Lucy Art

More info: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index

NASA is launching the Lucy Mission to explore some asteroids that travel in the same orbit as Jupiter. These are called Trojan asteroids, and they clump together in two regions: one is ahead of Jupiter, and one is behind.

I recently entered a NASA competition to "...illustrate the diversity that Lucy will explore by creating a work of art..."

Artists could use any medium, including painting, drawing, pottery, sculpture, 2D or 3D computer-generated products, music, film/video, written or spoken word, dance, or textile.

I created several versions of how I imagined Lucy would explore the Trojan asteroids, but I only submitted one.

Here are some others that I did not submit. Enjoy.

BepiColombo Says Farewell to Earth

BepiColombo is Europe's first mission to Mercury. Launched on October, 20 2018, it will take seven years (and some planetary slingshots) to reach the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our Solar System.

It represents another example of successful international cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

More info: https://sci.esa.int/web/bepicolombo

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

An ESA news article says:

On April 10, 2020 BepiColombo mission completed its first flyby, as the spacecraft came less than 12 700 km from Earth's surface at 06:25 CEST, steering its trajectory towards the final destination, Mercury. Images gathered just before closest approach portray our planet shining through darkness, during one of humankind's most challenging times in recent history. 

When it arrives at Mercury in late 2025, it will endure temperatures in excess of 350 °C and gather data during its one-year nominal mission, with a possible one-year extension. The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio). 

New Horizons Adventure Continues

The New Horizons spacecraft launched in 2006 to explore distant Pluto and other mysterious objects.

Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, belong to a category of planets known as “ice dwarfs.” They have solid surfaces but, unlike the rocky planets like Earth and Mars, a big part of their mass is icy material.

Scientists are eager to see what New Horizon's will find in the unexplored outer part of the solar system. The adventure of exploration continues.

More info: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

 

Credit: Mike Yakovlev, Johns Hopkins APL

Pluto and Charon.  Credit: NASA

Black Hole Art

More info: https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/black_hole_description.html

From NASA...

A black hole is an astronomical object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it. A black hole’s “surface,” called its event horizon, defines the boundary where the velocity needed to escape exceeds the speed of light, which is the speed limit of the cosmos. Matter and radiation fall in, but they can’t get out.

Two main classes of black holes have been extensively observed. Stellar-mass black holes with three to dozens of times the Sun’s mass are spread throughout our Milky Way galaxy, while supermassive monsters weighing 100,000 to billions of solar masses are found in the centers of most big galaxies, ours included.

What if an ion-drive probe could visit an unnamed gas giant orbiting near a black hole?  It might look like this.

Lucy Mission Art Challenge

If you are a space artist (like me - sorta), you might be interested in this opportunity...

"NASA’s Lucy Mission to the Trojan asteroids will survey eight asteroids in six independent orbits around the Sun to help unravel the history of the solar system. Your challenge is to illustrate the diversity Lucy will explore by creating a work of art in the medium of your choice, including, but not limited to painting, drawing, pottery, sculpture, 2D or 3D computer-generated products, music, film/video, written or spoken word, dance, or textile."


More Info: https://2021.spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/statements/artfully-illuminated-asteroids/details

Here is a sample that I created.  I have several versions, but this one is just for you!