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Launch

Launch Date:

19 February 2022

Launch Mission:

NG-17 Cygnus resupply mission

Launch Operator:

Northrop Grumman

Rocket:

Antares 230+

Launch Vehicle:

Cygnus SS Piers Sellers

Launch Location:

Wallops Island, VA, USA

2022-015B

COSPAR id:

In Space

Host:

International Space Station

Type:

Space Station

Operator:

Multinational

Location:

Low Earth Orbit, Non-Polar Inclined

COSPAR id:

1998-067A

Return

Return Date:

11 January 2023

Return Mission:

CRS-26

Return Vehicle:

Cargo Dragon

Landing Location:

Gulf of Mexico

COSPAR id:

2022-159A

Updated:

8/7/24

status:

Returned

Mission Profile

Partners:

Yuko Shimizu​

Artist, Researcher

Richelle Ellis

Expeditionary Artist

Elena Soterakis

Artist, Curator, Educator

Artist(s)

Collection

This artwork is part of a collection:

Moon Gallery

2022

To Space, From Earth is a Space Art DNA Capsule utilizing emergent technology and artistic expression to carry a visual message to space. Beyond Earth, an artist collective exploring the frontiers of art and space, collaborates with Twist Bioscience to encode artwork into silicon-based synthetic DNA designed for spaceflight.

To Space, From Earth is a Space Art DNA Capsule utilizing emergent technology and artistic expression to carry a visual message to space. Beyond Earth, an artist collective exploring the frontiers of art and space, collaborates with Twist Bioscience to encode artwork into silicon-based synthetic DNA designed for spaceflight. Beyond Earth creates artworks to reference life on Earth and the current challenges we face referencing human population growth, consumption and degradation, and preservation of Earth’s biodiversity. Artworks reflect on our current geological age of the Anthropocene, where human activity has a dominant effect on climate and the environment. The artists chose to store this message of human impact in DNA, which is present in nearly all living organisms, to symbolize life on Earth. These artworks serve as a visual record of this current time; they reflect challenges of today to inspire new approaches for a better future. Beyond Earth presents these artworks to encourage a shift from a human-centric worldview to be more encompassing of all inhabitants. To store the artworks in DNA, they are digitized and converted from binary data to the DNA bases represented by the letters A, T, G and C. The encoded DNA sequences are synthesized using a silicon-based platform and preserved in a specialized capsule built for spaceflight. DNA is nature’s oldest and most resilient data storage method; no energy or maintenance is required to preserve it, it is ultra-dense and hence compact; and lasts hundreds of thousands of years making it the ultimate time capsule for any digitized artwork. For these reasons, To Space, From Earth will endure the test of time and serve as an important record of human history and the biosphere. Beyond Earth will co-create with space, revealing how spaceflight transforms and evolves artworks, and how space preserves or alters their message over time. Beyond Earth is not only exploring the unique storage capabilities of DNA, but also testing data retrieval when DNA is exposed to the harsh elements of space.
Dimensions:

1 x 1 x 1 cm

Medium:

DNA capsule

Genre:

To Space, From Earth

Yuko Shimizu​

Japan

Richelle Ellis

USA

Elena Soterakis

USA

2022

To Space, From Earth

2022

Returned
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