Not everything we report on here at Daily Space has to be about rockets and satellites. Sometimes, there are stories about space art to share with you, such as the “Moon Gallery” that traveled to the ISS aboard Cygnus NG-17 in mid-February of this year.

“Moon Gallery” is a purple rectangle with 64 one-centimeter square cells on one end. Each square has a small artwork, such as a tiny painting or a small sculpture, made by artists from around the world. Berlin-based Russian artist, Kristina Okan said: Moon Gallery is an incomparable challenge and a chance to rethink the art practice at a drastically new level. It is a chance to ask yourself a truly meaningful question and to test yourself to find a truly meaningful answer. Meaningful for yourself and for the universe, but only within 1 [cubic centimeter].

In addition to being a home for art in space, it has practical purposes. The effects of radiation and partial gravity on the various materials used for the works of art and the Nanoracks housing itself will be examined for the full duration of this journey.

The Moon Gallery has another practical purpose, too. It will also serve as a camera calibration target in the Nanoracks Nanolab on the ISS for ten months before being returned to Earth.

The gallery even has its own mission patch, which has a black background and the Moon Gallery wordmark in the center against a background of stars. One of the Os in the word “MOON” is a grid of 64 little squares representing the cells containing the pieces of art, while the other is a depiction of the International Space Station. Around the outside of the mission patch are references to the NG-17 mission, the year it went to space, and references to the “ISS Payload Gallery” and “Moon Gallery”.

The Moon Gallery Foundation plans future space galleries, with the ultimate goal being to place one on the Moon. According to their website, it is “becoming the seed of a new interplanetary culture”.

More Information

PDF: Moon Gallery press release