Tribute to the Astronaut and Command Module Pilot of Apollo 11 Michael Collins 1930–2021
The Moon image shows the transcript of the communications with the Apollo 11 flight crew.
I made this image as a tribute to a memory of Michael Collins affectionately referred to as “the loneliest man in history” for being the command module pilot who flew solo in space behind the Moon and without radio contact with anyone while his colleagues, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, set foot on the Moon for the first time in history.
Michael was also an artist. His iconic photos made from Moon orbit are true art and part of mankind's greatest cultural heritage treasure.
Because he was a director of educational STEM projects for Air & Space Museum, I decided that I would donate a large part of the funds from the sale of the NFTs to fund a Virtual Moon project creating multi user univertual experience for kids and providing access including immersive to Apollo 11 landing site for educational institutions worldwide.
A beautiful mosaic of the Milky Way.
— Michael Collins (@AstroMCollins) April 19, 2021
📸: @JP_Metsavainio https://t.co/ocuXxCGug4 pic.twitter.com/9WYutIF9dU
The story behind Voices of Apollo 11
I was most gratified and deeply moved when Michael Collins —the Apollo 11 & Gemini 10 astronaut, author, explorer and artist— tweeted following kind words about my work on April 19th, 2021.
The news of his passing, just nine days later, hit me all the harder — a very emotional moment for me. Out of the blue, I got inspired to create this artwork. I absolutely had to do it right away, which I did.
Michael Collins was affectionately referred to as “the loneliest man in history” for being the command module pilot who flew solo in space behind the Moon and without radio contact with anyone while his colleagues, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, set foot on the Moon for the first time in history. Michael was also an artist. His iconic photos made from Moon orbit are true art and part of mankind's greatest cultural heritage treasure.
A similar solitude gripped me while I was creating this tribute image. For being an astronomical photographer and a visual artist often is a very lonely job. Especially this time as I was deeply emotional throughout my creative process for this artwork. Even though I never met him personally, the end of his Earthly mission meant more to me than I was prepared for. I needed to make this photo-based artwork to process the inner storm of my thoughts and feelings.
The Voices of Apollo 11
are now part of the Moon forever
Click for the larger version of 2500 x 2500 pixels.
Image shows the full Moon made entirely out the text of the transcript of the onboard voice
conversations of the Apollo 11 mission. There is nothing else in this photo-based image. Just
letters.
A close up of the top of the artwork shows just letters from the authentic voice transcription of
Apollo 11 Command Module recorder data.
The Voices
I downloaded NASA's original full transcript of Apollo 11's onboard voice conversations. The idea was to turn this text into an image of the Moon. After a few weeks of intense work at a feverish pace my tribute was ready. Now the Moon is made up entirely of Apollo 11 voice transcription letters.
This is also a tribute to the entire Apollo 11 team: Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
The Landing Site
The Apollo 11 landing site is marked by two red letters.
About JiiPee
J-P is a Finnish visual artist and astrophotographer.
Revealing the hidden beauty of our universe is my passion. Indomitable curiosity and blissful awe for the infinite majesty of the universe propel me, this is my artistic method, my Zen . I love to see and show how wonderful our world really is. I stand in speechless adoration before everything I am able to see.
When art meets science, the results can be beautiful. It can become something more than either of them on their own can ever be. These works are not only aesthetically beautiful, they are true.
What makes my work so great, so unique? Each piece is made by just one man from a tiny town at the edge of the world, using equipment that is simple and cheap compared to the billion-dollar astronomical instruments that exist around the world and even in space. Surely, they can make shots like these in no time, right? While they technically can, it in fact does not happen, because these eminently useful marvels of astronomical technology have million-dollar budgets controlled by technocrats who will never spend a million-dollar hour just for revealing some cosmic beauty and poetry.
Artist and
Astrophotographer
Co-author of
Cosmic Clouds 3-D
Creater of the
Milky Way Mosaic
Highlights from global media about JiiPee
