Adsum Phase 3 - Regex version
2022
The Orion spacecraft as it orbited the Moon on November 20, 2022. The flash drive containing Kac's Adsum (Regex) was aboard. Credit: NASA. Adsum Regex illustration by E. Kac.
The Regex version of Kac’s artwork Adsum is a typographic interpretation of the visual symbols that make up the work, as stipulated by NASA through a ‘regular expression’ script when the agency collected “symbols of cultural significance” for the flight (per NASA’s press release of Aug 5, 2022). As such, Kac’s Adsum (Regex) was included in a USB drive that was placed aboard Orion for travel around the Moon during Artemis 1. Orion was launched atop the the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) on November 16, 2022. Before returning to Earth on December 11, the Orion spacecraft spent 26 days in space, including 6 days in orbit around the Moon.
Inside view of the Artemis 1 Orion crew module atop the Space Launch System rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 8, 2022. The USB drive that includes Kac's Adsum (Regex) is tucked out of sight. Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux.
NASA's Space Launch System Rocket lifting off on November 16, 2022, from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Orion crew module, which includes a USB drive containing Kac's Adsum (Regex), is atop the SLS.
A diagram showing key steps of the Artemis 1 flight. A flash drive containing Eduardo Kac's Adsum (Regex) was aboard the Orion spacecraft, which orbited the Moon. After a successful 26-day mission, which included a Moon flyby (passing within 81 miles [130 km] of the surface), the uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, on December 11, 2022. Artemis 1 was launched on November 16, 2022, from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, marking the first launch of the Space Launch System.
Eduardo Kac, Space Poetry 3, custom die-cut embroidered patch, 2023, 5.5" x 2" (14 x 5 cm).
The Space Poetry 3 patch, released in a limited edition of 100, commemorates the 2022 launch into Moon orbit, aboard Orion, of Kac's Adsum Regex, the typographic version of the work. Space Poetry 3 is a unique, irregularly-shaped, fully embroidered patch with the Adsum symbols translated into characters (as flown) and rendered in silver thread.
Read an interview with Eduardo Kac about Adsum (JPHS 6.1, June 2022)
Read an article about Adsum and Kac's space art (Artpress, September 2022)
Artemis 1 Mission Details
SLS launch date: November 16, 2022
Orion Moon flyby on November 21, 2022: 81 miles (~130 kilometers) of the Lunar surface
Orion's greatest distance from the Moon: Friday, Nov. 25, 2022 at more than 57,250 miles (~92,100 kilometers)
Orion total distance traveled: 1.4 million miles (2 million kilometers)
Orion's maximum distance from Earth: 268,552 miles (432,193 kilometers)
Orion splashdown in the Pacific Ocean: December 11, 2022
Mission duration: 26 days
NASA Artemis 1 LIVE
NASA's Real-time Orbit Website (AROW) will periodically tweet a set of Orion’s state vectors.
The data describes precisely where Orion is located in space.
AROW is available on NASA’s website.
Information on how to follow Orion is also available here.