Four payloads
into orbit
MoonMars Museum sends four cultural-scientific payloads into orbit on “Mission Possible” with The Exploration Company.
Earth orbit, June 2025. The MoonMars Museum is proud to announce its participation in the “Mission Possible” mission aboard The Exploration Company's Nyx capsule. This international science-and-art initiative, initiated by former ESA Chief Scientist Prof. Bernard Foing, will carry a science and art payload into low Earth orbit, where it will circle the planet before returning for scientific study and public engagement.
As part of the Space Renaissance 4 All Gallery, the MoonMars Museum contributes four dedicated payload slots featuring cutting-edge, miniaturized art-science artefacts. These are developed in close collaboration with advanced technology partners NanoFiche, sPhotonix and Printoptix, making it possible for cultural storytelling in a very small form factor with high-precision optics, data preservation and microfabrication. Keeping the footprint of the MoonMars Museum small whilst creating a big impact for future generations to come.
Each of our four payload slots is bridging the original moon landing on March 2, 2025 on a NanoFiche inside the Lifeship payload on the Firefly Blue Ghost Moonlander to future endeavors of the MoonMars Museum. Together with our technical partners, we are forging a poetic and scientific bridge between Earth and orbit. This is the first step of a three tier approach to go to the surface of the Moon with the first European mainlander by The Exploration Company.
The four MoonMars Museum payloads
MoonMars NanoFiche layer
Developed using NanoFiche ultra-dense data storage technology, this 9mm nickel layer contains a nanoscale version of high-resolution imagery from the Mare Crisium Collection. The same collection was sent to the surface of the Moon aboard the Firefly Blue Ghost Moonlander on March 2, 2025 as part of the Lifeship payload, marking a major milestone for the first Museum on the Moon.
sPhotonix crystal glass: 5D digital storage
In collaboration with sPhotonix, this unique artefact stores five-dimensional laser-etched data within a 9mm glass disc. The content: digital documentation of the Chauvet Cave paintings, some of the earliest known human artworks, preserved for eternity in crystalline form. This payload inaugurates a new theme for the next MoonMars Museum collection: documenting the deep past of human creativity as we look toward the future. It also serves as the artistic prelude to a planned future lunar mission themed around art forms throughout the ages.
Lunar Legacy MicroSculpture
Designed with Printoptix, this optical 3D micro-sculpture celebrates the MoonMars Museum's distinction as the first museum to place artwork on the Moon, via the Firefly Blue Ghost mission. At the center is a miniature version of “The Fallen Astronaut”, originally placed on the Moon in 1971 by artist Paul van Hoeydonck. That makes this a historic return and a tribute. Surrounding the central piece are six additional nanoprinted artworks:
- “The Nest” by Mary Kuiper
- “Pillman” by Micha Klein
- A gold-toned MoonMars Museum “symbolic reliquary”
- A nanoprinted plaque displaying the word “Moon”, acting as a cultural marker for future interpreters
- A micro-rocket sculpture, symbolizing propulsion and ambition
- A miniature 3D-printed MoonMars Museum, completing the tribute to space culture in miniature form
Moonstone artefact
A moonstone-shaped sculpture in the form of the MoonMars Museum logo, this artefact carries symbolic and material meaning. Moonstone, long associated with lunar cycles, feminine energy and transformation, serves as a poetic and resonant medium to send into space. It marks the beginning of the MoonMars Museum's signature collection of lunar-themed jewelry and artefacts, connecting Earth-bound creativity with extraterrestrial heritage. This piece bridges emotional, spiritual and geological significance: a timeless gesture toward our celestial neighbor.
These contributions are integrated within a heritage astrobiology tray, originally flown in ESA's ISS EXPOSE experiments of 2009 to 2010, now repurposed as a vessel for interdisciplinary payloads representing science, culture and sustainable space development.
A mission of symbol and science
Led by EuroMoonMars, SRI and LUNEX, the Mission Possible initiative celebrates the Space Renaissance for All vision in support of UN SDG18: Space4All. Alongside artefacts from NASA Ames, leading universities and international artists, the MoonMars Museum's pieces embody the mission's unifying theme: that space belongs to everyone.
The Nyx capsule is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Base, California in June 2025, orbit Earth, and return intact, making its payload available for scientific evaluation, museum exhibitions and public outreach.
“This is not just a technological mission. It is a statement. Together with MoonMars and our partners, we are creating a human-centric space future that carries our stories, knowledge, and spirit.”
Prof. Bernard Foing
Contact
MoonMars Museum
press@moonmars.com
www.moonmars.com