It's Warhol, actually. It's "hole." As in "holes." Andy Warhol.

November 22, 2010 11:45 AM

Did you know that there's an art museum on the moon? A tiny, tiny one. The Moon Museum features works by Forrest "Frosty" Myers (the instigator), Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, David Novros, and John Chamberlain, inscribed on a little chip of silicon and surreptitiously transported to the moon's surface on the Apollo 12 mission. But of course there's a mystery, in this big of a secret: who is John F., the engineer at least partially responsible for smuggling the chip onboard the lunar lander? Related: other stuff people have left on the Moon (!)
posted by fiercecupcake (19 comments total)

Oh, I'm ridiculous, it was ceramic. I'm looking at too many things at once.
posted by fiercecupcake at 11:52 AM on November 22, 2010

Thank you Andy Warhol, wherever you are, for that penis on the moon.
posted by longsleeves at 12:07 PM on November 22, 2010

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with penis on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and penis on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but penis on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while penis on the moon)
posted by bondcliff at 12:10 PM on November 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

I rather like Luna 2, which crashed into the moon. It brought pennants with it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:15 PM on November 22, 2010

A rat done bit my sister Nell with an art museum on the moon.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:19 PM on November 22, 2010

I love Andy Warhol so much right now.

It's like he wanted to send something up that represented what humans actually are, rather than what they aspire to be.

"Uh, Earth. Yeah, there are the higher pursuits, the more learned and spiritual, but mostly it's weiner jokes."
posted by louche mustachio at 12:21 PM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

This sounds like the prompt for a Dr. Who episode.

but with dicks.
posted by The Whelk at 12:30 PM on November 22, 2010

Thanks for the links. After reading the wiki pages, it appears the title of "first art on the moon" goes to the Fallen Astronaut sculpture.
posted by Crash at 12:46 PM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Crash, thanks for that. (First officially sanctioned art, maybe! I think the spirit of the 1969 piece gives it double art-cred, if we're counting.) This part from that wiki link disturbs me a bit:

Van Hoeydonck recalls a different set of events leading to the creation of the artifact. According to an interview with the artist in Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the statue was supposed to be a representation of all mankind, not simply fallen astronauts or cosmonauts. Ultimately, he has stated, Van Hoeydonck did not know the statue would be used as a memorial for the fallen space-goers.

Grr. That's very different.
posted by fiercecupcake at 12:58 PM on November 22, 2010

Andy Warhol Sucks a Big One.
posted by Twang at 1:11 PM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Damn Crash...beat me to it. But then it would have been a repeat of myself
posted by ShawnString at 1:24 PM on November 22, 2010

Twang: So you're the son of a bitch who painted that across the hood of my car.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 3:23 PM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I love this because we need to send as much art and music to space as possible. Satellites, after all, are the only human artifacts that will exist forever. In five billion years, the sun, having become a red giant, will devour this planet. Not even the pyramids of Egypt can last any longer than that. But Voyager can go on unmolested for as long as it has the luck not to crash into any asteroids. In sum, I advocate flinging tiny museums into space at all possible opportunities.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:45 PM on November 22, 2010

FUCK RADIO WAVES. We need a Million fucking satellites throwing out a thousand and one fucking statues of humans holding hands and mathematical symbols and little holes that add up to base ten cause WE WHERE HERE DAMMIT. WE EXISTED. WE HAD A CIVILIZATION. WE GOT SPACE FLIGHT KINDA A. Litter the inner planets with our pleas, throw out a million billion scouts into the nothingness, the huge empty vortex of time stands before us and the endless complexity of human existence stands inside us. Art is how we communicate. Art is empathy. Art is how he tell you what we are. Lets fucking flood the System with art. We're not gona run out of space. It IS space.

We where here. We existed.
posted by The Whelk at 8:24 PM on November 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

There's an officially sp
posted by longsleeves at 10:03 PM on November 22, 2010

The moon's surface is mostly (the lighter areas) anorthosite, a phaneritic intrusive igneous rock which is 90% plagioclase feldspar and 10% mafic material. The dark areas are basalt.

Now where's that Asperger's quiz?
posted by neuron at 10:34 PM on November 22, 2010

Here is a big clear picture of the moon museum.
posted by dgaicun at 10:59 PM on November 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

oops, guess I back-buttoned too much up there before I hit post. I meant to say:

We where here. We existed.

...Check out our stuff.
posted by longsleeves at 11:09 PM on November 22, 2010

@You Can't Tip a Buick:

Errrmmmm.... My cat can eat a whole watermelon!
posted by Twang at 6:14 PM on November 24, 2010