MARS HAS LANDED
After a seven-month journey through space, Nasa’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, a scientific laboratory the size of a 4x4, touched down on the Red Planet last Thursday. Though there have been several landings of unmanned spacecraft on the planet in the past, this rover mission is particularly significant in that it is the first with the specific goal of searching for traces of past microbial life — and of returning to Earth with samples.
In honour of the landing, and the fact that scientists from the London museum pictured here will be advising Nasa on the rover’s sample collection, the museum staged a two-day art installation in its grand entrance and largest public gallery, known as Hintze Hall.
The travelling work, by British artist Luke Jerram, is a miniature version of Mars, measuring 7m in diameter and featuring detailed Nasa imagery that faithfully maps every valley, crater, volcano and mountain of the Martian surface. At an approximate scale of 1:1 million, each centimetre represents 10km of the surface. Lit from within, the orb is accompanied by a specially composed piece of music by Dan Jones.
For two days only, the planet joined some of the hall’s permanent stars, including “Hope”, the Blue Whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling (her red-lit “face” is seen here on the left).
Jerram told the Sunday Times that though the installation was only temporary, intended to promote the museum’s association with the rover mission, he was hopeful that it would return to the museum soon. Perhaps, if it does, visitors will be able to see it. This time around, the museum remained closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.
To stand a chance of winning R500, tell us the name of the London museum that displayed the Mars artwork in its entrance hall. E-mail travelquiz@sundaytimes.co.za before noon on Tuesday, March 2. Last week’s winner is Paige Kandlin. The answer was Hakone.