Space Invader schematic

Linking the International Space Station and ESA establishments in Europe mosaic artworks inspired by the archetype 1970s Space Invaders video game, have been found colonising ESA centres.

A French artist, known as Invader, has established his urban alien artwork in 60 cities all over the world, including Rome, Paris, New York, Manchester, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. In 2012 he sent a mosaic into the stratosphere on a high-altitude balloon.

Aiming even higher, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti helped Invader get his artwork out of this world when she installed a Space Invader mosaic in Europe’s Columbus laboratory on the Space Station, 400 km above Earth.

Mission control thinks Invader will organise more invasions and activate aliens at other ESAsites  throughout the year. Follow the progress on Twitter via #space2iss and #SpaceInvader.

In space, Samantha is planning to join forces with these pixellated artforms to inspire primary school children to use their imagination in combining geometry, colours and mathematics into abstract minimalism.