Contact Chris

95-014 "Apollo Transit"
1995, Acrylic On Illustration Board

The twin spaceships that were our first interplanetary transport system are here seen in transit - in two ways. Firstly, the command/service modules and their partner lunar module are clearly in the midst of their epic voyage from the Earth to the moon and back: a physical transit between worlds. Secondly, we happen to view them from an angle where they cross the disc of the sun (the Roman god of which they took their name from): an astronomical transit. Showing off here their silhouettes, the two spacecraft display their different purposes: the streamlined conical form of the command module notes it as a child of the Earth, where wind and water have sway. The strange spidery lunar module is strictly a creation for the weightless, airless void of space and the lunar surface.

Within the vehicles, we can see the heads of the three crewmen as they maintain these mechanical marvels en route. You may notice that "up" is very much in dispute between the craft, as in weightless conditions these Earthly conventions mean little. Astronauts often found the change disturbing when moving from one module to another; switch plates abruptly seemed inverted, until the space traveler inverted themselves to adjust. It is just one more reminder of the strangeness of the new cosmic ocean which these spacecraft transited.

Chris Butler