ESA has teamed up with eight art schools around Europe and challenged their students to produce art inspired by Artemis, lunar exploration and the European Service Module that will provide the power, propulsion, water and air for the astronauts on board.
Students made 24 artworks that we will showcase on the Orion blog over the coming months. Using a variety of techniques and from many different cultural backgrounds, the artists have thought about what human spaceflight to the Moon and beyond signifies.
This artwork was made by Sara Mancuso from the Scuola Internazionale di Comics, in Turin, Italy.
"After a few tests, I decided to make an acrylic board that represents, in the simplest way possible, the journey that will see two astronauts touch lunar soil again. And in honour of the first woman who, thanks to the Artemis programme, will land on the Moon, I decided to paint a pink flag in the hands of the central astronaut. On her helmet, you can also see the reflection of Mars, which we hope to reach in the next few years thanks to the results of the Artemis programme."
As the only place that humans have seen with their own eyes throughout history, our Moon features heavily in world cultures. The Artemis programme, itself named after the ancient Greek goddess of the Moon, will take humans back to our natural satellite and, in doing so, will become memorialised in popular culture.
All the artworks are available on ESA's Orion blog with interviews with the artists.