OUR-Space Peace Sculpture
Technical Description
The OUR-Space Peace Sculpture was an inflatable sculpture designed to be deployed during a spacewalk from the Mir space station. The form of the sculpture was a circle divided by a cross supporting a small sphere in the center. The sculpture had a diameter of 6 meters and a ring thickness of 20 centimeters. The outer covering of the sculpture was to be printed with the word "peace" in all of the world's languages.
The project was designed to be precursor to the larger OURS orbital sculpture being planned for the years 2000-2001.
On February 25, 1988 a "letter of intent" was signed with Glavcosmos and their commercial agent V/O Licensintorg to launch the sculpture to the Mir space station and to deploy it by ejection.
Two years later, a full size working model of the sculpture was built by NPO Energia of Moscow and delivered to the artist in March 1990. The technology utilized by NPO Energia had been previously used on an inflatable toroidal antenna with a diameter of 20 meters which was deployed from the Progress 28 spacecraft in 1988.
It was agreed by all parties that the OUR - Space Peace Sculpture would be deployed from the Mir space station during a spacewalk with the deployment sequence transmitted via live television to viewers on Earth.
Artistic Description
The OUR-Space Peace Sculpture (OUR-SPS) was proposed at a time when the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had not yet begun to thaw. Cooperation in space was seen by some as a political arena for the two super powers as well as for other space nations to work together.
As an American artist living and working in Switzerland I proposed to bring European space technology to the Soviet space program in a symbolic artistic statement of world peace and cooperation.
The form of the OUR-Space Peace Sculpture was a circle divided in the center by a central cross supporting a small sphere in the center. This form is an ancient and universal symbol found in cultures all around the world. It is the Greek symbol of the planet Earth as well as the sacred symbol used by the American Indians for their medicine wheel and as a basis for their architecture. In the Mayan culture this symbol is called "Kalumetl" with the circle representing the concept of eternity, the interior cross - the intersection of the "four winds" and the point in the middle - the place where "peace" resides. In alchemy, the symbol represents the element gold and a higher state of consciousness.
The outer surface of the OUR - Space Peace Sculpture was to be decorated with the word "peace" in all of the world's languages. The central sphere was designed to be painted to resemble the planet Earth. Its interior would contain an electronic archive with messages of peace from project supporters from around the world.
The deployment of the sculpture was choreographed so that during a spacewalk a cosmonaut would inflate the sculpture and then gently push it away from the space station into space. This "ceremony" would be transmitted live via television to watchers on Earth.
It was foreseen that the realization of the OUR-Space Peace Sculpture would take place during the 1992 International Space Year.
Publications about the OUR-Space Peace Sculpture project:
- 1989 Arthur R. Woods & Marco C. Bernasconi, The OUR-Space Peace Sculpture: Introducing a Cultural Dimension Into the Space Environment. - Paper IAA-89-673 presented to the 40th IAF Congress, Torremolinos, Spain. October 7-13.
- 1990 Arthur R. Woods & Marco C. Bernasconi, The Orbiting Unification Ring-Space Peace Sculptures: Progress Report on Global Art In Space, - Paper IAA-90-652 presented to the 41st IAF Congress, Dresden, Germany. October 6-12. Published in LEONARDO 24, [5] pp. 601-606.
- 1990 Arthur R. Woods, The Orbiting Unification Ring - Space Peace Sculptures - The Spirit of Enterprise The Book 1990 Rolex Awards, Buri International, Bern, CH. pp. 332-334.