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AlbaneseGummies327 OP t1_jcud9xw wrote

Fallen Astronaut is a 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck.

It is a stylized figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit, intended to commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration.

It was commissioned and placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15 at Hadley Rille on August 2, 1971 UTC, next to a plaque listing 14 names of those who died up to that time. The statue lies on the ground among several footprints.

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Due_Menu_893 t1_jcuj65l wrote

That's beautiful. I wonder, are there more artists who have their art on other worlds?

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ergzay t1_jcvs0yx wrote

Note: This was placed as a private agreement between the artist and the astronauts and then later tried to claim that the agreement was different than what the astronauts claimed and he tried to later profit off of it and sell 950 copies of the statue.

From wikipedia:

> The crew kept the memorial's existence a secret until after completion of their mission. After public disclosure, the National Air and Space Museum requested a replica of the statue. Controversy soon followed, as Van Hoeydonck claimed a different understanding of the agreement made with the astronauts and attempted to sell up to 950 copies of the statue. He finally relented under pressure from NASA, which had a strict policy against commercial exploitation of the US government space program.

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AlbaneseGummies327 OP t1_jcuweym wrote

Not that I know of.

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benzoe590 t1_jcvn5g6 wrote

There’s one other one that comes to mind, that being the “Moon Museum”. It’s a ceramic wafer about an inch wide, and is believed to have been hidden in the gold blanketing of Apollo 12’s lander legs.

A couple prominent artists were featured on it including Andy Warhol.

Source

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mrgreenw t1_jcvvh1a wrote

Elon launched a Tesla into space if that counts

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Bipogram t1_jcz5s2w wrote

Not quite in the same vein, but there are graffiti in various places:

https://eeggs.com/items/9064.html

And, I'm told, on a PCB of Beagle2's avionics there's "We come in pieces".

<such trenchant wit>

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NetworkLlama t1_jcvnrew wrote

Every time I see Komarov's name, I get angry. Most astronaut deaths can be traced to a bad decision somewhere, either in design or construction, and none of them expected to die in the ways that they did. Even for Challenger, they thought the odds were with them for a safe flight. Komarov's situation was so blatantly based on politics--everyone was afraid of Brezhnev's wrath in case of a delayed launch--that he knew he was going to die, and he preferred that it be him instead of close friend and national/world hero Yuri Gagarin.

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Middcore t1_jcw3egw wrote

Didn't he also curse the scientists who designed his faulty capsule on the radio as he descended, or is that a myth?

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ESF-hockeeyyy t1_jcv91ws wrote

Really interesting to see the Soviet names there too. This was practically just past the peak of the space race, and global tensions weren’t any better or worse. A nice touch to include the Soviet sacrifices too.

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Topsyye t1_jcvn1h2 wrote

I think even back then dying in space was pretty much always a tragedy. Pretty sure nasa astronauts also attended funerals for cosmonauts who died.

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AlbaneseGummies327 OP t1_jcvavnp wrote

I wonder if the Soviets would've done the same if they were in our shoes with a chance to do a memorial like this.

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420binchicken t1_jcxbc12 wrote

We will never know. It’d be nice to think they would. Apollo-Soyuz happened in the 70’s, and that would have taken a lot of co-operation and co-ordination between US and Russian space agency staff. I imagine most of them could put the politics aside and appreciate each others achievements in the field.

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cityburning69 t1_jcy05le wrote

Even during the Cold War astronauts were candid about the overview effect.

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coffeesippingbastard t1_jczmdio wrote

To note- they didn't list nationalities of the names. Nor did they group the names together by mission. It was an alphabetical list.

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anymoredraw701 t1_jcuedfm wrote

We should’ve sent a second one with the Mars Laboratory.

The list has gotten quite a bit longer...:/

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H-K_47 t1_jcvoxct wrote

I'm sure there'll be one on the first crew landing on Mars.

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3SquirrelsinaCoat t1_jcuzplg wrote

If you think about the artifacts we have from ancient human history, the stuff that survives is small and blunt. An arrowhead, a shell trinket, even a little carved doll. Imagine historians 60,000 years from now. Will they remember what we did, or is this one of the things that will remain and they'll wonder what we meant by it?

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shanefking t1_jcv3941 wrote

It would be quite a lucky find, given the location

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3SquirrelsinaCoat t1_jcv9vwn wrote

To find Neanderthal sites, we imagine their activity and look in logical areas and then get very lucky. In 60,000, if human data is lost at some point (which becomes a greater risk with digitizing knowledge), future anthropologists with slim details about our civilization might only know, "They went to the Moon. We suspect in these areas. Let's see what we can find." And then they get lucky and find this guy with the hieroglyphics plate nearby.

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Hattix t1_jcxew2h wrote

What's not well known is that, during the Apollo 15 mission, Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin almost added his own name to the list.

He had undetected and severe coronary artery disease and developed bigeminy while on the way to the Moon. If he wasn't in the pure oxygen and zero-G environment of the Apollo Command Module, that would have had a good chance to progress to full on fibrillation and zero blood pressure.

The coronary artery disease was only detected two years later when he had a major heart attack (at the age of 43!) and was given an emergency triple bypass.

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kayak_enjoyer t1_jcwi8ip wrote

It seems strange to me that the moon has no weather. I know it has no atmosphere, but every second of my life has been spent on Earth, where weather is unavoidable.

It's still up there? So weird.

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Bipogram t1_jcz5xhi wrote

> yet we can find a tiny plaque?

And will be till we put a dome over it.

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rattlebonez1 t1_jcz05it wrote

Yea We are so Gullible as a species..No one will ever be able to see this for themselves..I'm more of a hands on see in person kinda guy..lmfao..

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DanYHKim t1_jd07xzv wrote

Dahlquist!

Who will answer the muster for him?

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Moist-Cut-7998 t1_jcv4lay wrote

So this confuses me, a while ago there was a post arguing about whether the moon landing was real or not. I suggested proving the disbelievers wrong by taking a photo of the landing site. The majority of responses said it was too small an area to find, yet we can find a tiny plaque?

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zeeblecroid t1_jcz5zzd wrote

Moon landing denial is a delusion, not an actual argument with reason behind it. No evidence, up to and including flying one of them to the landing sites, will convince them they happened.

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RollaCoastinPoopah t1_jcx1hgr wrote

Americans already leaving rubbish up there… go back and pick up your shit.

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Alt-Account-No553 t1_jd9c1qa wrote

Maybe the vaunted Australian Space Agency can go up there and solve the problem.

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RollaCoastinPoopah t1_jdbl572 wrote

Clean up your trash again?

Nah, the Aussies won’t do it, America needs to learn to clean up after itself not just take things and leave a mess… like the Iraqi invasion for sweet sweet oil.

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Alt-Account-No553 t1_jdbuyae wrote

The US would've lined up Oz and NZ for invasion next, but there literally isn't a single thing of value in that part of the world.

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