The only artwork on the moon - the Fallen Astronaut mini-statue and plaque

Unknown to me until a few minutes ago there was a piece of artwork deliberately left on the moon. It is a tiny metal humanoid shape named "Fallen Astronaut" (although the Belgian artist, Paul Van Hoeydonck, disputes that, saying he was not told it would represent deceased spacemen and laid on the ground, but designed it to represent all mankind, standing up), with no distinguishing sex or race, who represents the astronauts and cosmonauts who had died up to the point that it was left there by David Scott.

en.wikipedia.org...

It was created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck, who met astronaut David Scott at a dinner party. It was agreed that Van Hoeydonck would create a small statuette to be placed on the moon by Scott, though their recollections of the details disagree. For Scott the purpose was to commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts who have lost their lives in the furtherance of space exploration, and the plaque was designed and made separately by Scott. Van Hoeydonck was given a set of design restrictions: that the sculpture was to be both lightweight and sturdy, capable of withstanding the temperature extremes of the Moon; it could not be identifiably male or female, nor of any identifiable ethnic group. According to Scott, to avoid the commercialization of space, it was agreed Van Hoeydonck's name would not be made public, something Van Hoeydonck disputes.

The only mention of this on ATS I could find is a post by Phage, which adds more information: www.abovetopsecret.com...

The artist has made signed replicas (he wasn't allowed to sign his piece that's on the moon) and was going to sell them, but was talked out of doing so. Not like the Eiffel Tower I guess, more like the various Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers, which I don't see many replicas of being sold by vendors on the streets of Paris or Washington D.C. (a new market may just have opened up for some enterprising, brave, and foolhardy vendor).

You'd think Scott would have placed Van Hoeydonck's artpiece better, rather than just plopping it down in his footprints. Presentation, my dear David Scott, presentation. (personal note: David Scott is one of the several astronauts I've actually met).

The 14 names on the plaque follow in order of their dates of death (from the Wikipedia page), and it's interesting that David Scott later mentioned the two cosmonauts that should have been on it but weren't because their deaths hadn't been announced publicly by the then Soviet Union, and Scott didn't know about them:

*Theodore Freeman (October 31, 1964, ''aircraft accident'')
*Charles Bassett (February 28, 1966, ''aircraft accident'')
*Elliot See (February 28, 1966, ''aircraft accident'')
*Gus Grissom (January 27, 1967, ''[[Apollo 1]] fire'')
*Roger B. Chaffee (January 27, 1967, ''Apollo 1 fire'')
*Edward White (January 27, 1967, ''Apollo 1 fire'')
*Vladimir Komarov (April 24, 1967, ''[[Soyuz 1]] re-entry parachute failure'')
*Edward Givens (June 6, 1967 ''automobile accident'')
*Clifton Williams (October 5, 1967, ''aircraft accident'')
*Yuri Gagarin (March 27, 1968, ''aircraft accident'')
*Pavel Belyayev (January 10, 1970, ''disease'')
*Georgy Dobrovolsky (June 30, 1971, ''[[Soyuz 11]] re-entry pressurization failure'')
*Viktor Patsayev (June 30, 1971, ''Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure'')
*Vladislav Volkov (June 30, 1971, ''Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure'')

Scott, Commander of the Apollo 15 mission, noted that "Sadly, two names are missing (from the plaque), those of Valentin Bondarenko and Grigori Nelyubov." He explained that because of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time, they were unaware of their deaths.

reply to post by Aleister


Well, I didn't know that either, until a few moments ago, so thank you for sharing that.
The creepy bit would be if, when checked later, 12 more astronaut artworks were mysteriously lying alongside our one!

reply to post by beansidhe


You're welcome. It'd also be creepy if it had a button in back which, when pushed, would have it saying

"Klaatu barada nikto"

(a phrase which, interestingly, has its own Wikipedia page!! en.wikipedia.org... )

reply to post by Aleister


That is weird!! Just imagine them all saying it together, as you approached them on the moon....

This was already posted there is a huge thread about this

Well this might explain why the aliens haven't made their presence known.
though it speaks poorly that a super intelligent highly evolved alien race snobs us based on our art.
So their loss.

Brotherman
This was already posted there is a huge thread about this

Thanks, please point us to it, the search engine only brought up Phage's post when I put in "Fallen Astronaut".

reply to post by Aleister


Yeah bro I am trying to find that thread it was pretty massive the search function doesn't work so well imo ill be back with the thread I hope. It is an awesome topic though I did star you.

Im not sure its the only artwork on the moon. Anything with a NASA logo is displaying artwork.

Aleister
The only mention of this on ATS I could find is a post by Phage, which adds more information:

Actually....


The Bizarre, Tangled Tale of the Only Sculpture on the Moon

post by zilebeliveunknown

 

Hello ATS,

to those of you who didn't know, like myself, about this amazing but bizarre untold story going behind the curtains of the Apollo 15 mission of putting a man made artwork on the Moon.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I was just about to post that same link lol ya beat me too it.

For those of you with red-blue 3D glasses, Patrick Vantuyne made a very nice stereo anaglyph that's available here.

Note that the placement of the memorial was done off-camera, without Houston's knowledge, after Dave Scott parked the rover at its final location (where it still sits today).

ALSJ transcript

Thanks, stars all around for having long memories (not that long, it was posted on Boxing Day a couple of months ago). The reason it didn't come up for me on search is I put in the name of the sculpture, Fallen Astronauts, which wasn't mentioned on the thread.

And the benefit of this thread - a close up of the sculpture. And yes, leaving NASA insignias on the moon does place artwork there (as is everything else. I remember having a long discussion with a co-worker years ago that everything humans make is artwork. As a teen I used to collect autographs, and considered those artwork).

Brotherman
reply to post by Aleister

 

Yeah bro I am trying to find that thread it was pretty massive the search function doesn't work so well imo ill be back with the thread I hope. It is an awesome topic though I did star you.

It was 11 posts, but good posts. I'm glad I put this one up too, as it is pretty impressive and I didn't know about it. Maybe the artist will sell some of his replicas someday, if they are very limited then that would be a good collector's item, especially if he could get David Scott to sign them as well.

Hopefully the next trip to the moon can carry with it a proper but lightweight statue/monument dedicated to all the moon missions of the late 1960s and early '70s.

reply to post by Aleister


Didn't know about that either, interesting approach to including artwork (other than mission badges etc.) in spaceprograms.

Makes me wonder whether potential ET civs would also leave behind cultural items or artwork when exploring distant solar systems ... not in terms of 'dumping their trash' on our moons & planets, but ... well, y'a know!

jeep3r
reply to post by Aleister

 

Didn't know about that either, interesting approach to including artwork (other than mission badges etc.) in spaceprograms.

Makes me wonder whether potential ET civs would also leave behind cultural items or artwork when exploring distant solar systems ... not in terms of 'dumping their trash' on our moons & planets, but ... well, y'a know!

You're not the only one wondering that:

We should scour the moon for ancient traces of aliens, say scientists

reply to post by JadeStar


From your source. I wonder if they're thinking of the Mars rocks people (proud to be one) here and elsewhere when they talk about amateurs helping them look over the hundreds of thousands of moon photos. I don't think I'll join them for more than a quick look, sticking to Mars thank you.

Hundreds of thousands of pictures of the moon will be examined for telltale signs that aliens once visited our cosmic neighborhood if plans put forward by scientists go ahead.

Passing extraterrestrials might have left messages, scientific instruments, heaps of rubbish or evidence of mining on the dusty lunar surface that could be spotted by human telescopes and orbiting spacecraft.

Though the chances of finding the handiwork of long-gone aliens are exceptionally remote, scientists argue that a computerized search of lunar images, or a crowd-sourced analysis by amateur enthusiasts, would be cheap enough to justify given the importance of a potential discovery.

So, NASA, took this guys art - misused and misrepresented it then talked him out of selling these for his own purposes as was his right to do so..

They should put a sign detailing THAT up next to the statue and really let those aliens know how STUPID Earth people are.

Screw the fallen astronauts, this tale speaks volumes more than the commemoration itself. In fact, this tale undermines the idea of the statue to the fallen astronauts !

This should be taken OFF the Moon. I do hope the next country that goes up there will remove this TRASH from the Moon.

( Don't get me wrong.. it's Trash only because it was misused and misrepresented)

Aleister

 

Though the chances of finding the handiwork of long-gone aliens are exceptionally remote, scientists argue that a computerized search of lunar images, or a crowd-sourced analysis by amateur enthusiasts, would be cheap enough to justify given the importance of a potential discovery.

OK, so there we have it: we, the amateur lunar and mars enthusiasts, who spend hours and days with LRO, HiRISE & rover imagery are nothing but a cheap workforce for scientists!? Oh well ...

One of these days, I might send them an invoice!

reply to post by jeep3r


Or we can add to our resumes the immortal profession of: NASA Amateur Enthusiast