to be a space explorer.
Submissions will be accepted via Twitter and Instagram until March 20th the latest and you can read more details regarding how you can take part in this program on www.asteroidmission.org/WeTheExplorers. It may not be space travel per se, but this way anyone can take part in the voyage that the OSIRIS-REx is about to embark upon.
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