Three experiments are described which use space processing technology in the formation of and coating of bubbles and spheres to be orbited as sculptures visible from Earth. In one experiment, a 22,000 m1 sphere is to ride into orbit containing a 15 psi Earth atmosphere. Once in orbit, a controller directs a valve to open, linking the sphere to a vacuum of space. Technologies used in the fabrication of these art forms include vacuum film deposition and large bubble formation in the space environment

Coursen, C. D.

Mcshane, J. W.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

6-38, 39 and 40 
An Artist's Exploration of Space 
Joseph W. MCShane * 
C. Daniel Coursen 3** 
Some say they see poetry in my painting: I see only science." 11 
From the notebook of the pointillest painter Georges Seurat. 
This paper is a tripartite exploration of (1) the human imagination in space, 
(2) a synopsis of the concepts expressed in Payloads G-38, 39 and 40 and 
(3) the systems of G-38 and technical lessons learned during the design and 
fabrication of the payload (sections 1 and 2 by Joseph W. McShane, section 3 
by C. Daniel Coursen). 
1 
20,000 years ago, on the edge of the European ice sheet, in caves like 
Altamira in Spain, the visionary hunter/artist held brush in band and sought 
understanding by creating an image of the animals that formed the basis of 
his culture. 
and hand he was using a tool on the cutting edge of his technology. 
When that artist grasped the brush as an extension of his eye 
The computer on G-38 and the systems it interacts with are tools on the 
cutting edge of our technology. 
and hand as I seek to understand 20,000 years later the nature of the vacuum, 
weightlessness and scale of space that will become the basis of the next 
20,000 years of man's future. 
They form an extension of the artist's eye 
Anasazi pictograph, 
painted 1200 years ago. 
photographed in the 
GrandGulchof the 
San Juan Basin, Utah 
by Charles Lyon. 
The mathematician/philosopher Jacob Bronowski saw the cave painting as a 
sort of timelock. "For us, the cave paintings re-create the hunter's way 
* I%rsWWShane, Eewtt, Arizona 
He G.M. Vacuum Gating Laboratory, Newport Peach, California 
%ulptor/Payload k g e r  
Optical Design and hgjneering/Paylmd Ehgineer 
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19840019706 2020-03-22T09:33:43+00:00Z
of life as a glimpse of history: 
for the painter/hunter, I suggest, they were a peep-hole into the future: 
he looked ahead. 
telescope tube of the imagination: 
to what can be inferred or conjectured." 
we look through them into the past. But 
In either direction, the cave paintings act as a kind of 
they direct the mind from what is seen 
The analogy of a telescope of the imagination that Bronowski applie'd to the 
cave paintings also aptly applies to the sculptures that will be created by 
the technological experiments in space of payloads G-38, 39 and 40. 
the first time since man first gazed at the stars and from an earth-bound, 
one-atmosphere, one-gravity perspective sought understanding of the 
unfathomable heavens through his art, the opportunity has been presented 
to make use of man's technology as an extension of the artist's eye and 
hand to venture forth directly into the vacuum and weightlessness of space, 
seeking understanding. 
For 
Until the opportunity was presented to work directly in space by the Small 
Self-contained Payload Program, the artist has always been earth-bound, 
able to only create imaginary images of a space he could never know. 
program offers the opportunity for the artist to develop and interact with 
a technology unique to space: 
with new materials on a scale never before possible. 
The 
to create new artistic concepts of space 
On a fall day in 1981, standing with astrophysicist Phillip Morrison at 
MIT's Steinbrenner Stadium, watching Japanese kites soar through the sky, 
Phillip said (and I quote as accurately as I remember), "The earth is flat. 
Please don't quote me out of context," he hurried on to say, "but the scale 
involved in the few kilometers distance between the bottom of the Mariana 
Trench and the top of Mt. Everest becomes relatively insignificant and flat 
when one looks to space and contemplates not only how far away the Andromeda 
Nebula is, but how may light years older the light reaching us from the far 
side is than that from the edge nearest to us. 
have to come to terms with as he ventures off the face of the earth and 
into space . " 
That is the scale man will 
Today, with certain significant exceptions, sculpture remains fastened to 
earth somewhere between Mt. Everest and the Mariana Trench and to interact 
with it one walks slowly around its base observing a form constructed in 
such a way as to support itself in a one-gravity environment. 
2 
The intent of payload G-39 is to explore space with sculptural concepts: 
creating art on a scale never befor accessible, using materials and 
processes in a way specific to, and possible only in, the vacuum and 
weightlessness of orbit. 
For a number of years, in addition to solid sculpture, I have created a 
series of sculptures out of bubbles, free for brief moments to flow as a 
diaphanous form with the breeze. On earth, due to gravity, the largest 
size any of these sculptures have attained is less than three feet in 
diameter. I owe a special thank you to GAS pioneer Gilbert Moore for 
providing the inspiration that permits the extension of this sculpture 
series from earth to space. 
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G-39 will expand on this series by ejecting a canister that, when safely 
away from the shuttle, will inflate bubbles in orbit out of a plastic 
material that will cure and harden in orbit. 
enable the bubbles to attain a size not possible on earth and clearly 
visible in the night sky from earth. 
The absence of gravity will 
Looking to create a subtle reordering, of at least my own sense of scale 
and place, the sculpture becomes not the bubbles themselves, but concep- 
tually the 30,000 mile circumference of the orbit they travel, creating 
a sculpture on a scale never before achieved. 
center of this art work and instead of walking around the sculpture, the 
orbit/sculpture would surround us and we will exist inside of, and look 
out at, it. 
The earth will form the 
G-39 will be a peaceful celebration of man's venture into space, an art 
work possessed by no one and equally accessible to all. 
As I first began t o  dream of using new technology to create art in space 
most thoughts centered on projects that would be ejected from the GAS can 
and placed in orbit, helping the mind make the transition from the one- 
gravity, one-atmosphere , horizon limited preconceptions that man has 
evolved with since his beginnings on an African plain, to the zero-gravity, 
vacuum, unlimited scale of space where man seems destined t o  venture. Each 
time I envisioned returning a payload to earth it became enmeshed in these 
innate earth-bound preconceptions. 
for use on GAS containers until 1985, it became apparent that if I wanted 
to orbit an early experiment the payload would have to be processed in 
orbit and returned to earth. G-38 evolved to meet that condition. 
Since the operable lid was not scheduled 
G-38 is an interrelated group of nine glass spheres, blown for the experiment 
by the Schott Glass Works in Germany and modified for use in G-38. 
the spheres, ranging in size from 50Oml to 3,000m1, will go into orbit as 
clear glass and while exposed to the unlimited vacuum of space be coated 
using two separate vacuum deposition techniques, with8 gold, platinum, 
aluminum and multi-layered coatings, creating eight lustrous sculptures 
formed in space. 
Eight of 
h CoUrsen and Joseph KShane 
inspecting ccnnpleted gold vapor 
depition test at G.M. Vacuum 
bating Laboratory. 
Photographer: R. JawsHills 
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The ninth and largest sphere is the simplest in concept, but the one that, 
for me at least, provides the greatest play of the human imagination. This 
22,OOOml sphere will ride into orbit containing a 15psi earth atmosphere. 
Once in orbit the Eptak 210 controller will direct a valve to open, linking 
the sphere directly to the vacuum of space. Over a three day period the 
sphere will attain an equilibrium with the vacuum of the orbit, becoming 
one with space. 
vacuum of space. A copper tube connecting the sphere to the valve will be 
cold welded, permanently sealing the sphere. 
31GCH5-10 Baratron Capasitance Manometer, a vacuum gauge capable of a very 
exact digital reading of the vacuum in the sphere, expected to be in the 
iX10-5 torr range. 
The valve will close and the sphere will return with the 
Attached to the sphere is a 
The sculpture then is not the glass, but the outer space contained within. 
The sphere serves only to keep the one-g earth atmosphere from intruding on 
the space within, creating an anomaly of our common experience. 
I would hope that this piece of sculpture, created using the tools of our 
technology, would find a place where one might view it as a "telescope of 
the imagination": observe, wonder about the nature and meaning of space, 
touch and know that only 1/8" of glass separates us from thk purest outer 
space, a proximity to space heretofore reserved for only those few 
privileged to be astronauts. 
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand 
And Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour.'' 
William Blake 
Auguries of Innocence 
Joseph KShane inspectjng an 
iridescent multi-layered 
coating on a 3,000 m l  test 
sphere. 
photographer: k l e s  Lyon 
-122- 
3 
The principle of vacuum thin film deposition (evaporation) is based on two 
concepts. First, some material is raised to a high enough temperature that 
it becomes a gas. Second, most of the gas must travel directly to the 
object being coated, the substrate, without first striking another molecule. 
This is, in effect, governed by "mean free path" conditions. If most 
molcicules of evaporant reach the substrate unimpeded the coating will be 
reasonably dense and adherent. 
The most common example of vacuum deposition is the dark coating in a light 
bulb that forms as the filament slowly evaporates itself. If that filament 
had been impregnated with aluminum, for example, the lamp would have become 
a shiny opaque ball the instant it was turned on. 
By working at short distances in a clean vacuum of less than l ~ l O - ~  torr, 
about 1/10,000,000 of an atmosphere, we expect to produce excellent coatings, 
in spite of some restrictions in the pumping speed caused by the restricted 
openings in the NASA lid and thermal cover. Extensive tests of the filaments 
and evaporation equipment have been run at G.M. Vacuum Coating Laboratory to 
verify the system's performance. 8 
Sputtering is a unique type of vacuum deposition related to evaporation. In 
this case, molecules of the material to be deposited are mechanically knocked 
loose from a relatively cold source called the target. 
ionizing an inert gas at as low a pressure as practical and by charging the 
target negative, excellerating a positively charged gas, usually argon ions, 
into its surface. The reaction is similar to billiard ball behavior and 
target molecules are ejected by the impact of the ions at a high rate toward 
the substrate. In this type of system, the substrate is usually much closer 
to the source than in vapor deposition. This is why we elected to sputter 
the smaller spheres and evaporate in the larger ones. 
This is done by 
It is our hope to use the space environment to our advantage. 
for several days without using power o r  adding contamination from organic 
oils often used in conventional vacuum pumps. We can also evapoate materials 
from filaments which normally tend to drip off during heat up and melt phase. 
In space the weightlessness should eliminate much of the risk of a droplet 
falling into the sphere. 
We can pump 
The methods and results of G-38 will help supply useful data for simplified 
coatings of large antennas and heat shields in space where vacuum chamber 
size is unlimited. This device could have been made, for example, as a 
free floating module to coat rather large devices, such as bubbles, in space. 
G-38 had three basic objectives. 
to evacuate a large glass sphere with a vacuum gauge attached, seal it and 
return it in permanently sealed condition, allowing us to measure our working 
vacuum. Second, we were to perform eight depositions of thin films attempt- 
ing to make best use of the space environment: vacuum, wightlessness and 
freedom from organic oil. 
limitations, using as much commercial technology as possible. 
First, we were to design a sampling system 
The third task was to operate within budget 
-123- 
Several major areas of difficulty soon became apparent and we feel that in 
general they must apply to many GAS projects. 
experiment are a serious design challenge. 
simple solutions would exist. 
the payload: 
where needed) and run a low density 6-watt heater to prevent battery 
freezing. 
overheating in certain locations than it was to provide enough battery 
power to heat and cool  the system. 
and evaporation filaments, generate up to 300-watts of heat for one or 
two minutes and then slowly leak it through polyimide foam to the rest 
of the system. 
Temperature swings in the 
If power were not limited, 
insulate the experiment (with a few select thermal leaks 
We elected to use a cool option in designing 
It was in most cases easier to find materials to survive brief 
Some components, high current relays 
3 liter sphere I 
center, prepared 
photographer : R 
Lth tmgston filam 
for vacuum coating 
. Jams €Ells 
at in 
test. 
The Eagle controller was selected for its E'Prom memory, needing no backup 
power to retain program and current status inputs. Should battery power 
decline due to low temperature, the device merely waits for a warm cycle 
in the orbit and then continues. The same shutdown and continue mode 
occurs if over temperature sensors temporarily disconnect power and let 
the system cool down. 
Location of space worthy materials was a major hurdle to overcome. 
tion of excellent polymers to replace heavier metallic components was aided 
Selec- 
-124- 
dramatically by the NASA Outgassing Data Compilation of Spacecraft Materials 
Publication 1014. 
ceramic is in the evapoation hardware. 
hold the filament and glow discharge cleaning electrodes. 
manganese nickel leads isolate the hot tungston from the polymer support 
which has a working temperature above 500'F. 
have eliminated many clamps and fittings in the system. 
have been almost impossible without NASA's list of suppliers. 
obtaining specialized materials was a time consuming and frustrating 
challenge. 
An unusual example of plastic in place of more breakable 
A piece of VRl040PPS is used to 
Only short 
Viton and TFE shrink tubing 
The project would 
Even s o ,  
Delivery times and prices can be shocking. 
The power budget controls most final decisions in an experiment of this type. 
Our system needs both long term power for control and servo functions and 
high short term (1 minute/40amp) output for performing thermal evaporation 
and medium (2 hour/3amp) power for the sputtering tests. 
experiment consists of light polyimide foam and empty glass spheres, battery 
weight was not the main problem. 
Acid Batteries (sealed) were selected to meet the requirement and lab tests 
have been very encouraging. 
very low drain sleep cycle to our controller or it would have used too much 
power over seven days. 
itself completely off for six hours and then reactivates. 
cycle current drain is about 12 micro amps. 
currernt status of all valves and relays. 
from the R.D. Mathis Corporation, coated with the intended evaporant, allows 
short low power evaporation in three large spheres. 
DC converter drives the sputtering targets for a two hour coating cycle with 
metals tolerant to possible poor vacuum conditions, should all not go as 
well as expected. Globe gear motors and Swagelok plug valves running in 
a sealed nitrogen environment control the vacuum process and use power only 
when changing states. 
Since much of our 
YUASA Captured Electrolite Calcium Lead 
In spite of good batteries, we had to add a 
At preset points in the program the controller turns 
During the off 
The E'Prom memory retains 
The use of miniature filaments, 
A high fequency DC to 
Housing fabrication proved to be a challenging stumbling block. 
important lesson learned from this phase of the project is to select a 
single machine and welding shop that has helium leakttest equipment and 
experience. Coordinating the difficulties of separate machining, welding 
and testing facilities is almost impossible. 
steel was so much more reliable to weld and fabricate that the weight and 
cost benefits of aluminum were negated. 
for other experiments. 
The most 
We found that stainless 
Of course, this may not be true 
If all goes well, we will soon have a beautiful group of gold, platinum, 
chrome, aluminum and multi-layered spheres. But whether the experiment 
performs perfectly or not, it has been a challenging experience that none' 
of us will forget. 
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A s  Jacob Bronowski said, "Man is unique not because he does science and 
he is unique not because he does art, but because science and art equally 
are expressions of his marvellous plasticity of mind." 
The Greek root of Technology, Technical and Technique is TECHNE, meaning 
man's ART, CRAFT and SKILL. 
From the cave as man first explored and strove to perfect his techne and 
continuing forth wherever he ventures, man leaves the imprint of his 
tech@', saying: 'This is my mark. This is man.' 
The hand of Anasazi nran, painted 12cK) years ago. 
Photographed in the Grand Gulch of the San Juan Basin, U t a h  
by Qlarles Lyon, photographer for 638, 39 and 40. 
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G-38, 39 and 40: An artist's exploration of space

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