Paris sculptor plans artwork for the Moon
Astronauts on the International Space Station are testing a scale model of a giant sculpture that combines science and art and which is destined to be set up on the Moon.
The 12cm model resembles a flower but unlike a flower its metal shape closes during the day in 120C heat and opens up at night when temperatures are -150C. The ISS tests check how the nitinol nickel-titanium alloy works in low gravity.
Once open, the model artwork is 45cm in diameter.
It was created by Parisian sculptor Anilore Banon, the woman behind Les Braves, the memorial to the fallen on D-day’s Omaha Beach. She has spent five years working on the piece, which is called Vitae, from the Latin for ‘life’.
Its large dish and tendrils are symbols of a united humanity. The two tallest ‘humans’ will have laser lights that will flash and be visible from Earth through binoculars.
Ms Banon is still working out the maximum size of the piece, as it must fold into a 10cm3 cube for transport by rocket.
Her plan has been praised by French astrophysicist Jean Audouze, who drew comparisons with early man’s need for art on the walls of the Lascaux and Chauvet caves.
Like Lascaux, it will also have handprints to last for tens of thousands of years, maybe longer in the vacuum of space.
