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

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Good points. The artist actually made quite a few (50 something) copies to sell, signed them and everything.

My biggest beef with this entire thing is that David Scott (who deserves credit for doing this, a very nice memorial idea) then walked all over it. Literally. He stomped around, stuck the plaque into the moonscape a little, and then plopped the statue into his footprints.

He could have at least kneeled there to put it in the soil, probably from the side or behind, and placed the statue down.

But at least David Scott did this, which is more than anyone else at NASA thought of doing.

Aleister
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.

They are.

And full disclosure: I'm trying to drum up that interest as well. Humans are still better at seeing potential artificiality than computers. At least until around 2025 by most projections based on Moore's Law.

I don't think I'll join them for more than a quick look, sticking to Mars thank you.

Aww c'mon, the moon is much closer.. Much better for followup observations

reply to post by JadeStar


They should give us badges, like the boy and girl scouts, and make us honorary astronauts or something. The moon doesn't look very interesting in the pics I've seen, and the difference comes down to the Rover. Maybe if NASA or Europe put a few decent non-breakable rovers on the moon, into some of the spots which may have attracted ET, then I'd be more interested. But are they talking about people searching through the old pics from the Moon walks, or from satellite images?

Jade, for you I'd lasso the moon (remember It's A Wonderful Life), but would balk at spending too many hours staring at it.

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

I'm also counting the flags of the various countries who managed to land something there. Also this:

reply to post by Blue Shift


The best thing about this is David Scott did this without telling anyone at NASA. He organized it on his own, and put it up on his own. Fits his personality. I still don't know why he plopped the statue down into his footprint, maybe this was done on purpose? A human footprint on the moon as part of the overall work of art (the statue, the plaque, and the footprint)

The plaque you post was a good plaque, like David Scott's was a good plaque. A proclamation of coming in peace for all mankind signed by Richard Nixon with nice renditions of the earth is pretty creative. I think how the Fallen Astronauts statue is different is that it was the first sculpture or painting on the moon, a one-person created work of art.

Aleister

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.

I remember reading the op and the links the main article was massive it took me around 23 minutes to read and around 40 some to re read and look at the pix. Slayer beat me to the link I did find it for you but got my nuts crushed about 15 minutes early (I still think that bastard is nsa :cool

Brotherman

Aleister

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.

I remember reading the op and the links the main article was massive it took me around 23 minutes to read and around 40 some to re read and look at the pix. Slayer beat me to the link I did find it for you but got my nuts crushed about 15 minutes early (I still think that bastard is nsa :cool

Thanks again for pointing that thread out, and the long article mentioned was linked in the OP of that page. Here is the link to that long Slate article again:

www.slate.com...

The immediate legacy of Fallen Astronaut, like that of the end of the Apollo program, was dispiriting. The planned series of replicas spawned a wave of negative publicity for both gallery and artist. A typical story, from the New York Times, calls the series “commercial exploitation of the nation’s flights to the moon.” Two days after the Walter Cronkite interview, Dennis A. Miller—a Toronto-based filmmaker who was staying with the Waddells—had started shooting a documentary about van Hoeydonck, called Space Child. The 56-minute final cut never even got a proper screening. “There was a preview and garden party in a countess’s villa in Italy, but other than that nobody has seen it,” says Bobby Waddell.

Correction: The article does mention that David Scott discussed putting up the Fallen Astronauts memorial with NASA officials, and they agreed.

reply to post by JadeStar


The moon project, on further thought, would evoke some assistance here on ATS, and you should go for it - and the tie-in with NASA. Would these hundreds of thousands of photos be from satellites or from on-the-ground images taken during the moon walks?

Do you think there would be some way to set up some kind of arrangement with NASA regarding the Mars and Moon rock questions? Maybe a NASA or JPL analyst could spend a couple of hours a week on the anomalies Mars thread, answering questions and looking at some of the "finds" that people have been interested in during the previous week (or, at first, the overall ATS finds that people agree should be noted). I don't mean "somebody found a duck!" kind of rocks, but the serious "whatsthis?" images found.

Aleister
My biggest beef with this entire thing is that David Scott (who deserves credit for doing this, a very nice memorial idea) then walked all over it. Literally. He stomped around, stuck the plaque into the moonscape a little, and then plopped the statue into his footprints.

No he didn't. That's not just wrong, it is an outrageous, mean-spirited mis-characterization.

Look at the picture again: Those marks under the figure are not a footprint. They do not have the consistent intervals, flat areas or squared-off impressions from a lunar boot.

Those are the fingerprint left by Dave Scott's glove as he carefully placed the memorial to his friends & colleagues onto the soft soil.

Aleister
He could have at least kneeled there to put it in the soil, probably from the side or behind, and placed the statue down.

That is precisely what he did. If you look at the uncropped photo, you can see his knee-prints at the bottom of the image, and (to the left of the figure) the imprint of his left fist as he braced himself while he positioned the figure & plaque with his right hand. Also note that, far from "stomping around", there are no footprints near the memorial (I think those are toe-prints in the lower-right corner, but I'm not sure).



In the pressurized spacesuit, it was difficult to kneel and even harder to bend at the waist. Standing up again had its own challenges, and he had to be careful not to accidentally kick dust onto the memorial (though you can see some kicked soil on the lower-left). This was not an easy task for Dave Scott, but he did it anyway, respectfully and even reverently, because he felt that this is what these men deserved.

Please consider your words more carefully before posting such a harsh characterization.

Peace

reply to post by Saint Exupery


You're right, and a star for correcting me. I thought it was a big footprint that he laid the statue in. Maybe he should have smoothed out his handprint a bit more before leaving it for the final photo, but as you describe it, he did do a good job of placing the memorial. My disservice is a little more corrected, thanks to you and your data. Appreciated.