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The Reentry Series Synthetic Meteor Showers |
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From the exhibition "Reentry: New York City, Studies for Synthetic Meteors", Eyebeam, NYC, Sept-Oct 2006: View MP4 videos or digital images from the HD video installation and DVD, "Studies for Synthetic Meteors V2.0 - New York City" View Installation Photos, the Mission Profile Animation or an Interview with the Artist from the exhibition. View MP4 videos or digital images from the earlier HD DVD "Studies for Synthetic Meteors V1.0". |
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 Space Shuttle Columbia Breakup AP Photo/Jason Hutchinson |
These works will be executed using multiple, carefully timed, atmospheric reentries consisting of sacrificial payloads which become artificial meteoroids, each possibly from different trajectories and each forming a synthetic meteor which becomes a stroke in a visual composition. Such synthetic meteors can be created by one of two methods, commercial space launch of sacrificial payloads designed to reenter the atmosphere or the interception and de-orbit of extant orbital debris. The vehicle requirements for interception and de-orbit are substantially more complex than those for a simple launch and reentry, so it is almost certain that the former technique will be used, at least initially. It should be noted that the increasing volume of orbital debris has been identified as an environmental hazard, the remediation of which will certainly occur at some time, providing future opportunities to create these works. It may also be possible to mount these works around the planned "controlled demise", as it is called, of a orbital vehicle such as the Russian Progress robotic resupply rockets serving the International Space Station.
The work explores the large scale use of the environment, and the atmosphere in particular, as a medium for visual composition.
A consequence of the activity is to highlight the extent to which humankind has impacted and has control over the environment.
The work mimics the naturally occurring phenomena of meteors, which have historically been attributed with significant religious
or supernatural
import as signs or omens and demonstrates that these events can now be synthesized and manipulated at will. It is land art
on a mega scale, exposing the degree to which we have altered and have the ability to further modify our environment.
The work combines elements and properties of technological, environmental, and conceptual art.
 SLG-118A Peacekeeper MIRVed ICBM US Air Force Photo |
Compositional Constraints
Unlike fireworks, to which a comparison is as inevitable as it is regrettable, synthetic meteors
have significant constraints on the forms which may be created. Perhaps this is part of their attraction
as a drawing medium. The limited repertoire of markings available is compelling and
invokes an almost minimalist practice by necessity.
Stroke Shape
Stroke Orientation
The studies show a significant lateral separation between individual meteors.
This so-called "cross-range" distance is difficult to achieve and requires significant expenditure of energy
to deploy individual meteors with any significant separation. It is most probable that the meteor paths,
instead of being truly parallel, will be divergent.
Stroke Color
Stroke Timing
A Limited Vocabulary
Compositional Strategies
Working with meteors demands acknowledgment of their powerful historical presence as omens and signs and a position with respect
to that legacy. "...comets and meteors since time immemorial have functioned as symbols of change".(2)
Many religions and cultures which are based on a linear concept of time (as opposed to the cyclical time perceived by Native
Americans for instance), posit an end to worldly life, an apocalypse. Meteors figure prominently in many religious texts as
precursors to such a "Rapture". The fixation with this supposed imminent end on the part of American Evangelicals
highlights the disparity between popular culture and high culture in the US. Issues of theism or agnosticism aside,
Apocalyptic and eschatological thought are rooted in the idea of linear history, an idea which firmly propelled modernism.
In the light of postmodern thought apocalypse is either impossible or has already occurred, an idea which apparently does
not have resonance with the Evangelical movement.
This work demythologizes meteors, removing their status as portents and acts of God, and instead incorporates them into the
repertoire of artist's tools and materials. It is anti-apocalyptic in the sense that these works artificially create
a portent of the apocalypse, and thereby strive to invalidate prophecies of apocalypse, revealing them to be archaic and
obsolescent, historical religious fictions increasingly awkward to maintain in the light of advanced society.
Should a global catastrophe occur, with the leading candidate perhaps being environmental disaster, it will be man-made,
like these synthetic meteors. These works also serve to refute the idea of an apocalypse bringing an
end to time. If interpreted as portents, these meteors are synthetic, and any concept of apocalypse is equally synthetic, an
act of man, not god. It is ironic that the Kwajalein Atol ICBM tests, the reentry event most closely prefiguring these works
to date, only serve to reinforce this position.
These works also function as a post-modern Apocalyptic Sublime. Both comets and meteors are consistent with Edmund Burke's
doctrine of the Sublime and were a frequent subject in British art of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Reentry Pieces
provide a literal realization of Danby's "Opening of the Sixth Seal", but without the repercussions, without any impending
Apocalypse, without the ending. They are epic in scale but temporally transient and eminently reproducible.
They support not the end of time, but the end of an idea of the linear development of art or culture.
These large scale environmental works also reflect on the development of electronic imaging. The strokes of the meteor's path
faithfully mimic the first vector graphic displays. These vector displays drew lines of the desired orientation directly on the
CRT phosphor, much like the stroke of a pencil, unlike contemporary raster displays which are scanned sequentially in a grid-like
pattern. The short life of the meteor is very much like a single scan of the electron beam across the phosphor of a vector display.
With CRT displays, the formation of a solid image is dependent on the continuous repetitive scanning of the image. It was common
in early vector computer animation to scan the image only once per film exposure, with
the single rapid pass of the electron beam over the face of the CRT having very much the same visual result as a meteor’s rapidly
fading trail due to the short persistence of the CRT phosphor. This suggests that synthetic meteors as a rudimentary form of
atmospheric vector drawing might be the precursor to a more persistent raster atmospheric imaging method, perhaps formed by
inducing ionization via laser or other means.
The realization of these works will involve substantial planning and expense. Research is currently underway to determine the
mass required of an artificial meteoroid to produce a given meteor visual magnitude in a night sky. This investigation is being done with
the assistance of the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. Initial estimates
are as high as hundreds of kilograms of mass per synthetic meteorite. Preliminary investigation has indicated
that a Pegasus air-launched three stage booster,
developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, might be the most cost effective launch vehicle.
With a payload
capacity maximum of about 400 kg and assuming a sacrificial payload mass of 100 kg per meteor, one vehicle launch could produce
four meteors at a preliminary cost of approximately 2 million dollars assuming a rudimentary vehicle to disperse the individual
payloads. These four meteors would
exhibit effectively identical parallel orientations. To create drawings with differently oriented lines, for instance simple intersecting lines or a
grid, would require a second near-simultaneous launch. The minimum lead time for a Pegasus launch is 22 months.
Interestingly, the LGM-118A Peacekeeper Missile
(formerly known as the MX) would make an ideal launch vehicle for synthetic meteors. Capable of
launching 10 reentry vehicles, each weighing 400 to 800 pounds, the final stage consists of the so-called "bus", a guidance
platform capable of the precise individual release of each of the 10 reentry vehicles (originally nuclear warheads).
The missiles are gradually being decommissioned with all of the 50 produced scheduled to be removed from service
this year. Some are being converted to a satellite launcher role by Orbital Sciences, the Pegasus system supplier.
Inquiries are underway to determine if this OSP-2 Peacekeeper variant still possesses the MIRV capability and the launch cost.
The LGN-118A Peacekeeper program's cost was in excess of $20 billion.
A more detailed Implemetation Roadmap describes the steps required to develop the technology to
mount the Reentry Series and includes updated mass requirements.
Studies depicting synthetic meteor drawings are currently in preparation. The final works will almost certainly occur at night to minimize the
mass required of the sacrificial payload for a given visibility. Depicting the meteor drawings against dark sky, at night, introduces obvious
challenges to create a proper sense of space and scale. Some studies will employ a night sky and celestial bodies such as the moon, however, most
studies will use night cityscapes as a backdrop both to site-specifically place the events as well as to provide a sense of scale. This also interrelates with
the concerns of the Grid Switch Series. Computer video renderings of the reentry events are being composited into high definition video cityscapes and
compiled as an HD DVD. Efforts are also underway to produce visualizations using the planetarium at the Rose Space Center of the American Museum of Natural
History in New York.
While it might be desirable to execute the final works in the skies over cities for the obvious presence of an audience,
there are severe obstacles to this. In addition to the potential for alarming the populace in a post 9/11 environment,
extreme measures would have to be taken to assure that the sacrificial payloads were completely demised before reaching the ground.
NASA now requires all space missions to undergo a risk assessment evaluation
where the likelihood of physical harm to individuals from orbital debris which survives reentry is calculated
using computer models. Even if it could be convincingly determined that the
risks to those on the ground were minimal, the potential for alarm may militate overwhelmingly against that venue.
Current practice is for the controlled demise of
orbital vehicles to be conducted over remote unpopulated areas, such as the South Pacific.
"Studies for Synthetic Meteors V1.0"
View HD video clips in Quicktime,
Windows Media, or MPEG-2
formats from the HD DVD, "Studies for Synthetic Meteors V1.0".
This is the first in a series of Reentry studies and which began in the Fall of 2004 and will be completed in the summer of 2005.
This series of studies consists of high definition and standard definition video and digital prints. The Studies originate with a sequence of high resolution
(8 Megapixel) digital camera images, typically 60 to 100, taken in rapid succession of the same scene, usually night cityscapes. These digital images
are then subtly retouched and the meteor visualizations are rendered over them at a variety of resolutions, ranging from 3k x 2k pixels for digital prints to
1902x1080 and 1284x720 high definition video and finally 720x480 standard definition video. The typical video clip length is 20 seconds while
digital prints are typically 20"x30".
The high definition video clips are each intended each to be viewed on individual HD displays. As an alternate, multiple clips from the same city could be
presented on a single display. Consisting of 20 second loops, the meteor events typically last only
a few seconds. The correct display is essential for proper presentation of the high resolution HD. As of this writing, there are only a handful of displays
capable of the required resolution, which is 1920 pixels in width. The preferred presentation device is a wall-mounted LCD flat panel. Two 24 inch diagonal
computer displays and one 45 inch diagonal digital television are the only current devices which are acceptable. Video projection would be equally desirable
but the only 1920 video projector currently available is prohibitively expensive. A small number of laptops have acceptable displays as well as some
CRTs, but these present difficulties in regard to installation.
The work may be released as a limited edition High Definition DVD, depending upon HD-DVD player availability. The "Blue-Ray" HD-DVD
standard has been adopted and consumer players are expected in the fall of 2005. Pending the availability of HD-DVD players, a computer is required
for HD playback. Several computer-based HD-DVD formats are available for distribution.
These studies have been shown to NASA offices and researchers as well as staff from the Rose Center for Space at the American Museum of Natural History
in support of the project. It is intended to exhibit them in a variety of venues, fine art and otherwise, to attract additional support for the project.
5/5/04, 3/2-4/05, 6/1-6/05, 7/19-20/05
2) "Fire in the Sky: Comets and Meteors in the Decisive Centuries in British Art and Science" Roberta J.M. Olson and Jay M. Pasachoff, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p.3
The most significant constraint is the fact that
meteors are restricted to forming straight lines. While not necessarily obvious, the very high velocity and
kinetic energy of meteors dictate this. Two other alternatives to simple meteors are available from astronomy,
the cluster and the bolide. A cluster would involve a group of closely spaced meteors, the net
effect of which would somewhat resemble a brush stroke as opposed to a single streak which would be more like a pencil line.
The cluster will be investigated in future studies but presents problems in anticipating group behavior, i.e.
collisions and other mutual interactions and so is considered less deterministic. A bolide is a
very large meteor which actually explodes during reentry, shattering into numerous smaller meteoroids. Very dramatic no doubt, but
virtually impossible to model or predict with current meteor understanding and therefore subject to minimal control.
Also, bolides, due to their larger mass, usually result in ground collisions of larger fragments so must be excluded for
reasons of safety. Perhaps when bolides are better understood they can be used compositionally.
The orientation of meteor trails is determined by the trajectories of the meteors
which are in turn governed by the launch profile and resulting reentry path. There are only
two major variations, orbital and ballistic. Orbital is the most cost-effective method to obtain a reentry event, via
deliberate decay of a "LEO" or low earth orbit trajectory.
This technique is potentially more economic due to the possibility of "piggy-backing" on
another project's launch. It would dictate velocities in the range of 8 km/s and a more or less zero flight path angle
(the angle of the reentry trail with respect to the horizon).
Thus for a single launch all of the meteors will be on an essentially horizontal plane with respect to the
ground. This plane will be slightly inclined down in to the direction of travel. A major reason for constraining
the meteors to be in this parallel plane is to insure they have similar reentry velocities. If the velocities
are not well matched, the orbital decays will differ and the meteors will not reenter over same location.
Most of the studies show this orbital decay reentry path. At a given observation location the
meteor trail could extend from nearly horizon to horizon.
A ballistic launch profile involves sending the launch vehicle directly away from the earth in the fashion of
an ICBM.
The returning meteors can then exhibit very steep flight path angles. This is shown in only one of the studies,
that for Albuquerque. Much higher reentry velocities, possibly as much as 30 km/s, can be obtained in this fashion.
The final stages of a
multistage vehicle can be turned 180 degrees with respect to their flight path prior to ignition, and fired back
in the direction of the earth. This technique is rarely used but was done to test the reentry heat shield for the Apollo program
as the returning crew module would be reentering at much higher than escape velocity. This is by far the more expensive
approach however, almost certainly requiring a dedicated launch. Even with a ballistic launch the direction of all of the
meteors is constrained to be in essentially the same orientation, largely parallel lines with some divergence.
In order to achieve the intersecting sets of lines or grids shown in the studies,
two separate launches are required, with the very rigorous requirement of achieving simultaneous collocated reentry.
Peacekeeper ICBM MIRV test, Kwajelein Atol
US Air Force Photo
It may not be apparent but there is the potential for a relatively broad chromatic palette when dealing with meteors.
Naturally occurring meteors are often a pure white but can exhibit a wide range of colors including greens, reds, pinks,
and yellows, virtually the entire spectrum. In addition, some meteors exhibit what is known as a persistent train, or trail,
which can remain visible for minutes after the passage of the meteor. The color of this train can also vary,
most typically being greenish or reddish yellow in color. Scientists are beginning to understand the chemical basis for the
varying colors of meteors and their trains so it should be possible to exert control over the color of synthetic meteors by
doping the artificial meteoroids with varying metallic compounds as with fireworks.
The spectra of the allowable metallic ion transitions determine the color of
the meteor trail as the metal atoms are ionized and then cool. The use of color and persistent trains are explored in the studies.
A further possible variation on meteor color is to change the color of an individual meteor during the course of its
travel. This could be accomplished by depositing different coloring materials in concentric layers. As each layer burned
off the meteor would change color. This was discussed in some depth with leading meteor astronomer, Dr. Peter Jenniskens, and
it was determined that the current state of meteor physics would make predictable and consistent behavior problematic.
There is some uncertainly about ablation rates and uniformity, making the timing of the color changes uncertain.
In addition, the meteorite would need to be imparted with substantial rotational velocity to insure uniform ablation around its circumference.
This places a further burden of complexity on the deployment vehicle. Changing a meteor's color during the course of
its path, while quite possible, is best reserved for future development when more is known about their behavior.
SLG-118A Peacekeeper, Deployment Module
A technician lowers the nose cone over the Peacekeeper final
stage or MIRV "bus". The conical shapes are the warheads
which the bus maneuvers to deploy at individual targets.
US Air Force Photo
Since this is a time-dependent work, that would suggest the ability to stagger strokes over time. Again, the orbital or ballistic
dynamics conspire against this, dictating essentially simultaneous reentry of the meteors from a given launch. Attempts to
create staggered arrival times for meteors from the same launch involve either significant maneuvering of the deployment
vehicle, requiring an unreasonable energy expenditure, or involve altering meteor velocity, requiring release during the
boost phase of the launch. This would require an independent de-orbit thruster per meteor, again, an unreasonable complexity.
The differing velocities would also make it extremely difficult to achieve arrival over the same geographical position, as
an attempt to create a later arrival with a lower velocity would result in up range reentry. In short, all the meteors
from a given launch are require to arrive more or less simultaneously.
As can be seen, the available marking vocabulary for synthetic meteors is highly limited. While meteors share
the luminosity and spectral character of fireworks they possess nothing of fireworks immense geometric diversity.
This makes the medium interesting to the artist concerned with working in a restricted vocabulary as well as restricting
the scope for commercialization. Thus the generation of synthetic meteors becomes an area of "pure" aesthetic practice.
Within the confines of the limited vocabulary available, the compositions attempt to relate to the physical or geometric structure
of the target site, whether built or natural;
the rectilinear grid of Manhattan, the diagonals of the Bay Area, or the strong parallelogram shapes of Albuquerque. The
compositions for other locales focus on specific places, the Capital Lawn and opposing structures of the Washington Monument
and Capital building or the signature towers in Dallas. The minimalist compositions of the meteor showers attempt a site-specific
relationship to the target locale, mirroring selective structures or highlighting others.
Cultural Associations of Meteors
Peacekeeper ICBM MIRV test, Kwajelein Atol
US Air Force Photo
Technology
Leonids Meteor Shower (detail)
photo Pierre Martin & Michael F. Vasseur
Studies
A red Perseid meteor photographed on August 9, 2002
photo Pierre Martin
requires reasonably recent hardware, see specific requirements for each format
View Digital Images and Quicktime,
Windows Media or MPEG-2 clips from the HD DVD, "Studies for Synthetic Meteors V1.0".
The effects of atmospheric disturbance (the "shimmering" of distant lights or stars) are simulated by digital image processing
of the original digital
camera images. In addition, the night sky in the scene is usually darkened and a star field synthesized to create a ground
for the simulated meteors.
The meteors and shimmering are rendered at video frame rate while the digital image is updated every eight to ten frames.
The result provides
a final scene which is obviously different from simple recorded reality. The atmospheric effects and meteor trails are realistic
but the scene itself
"stutters" due to the 8 fps update rate of the original digital images. The final quality is slightly discordant in that
"reality" is rendered less accurately
than the simulated meteor events. Additionally, the meteor trails themselves are not rendered using 3D modeling software but
are essentially sketched. Simple
line drawings are made over the digital camera images. the endpoints digitized, and a drawing program was written to render
these "meteor trails" with appropriate decay timing.
All of the drawing occurs in the two-space of the original digital images so the perspective effects are very much "eyeballed"
and show some hand.
This satisfies the objective of not creating a perfect Hollywood-style digital rendering of the scene; these are, after all,
studies. All software for the project was written by the artist.
Studies for Synthetic Meteors - San Diego
Still from HD Video Animation
Estancia, New Mexico
1) The reentry of man-made orbital objects creates luminous trails which are not strictly the same as meteors. Meteoroids (the
celestial objects whose atmospheric reentry creates meteors) are usually very small, having the mass of a grain of sand. They are
traveling at very high velocities, typically about 20 kilometers per second. Their reentry creates an atmospheric shock wave
that produces a luminous plasma field which is nominally 50 meters in diameter. Manmade reentry objects have velocities less than
8 kilometers per second and produce somewhat less visible paths, consisting of a smaller luminous mantle, requiring a much
greater mass to achieve the same apparent brightness. The physics of the reentry at these lower velocities are somewhat different than those of
meteorites. However, in discussions with staff at the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, the terms "synthetic meteors" or "artificial meteoroids"
were deemed appropriate. Meteoroids which survive reentry to reach the earth's surface are called meteorites.