In December 2018, a Falcon 9 launch vehicle sent a diamond-shaped inflatable sculpture into Earth orbit. It was expected that due to the reflection of sunlight it would be visible from the ground with the naked eye, but the creators still cannot give the satellite a command to open. The reason lies in the suspension of work by the US government - the artists need permission from the FCC, but it does not work. A tense situation has arisen: due to a long stay in space, the sculpture may break, and people will not be able to appreciate the beauty of the first space art object in history.
The author of the project, artist Trevor Paglen, created the sculpture with the support of the Nevada Museum of Art and spent $ 1.5 million on it. The structure, the size of a football field, is made of lightweight material and coated with titanium dioxide, which is reflective enough to make the sculpture visible from the ground. According to the designer, with his work, he wanted to give people the opportunity to look at the starry sky in a new way, and think about their place in the Universe and life on Earth.
Like any other person intent on putting something into Earth orbit, the artist had to obtain permission from the FCC and follow special international rules. Unfortunately for him, the US Communications Commission has not yet been able to give him the green light. The artist is concerned that the structure may fail:
The fact that many companies and artists are too interested in sending luminous objects into low-earth orbit is very annoying for astronomers. Light pollution can prevent researchers from studying space objects and simply inconvenience people. We recently wrote about a Russian project to create satellites for displaying "space" advertisements and even took a comment from its author. He is sure that his idea will not interfere with anyone.
Ramis Ganiev