PROJECTS: A Comet Lands in Brooklyn

LOCATION: Brooklyn, New York; Pasadena, CA;  

San Francisco, CA 

SIZE: 650 sq ft 

SCOPE: Public Art, Installation 

STATUS: Completed 

DESCRIPTION:  

Right now, 400 million miles away, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is making its rendezvous with Comet 67P as it travels into our solar system, and around the sun. The spacecraft will first analyze and then actually land on the comet to give scientists an unprecedented amount of information on the mystery of what comets are made of, and in turn, information on the raw materials that may have made our own planet.  

This traveling installation designed by StudioKCA, with visual strategy by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, produced in collaboration with the World Science Festival, celebrates the Rosetta mission and seeks to imagine the comet's surface as it heats up and begins to burst apart on its path around the sun. Folded Steel Plates, 600 watts of LED's, a reflecting pool, and close to 100' of copper tubes and misters work together to represent a human scale concept of the comet's nucleus and its ion tail.  

Currently on view at The Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, CA through January 4, 2015.  

MEDIA:  

Mashable - A Massive Comet Lands in Brooklyn 

Discovery Channel - A 'Comet' Lands in Brooklyn 

NBC News - Replica Comet Crashes Brooklyn 

PHOTOGRAPHY:  

David Delgado/NASA JPL 

Dan Goods/NASA JPL 

Edward Button 

Justin Steele 

StudioKCA