64 miniature artworks launched to ISS as first lunar art collection

The Moon Gallery, the first art collection created for lunar display, launched 64 cube-shaped artworks (1 cm per side) aboard the Cygnus NG-17 cargo spacecraft from Wallops Island, Virginia, on February 19, 2022. The works will spend about ten months on the International Space Station (ISS), installed on Nanoracks Nanolab shelving, to test structural integrity and behavior in microgravity. The project is a precursor to a permanent lunar collection planned for 2025, developed by the Moon Gallery Foundation (founded 2020 in the Netherlands by Anna Sitnikova, Elizaveta Glukhova, Bernard Foing, and Charlotte ten Holder) in collaboration with European and American universities and ESA. Italian participants include Renzo Pasquale, Jone Suardi, Alberta Vita, Lorenzo Viscidi Bluer, Annamaria Zanella (celebrating University of Padua's 800th anniversary), Francesca Andreozzi, Giuseppe Fava, Gabriele Lorusso, Emanuele Villani, Hady Milani, Ilaria Cinelli, Matteo Seita (with Lakshmi Mohanbabu), and Alessandro Ravagnan. Each kilogram of cargo costs nearly $90,000. The ISS is currently commanded by American Robyn Gatens. The foundation aims to foster interdisciplinary exchange between art and space technology.