World’s first pop-art satellite headed to space

If aliens ever target earth, Jon Gibson and Amanda White are counting on them having an appreciation for pop art and a sense of humour.

The duo created an elaborate, Andy Warhol-like design that has been etched into a satellite’s panel, transforming the spacecraft into a replica of an oversized electrical charging device.

“If someone is going to invade our planet, presumably they’re going to come in some sort of electronic, electricity-powered ship,” Gibson notes whimsically. “Maybe this will make them stop for a moment and say, ‘These guys are nice. We’re not going to destroy their planet’.”

At the very least, it will give them the opportunity to pause briefly and check out what may be the world’s first orbiting work of art.

Of the 1,000 or so functioning satellites that race around Earth every day, there isn’t one he knows of that also doubles as art, says veteran satellite builder Craig Clark, who runs the Scotland-based company preparing to launch this one from Kazakhstan on October 29.

“No one else is crazy enough,” the chief executive of Clyde Space said during a recent phone interview from his office in Glasgow.

In building the small satellite that will monitor atmospheric conditions and send back photos and other information from 600 kilometres above earth, he turned to Gibson and White and their popular iam8bit gallery in Los Angeles.