PY4
The Largest Kids Group Art Exhibition in Space
2024 - ongoing
Low Earth Orbit
Facts:
PY4 - Kids group Art Exhibition in Space
The PY4 Space Art Mission, a collaboration between The Spacecraft Agency, NASA Ames Research Center, Astrobotic Moonshot Museum, and The Neighborhood Academy in Pittsburgh, brought kids' art to outer space. This project, The Spacecraft Agency's third art-in-space mission, aimed to inspire children and showcase their artistic talents on a cosmic scale.
The adventure kicked off with a visit to the Moonshot Museum, where children immersed themselves in the wonders of space exploration. Guided by educators and NASA staff, they learned about the intersection of art and space, igniting their imaginations.
Luke Idziak, The Spacecraft Agency's curator and NASA Spacecraft Systems Designer, shared captivating stories and insights, inspiring the children to explore their creativity and dream of the possibilities beyond Earth's atmosphere. Next, the children participated in a workshop, where they created drawings inspired by the Golden Record—a symbol of humanity's shared heritage and aspirations.
With their drawings completed, Idziak took them to NASA's labs where the artworks were carefully laser-cut onto kapton tape, a durable material suitable for space travel. These then adorned the solar panels of four NASA PY4 cubesats, transforming them into celestial canvases carrying the dreams of young artists into the cosmos.
The PY4 cubesats were launched on March 4th 2024 onboard the SpaceX Transporter 10 mission, and are currently in Low Earth Orbit.
PY4
Children from The Neighborhood Academy
Pittsburgh, USA
The PY4 Space Art Mission, a collaboration between The Spacecraft Agency, NASA Ames Research Center, Astrobotic Moonshot Museum, and The Neighborhood Academy, brought kids' art to outer space in a spectacular display of creativity and innovation. This project, The Spacecraft Agency's third art-in-space mission, aimed to inspire children and showcase their artistic talents on a cosmic scale.
Laser etched kapton tape on spacecraft solar panel.
+/- 7 x 5 cm.
Thank you:
PY4 Spacecraft mission
PY4 is a low-cost, rapid-turn-around, four-satellite technology demonstration based on the open-source PyCubed avionics framework. PyCubed is an open- source, radiation-tested CubeSat avionics platform that integrates power, computing, communication, and attitude determination and control functionality into a single low-cost module programmable entirely in the programming language Python.
The goal of PY4 is to demonstrate low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) spacecraft-to-spacecraft ranging, on-orbit relative navigation, and coordinated simultaneous multi-point radiation measurements.
PY4 was launched on Monday March 4th as part of the SpaceX Transporter 10 mission, and is currently in Low Earth Orbit.