By Janet Burns
On July 8th, a tiny,
colorful new satellite joined the approximately 3000 others orbiting the Earth
just outside its atmosphere. The UKube-1 — weighing in at just under 8 pounds
and taking up only 1.3 cubic feet — brings together different technologies and
cultures, carrying several kinds of British mechanisms inside an American pop
art shell.
UKube’s Celestial
Charging Station facade is the work of Jon Gibson and Amanda White, creative
directors and co-owners of iam8bit, a pop art-loving LA production company and
gallery. The black, white, and orange design is etched into the satellite’s
surface for longevity’s sake, and cheerfully invites alien visitors to plug in
their devices before heading down to earth: “[i]f someone is going to invade
our planet, presumably they’re going to come in some sort of electronic,
electricity-powered ship,” Gibson jokes to Fox, adding, “Maybe this will make
them stop for a moment and say, ‘These guys are nice. We’re not going to
destroy their planet.”‘ Beyond appeasing invaders (their disappointment at
discovering that the outlets are fake notwithstanding), the piece is meant to
reflect the current state of culture far below the satellite. Gibson explains
to artnet:
Everyone’s attached to
their phones, tablets, and desktops and we wanted to communicate that in a fun,
whimsical way up in space. It’s partly reflective of what’s happening on Earth,
but also outwardly presenting an ocean of humans being in on the joke,
Their project follows in
the footsteps (or, perhaps, giant leaps) of earlier space-installed artwork
such as Paul van Hoeydonck‘s Fallen Astronaut, which has been on the moon since
1971, and conceptual photography project The Last Pictures, orbiting the earth
on a communications satellite since 2012.
The satellite is a CubeSat, a type first
developed by California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and
Stanford University, and was built by Scottish spacecraft manufacturer Clyde
Space under the direction of the UK Space Agency. As the new agency’s first commissioned
extraterrestrial mission, UKube-1 has been packed with award-winning technology
from across the British isles; among its impressive payloads are TOPCAT, a GPS
device for measuring plasmaspheric space weather, the CMOS Image Demonstrator,
a camera intended to test the effect of radiation on space hardware, and
AMSAT’s FUNcube-2, allowing elementary- and high-school students to interact
with the satellite.
UKube-1 is part of a
growing generation of so-called “nanosatellites,” which are cheaper to build
and deploy, can feature experimental technologies, and are easily available for
purchase. “[Nanosatellites] open the door to do lots of different things in
space,” Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark tells Wired UK. “Within five years I’d like
to be making 100 nanosatellites a year [here in Scotland].”