SameerKDESMA9

Week 9: Space + Art

The topic of space has always been an area of interest to me. Being an engineering major, I've had several professors reference the concepts being taught in class to the work of NASA scientists in their Apollo projects. These references kept the science and math classes I've taken more intriguing. I knew the contributions of space in the art such as that in the world of cinema, but I have never thought about how art affects space. After going over this week's material, I found that space is also dependent on art.

NASA: Apollo (space projects)

When I first saw the topic was on space and art, my mind immediately flew to movies such as Star Wars, Avengers, Interstellar, and Apollo 13. Portraying space in movies and television exemplifies how space connects with art in cinema. I wondered how the movies depicted what space is like. After doing some research, I found that the actors and directors would collaborate with scientists in order to understand the physics of life in space (Agrawal). This is shown when the filmmakers of the movie "The Space Between Us" worked with NASA's Mars expert, G. Scott Hubbard, to accurately portray the physical effects of the return to Earth of a boy who is born on Mars (Weitering). 

Star Wars: a scene in space

Although humans have only explored a relatively small portion of space, the digital art produced from the technology that scientists use give incredible visuals of planets, stars, moons, etc. NASA sends out orbiters, which are parts of space probes that orbit different bodies in space, into space specifically to take pictures and gather visual data (Wood). I wondered how scientists got pictures of the Milky Way galaxy since it's so vast. However, I came across an article that stated: "every top-down image of the Milky Way you have seen is an artist's rendering" (Veronese). The importance of these visuals is shown as The Mission magazine said, "Space art communicates the value of exploration" (Walls). From this quote, it can be noted that without the visual art of space, people would be less interested in this field. So the dependence that space has on art is seen as motivation to scientists to keep exploring and discovering space.

Milky Way Galaxy

Citations:

Agrawal Aug, Alka, et al. “Making Movies: Scientists as Filmmakers.” Science | AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 11 Dec. 2017, www.sciencemag.org/careers/2001/08/making-movies-scientists-filmmakers.

Loff, Sarah. “The Apollo Missions.” NASA, NASA, 16 Mar. 2015, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/index.html.

Tracey, Janey. “The Physics of Space Battles: Star Wars Would Be Better Off With Muskets Than Lasers.” Outer Places, 12 Feb. 2015, www.outerplaces.com/science/item/6142-the-physics-of-space-battles-star-wars-would-be-better-off-with-muskets-than-lasers.

Veronese, Keith. “How to Take Pictures of the Milky Way without Leaving the Galaxy.” io9, io9.Gizmodo.com, 16 Dec. 2015, io9.gizmodo.com/5956960/how-to-take-pictures-of-the-milky-way-without-leaving-the-galaxy.

Walls, Andrew James. “How Space Art Will Get Us to Mars – The Mission – Medium.”Medium, Augmenting Humanity, 13 June 2017, medium.com/the-mission/how-space-art-will-get-us-to-mars-5b788395297d.

Weitering, Hanneke. “'The Space Between Us': The Science Behind the Science Fiction.”Space.com, Space.com, 9 Feb. 2017, www.space.com/35647-the-space-between-us-spaceflight-science.html.

Williams, Matt. “10 Interesting Facts About the Milky Way.” Universe Today, Universe Today, 19 Sept. 2017, www.universetoday.com/22285/facts-about-the-milky-way/.

Wood, David. “Technology Used to Explore Space.” Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/technologies-used-to-explore-space.html.