Jeff Koon’s ‘Moon Phases’ Sculptures Aboard a Lunar Spacecraft at Risk of Losing Power
The vehicle Odysseus botched its intended landing, flipping on its side and disrupting communication back to Earth.
Jeff Koons recently made headlines as he became the first person to land art on the moon. But the sculptures, along with the spacecraft Odysseus which it’s stored on, is in danger of losing power and communication to engineers back on Earth. Having successfully touched down on the lunar surface this past Thursday, February 22 — the first US lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 — Odysseus (code named Odie) accidentally tipped on its side the next day with its antennas pointing away from Earth, limiting the amount of information that can be sent back to home base.
The American artist’s series of sculptures, dubbed Moon Phases, consists of 125 tiny moons, each representing a different phase in the lunar cycle and inscribed with the name of a different pioneering figure in the history of civilization — from Plato to Maya Angelou. The artwork was initially supposed to jettison up to the moon in July 2022, but was delayed and resent earlier this month on February 14 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Odie missed its intended landing because its safety switches were on, effectively knocking its rangefinder lasers ability to measure altitude and guide a safe descent. The switches can only be disengaged manually, leaving engineers back at Intuitive Machines (the company behind the lander) left scrambling to find a solution. Odie is currently on a two week mission that concludes next week but is not built to endure the frigid temperatures of space if it does not regain power.
