Many have advocated for years that NASA shouldn’t just send the steely-eyed missile men into space, but teachers, journalists, and artists, to properly articulate the experience and make it more accessible to the public. Well, the teacher things didn’t work out so well, and they never got around to a journalist (Miles O’Brien was being considered, IIRC, prior to the Columbia loss). And they’ve never even thought much about an artist, but that’s OK, because one is going to pay his own way. Private enterprise at work.
This is the future of human spaceflight, not government employees.
[Early afternoon update]
Related thoughts from Jeff Foust.
A Mir Corp II project to create a non-NASA, non-governmental destination in LEO would be very useful, right about now.
Of course, there’s already been one artist in space – Alan Bean. Bean was already a painter of some talent before his Apollo 12 and Skylab missions, and since his retirement he’s been documenting the Apollo program through his artist’s eyes. I’m lucky enough to have a signed print on my wall. Bean originals go for 6 figures.
Bill, theres this company called Bigelow Aerospace doing just that.
I somehow doubt The Artistic Community™ considers Bean, a former fighter jock, a “legitimate” artist — he’s never smeared chocolate all over his naked body in public, on the taxpayer’s dime.
Well, the teacher things didn’t work out so well, and they never got around to a journalist (Miles O’Brien was being considered, IIRC, prior to the Columbia loss).
Time is plays tricks on the memory. The Journalist in Space program came to an end after the Challenger accident. Numerous journalists have claimed they were on the short list, but I doubt Miles was one of them because he would have been fairly young at the time. In reality, there never was a short list. Alan Ladwig, who headed the program, says they never got close to that point.
McGehee,
The New York Times ran a story on Alan Bean’s paintings earlier this summer, and as a side feature, they included comments from an art critic. You can read the article and the critic’s comments on links below. The article also has a slide show of Bean’s work, so you can judge for yourself.
“www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25astronaut.html”
“www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25critic.html”
I thought Walter Cronkite was considered pre-Challenger loss, and when the idea was later revived, Miles O’Brian was considered even more seriously pre-Columbia loss (as Rand wrote), but I don’t have sources and both journalists would say you need sources!
Here’s part of an e-mail I sent to Jeff Foust yesterday:
What would you and your team think if I wrote something up more in depth about space and art? I am a polymath with feet in tech, art and political fields. Three feet? If you haven’t picked up on my sense of humor yet, shame on you.
Here are some things I’ve already done:
Space oriented art
Straight photographs
My blog, especially:
I am also involved in:
Artomatic
The Maryland Federation of Art
International Arts and Artists
Pink Line Project (runs better than the Red Line these days).
Seriously, artists have much more to offer the space community than work which inspires people. NASA needs open minded polymaths to help lead the agency in healthier directions.
Finally, do check out The Vulcan Ambassador Chuck E-mails
My work does get a favorable reception in the DC arts scene. International Arts and Artists contacted me quite out of the blue after I exhibited in Artomatic this year.
Alexi Leonov was also an amateur painter and supposedly did some color studies while in Earth orbit. I’ve seen some of his paintings in a book on Russian and American space art, but I’m not sure where else they might be available.