The race to put art on the moon

Two space cadets are hoping for a big pay day. Chris Carter reports

Until now, the focus of lunar exploration has been to get to the moon, and then bring stuff back – stuff like a bag full of dust for scientific study, for example (see right). But now, there’s an altogether different kind of space race under way – the race to take stuff to the lunar surface. Stuff like art. It began when Nasa asked robotics companies to come up with pod-like lunar landers to ferry equipment to the moon ahead of its own planned trip to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, says Kelly Crow in The Wall Street Journal. At least two of those companies also plan to be the first to send up art. (In fact, that race may have already have been won. Legend has it that a postage-stampsized ceramic tile called Moon Museum, etched with drawings by artists including Andy Warhol, surreptitiously went up with Apollo 12, in 1969. It may still be attached to the lunar module, but somebody needs to go up there to prove it.)

Jeff Koons (pictured below), the American artist who currently holds the record for the living artist who has sold the most expensive artwork, is intent on winning the race. His cuboid installation, called Moon Phases, which is packed with miniature and almost weightless moons in various phases of their lunar cycle, is to hitch a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket later this year. Koons is racing against Sacha Jafri, a London-based artist, who last year created the world’s largest painting. His artwork, a thin metal plate engraved with an embracing couple and 88 hearts, called We Rise Together, is to go up on a rocket designed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. This has suffered delays, but also hopes to fly by the end of 2022.

One giant pay cheque

Neither artist has overlooked the more terrestrial matter of how to make money from their launches. Both will issue digital works in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). After Koons’ lander touches down, cameras will take photographs of the cube to be “minted” into 100 NFTs. The first 15 will cost $2m each, with later versions possibly priced higher. Buyers will also acquire one of the miniature moons (although not the right to remove it from the casing, assuming they were physically able), and an encased metal-alloy model moon for display on Earth. A gemstone will be added to the spot where Moon Phases eventually ends up on the real lunar surface. Jafri plans on minting 20,000 NFTs to be sold later in aid of charity. He claims one prospective buyer has already pledged $75m. It looks to be one small step for NFTs, one giant pay cheque for these two artists.

“NFTs of photos of Koons’ art will cost $2m each”