WORLD PREMIERE: PAINTING from the ART ON THE MOON project

UltraFuture, Velka Edge, branding visionary Matthew Asinari present “The Humanization of Space: Art on the Moon”, December 13th, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park

HONG KONG – November 18, 2008

Back in the 80’s and 90’s, there were rumours that Coca Cola or Pepsi were looking at projecting their logo onto the surface of the moon. While this would have undoubtedly been the most talked about advertisement in history, the general consensus at the time was that the moon was a ’shared’ space, and that it was not right to pollute it with something so crass and commercial as an advertisement.

There has been much talk lately about the commercialization of space. Many private enterprises are now competing to create and participate in an emerging ‘privatized’ space industry. Virgin Galactic, Space We have already had a number of space tourists and more will certainly come. Imagining a time when the moon or even Mars has a permanent human settlement is not far fetched.

Outside of popular science fiction, space as we know it is widely described and understood as rather, well, scientific. It is a place and a subject to be studied with objectivity and logic. Artist Velka Edge and luxury branding visionary Matthew Asinari are working on a project to partner with Google Lunar X-Prize contender Odyssey Moon and UltraFuture to engage the global imagination and create a genuine human connection with space.

Artist Velka Edge’s unique painting, entitled “Uni Essence and the Music of Spheres”, symbolizes humanities role and timeless essence in the universe. By rendering the painting on a light weight and pliable synthetic silk, the image can be transported as a minimal addition to the payload of a future lunar lander, projected to carry the artwork to the surface of the moon sometime around 2020.

The painting will be exhibited at the UltraFuture Conference held this December 13th at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. Art on the Moon is a concept that utilizes art as a language to bridge the gap in the understanding of space science and to create relevant emotional bonds between humankind, the Earth, and the moon.  Art on the Moon will donate the original painting to be displayed permanently on Earth.

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UltraFuture Events are communications platforms where innovators, entrepreneurs, visionaries and thought-leaders come together to share new ideas and develop collaborations for the betterment of mankind.  This year’s conferences will focus on the Future of the Built Environment and the Future of Lifestyle and Communications.

The UltraFuture Conference 2008 will be held on December 13 in the “Golden Egg” Auditorium at the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park.  Exhibits will include the stylish audio speakers of Bowers & Wilkins, inspiring Cybertectural models from James Law Cybertecture International, and a replica of the Painting from the Art on the Moon project.

To learn more about Art on the Moon or the UltraFuture ThinkTank, please contact info@ultrafutureworld.com or visit http://ultrafutureworld.com

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UltraFuture is a global thinktank and brain trust. Collaborating with visionary thinkers and doers to create and facilitate world-changing events, media and projects on the leading-edge of technology and culture. UltraFuture is headquartered in Hong Kong. With advisors and associates based in Tokyo, San Francisco, Shanghai, London, New York, Buenos Aires and the Middle East, UltraFuture offers a unique global platform for communication and collaboration.

Ashes to ashes, dust to moondust…

Celestis a US based company, that helps families honor their loved ones by launching cremains, or cremated human remains, into space. The company purchases positions as a secondary payload on various rockets, and launch samples of many peoples cremains on one launch.  Their original launch, on April 21st, 1997, included Rocket Scientist Beauford Franklin, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and 60’s psychedelic icon Timothy Leary.

Having already sent the ashes of 100 people into orbit,  Celestis is extending their services to offer lunar placement.  The next Lunar trip is scheduled for sometime in 2010. A geologist who picked the site for the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing, Mareat West, is the first person to be laid to rest in this way with 2 grams of her remains to be placed on the moon.

Celestis is a subsidiary of Space Services Incorporated., co-founded by Charles M. Schafer, a pioneer in the commercialization of space.

Celestis’ newest distributor is Power Pacific Asset Limited of Hong Kong, which is authorized to market Celestis’ Memorial Spaceflight Services through its subsidiary in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei.

A Brief History of Solar Sails

Solar sail - A gossamer material that, when unfurled in the vacuum of space, feels the pressure of sunlight and propelled by said pressure may carry a ship among the stars.

read more | digg story

NASA extends ’successful’ Phoenix lander mission

NASA scientists said Thursday the agency was extending the Mars mission of its Phoenix lander until the end of September, describing its progress so far as “very successful.”

read more | digg story

NASA Astronaut Mark Lee Floats untethered in space. Earth in the background.

An incredible photograph taken from NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-64 mission in September 1994. NASA Astronaut Mark C. Lee is floating 130 nautical miles (149.6 miles or 240.8 kilometers) above the  Earth. Click read more  to see the full picture. What a view!

read more | digg story

Is There Life on Mars? Ask a Magnet.

 

May 5, 2008 / Written by: James Kling
Also see:
-EXO LIFE: A World Of Possibilities Gives Perspective On Life On Enceladus
-Spacecraft Finds Organic Matter at Saturn Moon

Between three and four billion years ago, Mars was a lot like Earth. Both planets are believed to have had surface water. Those similarities make it a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life. “The assumption is that if bacterial life emerged on Earth at that time, then why not on Mars?”says Soon Sam Kim, principal member of technical staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Mars may also have had a magnetic field much like the one on Earth. Kim believes that the presence of an ancient martian magnetic field could be the key to tracing signs of ancient bacterial life. He has developed methods to detect two forms of the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4) that could act as mineral signatures of bacterial life. One is produced by Earth bacteria to assist with spatial orientation. The other is a respiration byproduct generated by bacteria that use iron in their metabolism instead of oxygen.

Terrestrial bacteria have evolved to make magnetite crystals of a very precise size range: 35 to 60 nanometers in size (a human hair is about 50,000 nm thick). These crystals act as magnets that can help bacteria align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field “ for example, to orient themselves in the direction of higher oxygen concentrations. Bacteria make this precise size range of magnetite because outside of this size range, a particle’s magnetic field points in more than one direction and is therefore useless as a navigational tool. On Earth, that distinct size range makes biogenic magnetite easily recognizable because non-biogenic minerals tend to occur in a haphazard range of sizes.

There is no shortage of iron oxides on Mars” oxidized iron is what gives the planet its distinctive red color. If bacteria evolved on Mars, Kim reasons that they may have used the martian magnetic field in a similar manner, and left behind telltale biogenic magnetite. Such a geologic record can last billions of years because magnetite crystals are quite stable.

Kim wants to use magnetite as the basis for a miniaturized detector that could be carried aboard future missions searching for signs of ancient life on Mars. His detector is based on ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. FMR detects the unique internal magnetic fields of biogenic magnetite. It works because a particle’s internal field is directly related to its size and shape “and because biogenic magnetite crystals fall into a very precise size range, they have a distinctive FMR signature.

The spins of the particle’s electrons orient themselves

Read more

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Lecture By Professor Stephen Hawking

“Why We Should Go Into Space” - NASA’s 50th Anniversary Lecture Series
Keynote Speakers: STEPHEN HAWKING, Professor, University of Cambridge LUCY HAWKING, Journalist and Novelist
Moderated by JOHN LOGSDON, Director, Space Policy Institute, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

DR. HAWKING: Why we should go into space. What is that justification for spending all that effort and money on getting a few lumps of moon rock? Aren’t there better causes here on Earth?

In a way, the situation was like that in Europe before 1492. People might well have argued that it was a waste of money to send Columbus on a wild goose chase. Yet, the discovery of the new world made a profound difference to the old. Just think, we wouldn’t have had a

Big Mac or a KFC.

[Laughter.]

DR. HAWKING: Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all.

It won’t solve any of our immediate problems on Planet Earth, but it will give us a new perspective on them and cause us to look outwards and inwards. Hopefully, it would unite us to face a common challenge.

This would be a long-term strategy, and by long term, I mean hundreds or even thousands of years. We could have a base on the Moon within 30 years or reach Mars in 50 years and explore the moons of the outer planets in 200 years. By “reach,” I mean with man or, should I say, person space flight.

We have already driven Rover and landed a probe on Titan, a moon of Saturn, but if one is considering the future of the human race, we have to go there ourselves.

Going into space won’t be cheap, but it will take only a small proportion of world resources. NASA’s budget has remained roughly constant in real terms since the time

of the Apollo landings, but it has decreased from .3 percent of U.S. GDP in 1970 to .12 percent now.

Even if we were to increase the international budget 20 times to make a serious effort to go into space, it would only be a small fraction of world GDP.

There will be those who argue that it would be better to spend our money solving the problems of this planet, like climate change and pollution, rather than wasting it on a possibly fruitless search for a new planet.

I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, but we can do that and still spare a quarter of a percent of world GDP for space. Isn’t our future worth a quarter of percent?

Read more

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

Our very first UltraFuture blog posting was the Powers of Ten video by Ray and Charles Eames in collaboration with IBM. Shortly after posting I had a conversation with Don Kennedy of Off The International Radar about Powers of Ten. I suggested it would be an interesting project to work with that video and concept and re-release a modern version, applying newly gained knowledge and modern video production techniques. Some of those new ideas and imagery are captured here, in The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken.

EXO LIFE: A World Of Possibilities Gives Perspective On Life On Enceladus

by Chris McKay and Dennis Matson on Spacedaily.com
Houston TX (JSC) Mar 28, 2008

Could microbial life exist inside Enceladus, where no sunlight reaches, photosynthesis is impossible and no oxygen is available? To answer that question, we need look no farther than our own planet to find examples of the types of exotic ecosystems that could make life possible on Saturn’s geyser moon. The answer appears to be, yes, it could be possible. It is this tantalizing potential that brings us back to Enceladus for further study. In recent years, life forms have been found on Earth that thrive in places where the sun doesn’t shine and oxygen is not present because no photosynthesis takes place. Microbes have been discovered that survive on the energy from the chemical interaction between different kinds of minerals, and others that live off the energy from the radioactive decay in rocks.

The ecosystems are completely independent of oxygen or organic material produced by photosynthesis at Earth’s surface. These extraordinary microbial ecosystems are models for life that might be present inside Enceladus today.

There are three such ecosystems found on Earth that would conceivably be a basis for life on Enceladus. Two are based on methanogens, which belong to an ancient group related to bacteria, called the archaea — the rugged survivalists of bacteria that thrive in harsh environments without oxygen.

Methanogens belong to an ancient group related to bacteria, called the archaea — thrive without oxygen. Deep volcanic rocks along the Columbia River and in Idaho Falls host two of these ecosystems, which Read more

Spacecraft Finds Organic Matter at Saturn Moon

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |

 

‘Tiger Stripes’ Yield Organics
In 2005, Cassini spied gigantic geysers spewing from fractures known as tiger stripes on the moon’s south pole. Scientists theorized that reservoirs of liquid water below the surface were likely supplying the ice and vapor seen in the plumes. A recent flyby revealed that while the jet plumes were mostly water vapor, there were traces of methane and simple organic compounds.

Associated Press
March 27, 2008 — An international spacecraft that dove through geysers erupting from the surface of a Saturn moon found organic matter, one of many ingredients that make an environment hospitable to extraterrestrial life, scientists said.

The discovery excited mission team members, who say it’s a marker for further research into whether the icy satellite Enceladus has such an environment.

The chemical analysis by the unmanned Cassini spacecraft revealed that Enceladus’ interior was similar to Read more

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