As part of a rare test flight, a group of artists launched a jellyfish-like craft into the stratosphere.
The Beyond Earth artist group completed an artwork called "Living Light" this summer. They stated that the piece of art "combines biological, artificial intelligence, as well as aerospace technology" and "explores connections between our blue planet, and the boundlessness in outer space," They flew the artwork almost 19 miles (just over 30.5 km) above Earth's surface, to the highest reaches of Earth’s stratosphere on the inaugural test flight of "Neptune One"
Richelle Gribble is a space artist and co-founder of Beyond Earth. She also directs the gallery Supercollider. It's amazing that it is beyond Earth. This really shows how creativity can push the boundaries and encourage us to think different and redefine art and how it is made.
Related: The HI-SEAS habitat mission to 'Mars.
Image 1 of 6 "Living Lights" artworks in the stratosphere during the Neptune One launch. Image credit: Beyond Earth/Space perspective. Image 2 of 6 "Living Light” artworks in the stratosphere. Image 3 of 6 Neptune One is ready to launch. Image 4 of the inaugural launch of Neptune One. Image credit to Beyond Earth/Space Perspective. Image 5 of 6 Neptune One launched "Living Light" into the stratosphere. (Image credit to Beyond Earth/Space Perspective. Image 6 of 6 Beyond Earth's artwork "Living Light". Image credit: Beyond Earth/Space Perspective
Art "Beyond Earth”
According to a statement, the inaugural test flight of Neptune One was "a significant step towards flying customers into space." Living Light, an installation by Beyond Earth, transformed Neptune One's capsule. Living Light, the largest international art installation that travels to space and echoes the shape of the capsule, adopted the appearance of a jellyfish.
Space Perspective said that the installation was a joint mission to increase the vital biodiversity and interdependency among all living organisms, specifically the ocean life, which is rarely mentioned in the story about life on Earth.
Beyond Earth is made up of three members, including Gribble. The collective also includes Yoko Shimizu (an artist and researcher specializing on biology and chemistry at Ars Electronica Futurelab, Austria) and Elena Soterakis (an artist, curator, and educator who co-founded the BioBAT art space gallery in New York).
Space Perspective, a Florida-based company, designed "Spaceship Neptune," an inflatable balloon-lofted capsule capable of carrying eight passengers and one pilot up to 100,000 feet (30.5 kilometers) in height. The trio collaborated with Space Perspective to create the collaborative launch. The company was founded in recent years by Jane Poynter, a biospherian, and Taber McCallum. Poynter, MacCallum and their respective lives in Biosphere 2 lasted approximately two years.
Space.com's Gribble said that they invited him to design the capsule structure that would carry the payload of their first spaceflight.
Gribble stated that the Neptune vessel was "about the same size as a football field" and that it took six hours for the artwork to reach its highest altitude.
As the name suggests, the ship was inspired by the Roman god of sea. The artistic trio used that information to inspire the design. Gribble stated that they wanted to design a ship that reflected that theme. "So we started to really dive into the ocean biome and water properties of species that are dependent on the Florida Space Coast.
More: Micah Johnson talks about sending art into space.
Space-age art inspired by aquatic inspiration
Living Light is a stunning piece of art that will appeal to those who have never seen it before. The artwork has a jellyfish-esque appearance and transparent nature. This artwork isn't just for jellyfish.
Gribble stated, "We chose to design a structure made up of more than 1,000 aquatic species to celebrate marine ecosystem biodiversity."
To create a huge, colorful, jellyfish-shaped piece for space art, it must be strong enough to withstand the extreme conditions of being in space, landing on Earth, and returning to Earth.
Gribble stated, "When you design for space it really changes how you think about materials." To meet the payload parameters, you "have to make it very lightweight." Space is extremely cold, even though people don't realize it. We can't use materials that are too fragile, breakable or absorb too much UV light. Even the colors we chose had to reflect light in order to protect the art sculpture.
These were not the only restrictions the art team had with them in order to make art that could withstand the elements. Gribble said that it was important to design for the impact of art when it lands in the ocean. How can we make this structure resilient enough not to leave behind any debris?
The team wanted the structure to be able to withstand an underwater landing in order to display it at future exhibitions, and to use it for future projects. Gribble stated that even more important was the fact that they wanted to make sure they didn't leave any waste or debris behind in the sea.
Gribble tried out a prototype of the art installation during a 2020 analog or simulated Mars mission. (Full disclosure: I was part of the same analog Mars mission that Gribble participated in.
Richelle Gribble tries out a prototype for "Living Light" during HI-SEAS. (Image credit: Richelle Gribble)
"During the HI–SEAS analog I brought a smaller prototype of the sculpture," Gribble stated. She also said that she "documented the flight of the creature throughout the habitat and also took photographs on the Martian landscape." This was to help brainstorm how to design art objects and artworks for space environments.
This "jellyfish", however, wasn't just created and tested. It was also flown into the stratosphere by itself. It contained a tiny capsule containing DNA.
Space Perspective stated in the same statement that the DNA capsule, which was sent to space aboard Neptune One's Living Light, contained three pieces of art by each of the artists making up Beyond Earth. "In a message to space, from Earth, each piece was converted into DNA and stored in a metal vial that contained an artistic message to space.
