Adsum

An artwork for the Moon

Introduction

Conceived and produced for the Moon in 2019, Adsum is a cubic glass sculpture inside of which symbols are laser engraved. The symbols are positioned one in front of the other, thus forming a spatial poem inside the solid glass cube that can be read in any direction. 'Adsum' means “Here I am” in Latin, as used to indicate that the speaker is present (equivalent to the exclamation "here!" in a roll call).

Adsum  landed on the Moon on March 2, 2025, at 2:34 am CST. It evolved through five phases.

Milestones

  1. Proof-of-Concept[2019]
  2. Flight-Ready[2019-2022]
  3. Regex[2022]
  4. Planar[2024]
  5. Lander[2025]

  6. Drawings
Phase 1

Proof-of-Concept version

2019 [completed]

Adsum (PofC) is the first version of the work. It measures 4x4x4 in (10x10x10 cm) and was produced in an edition of five. Made of optically pure glass, it was laser engraved by Kac in Paris in 2019. This first version demonstrated the feasibility of the project, the durability of the material, and the multiple reading directions of the symbols.

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Phase 2

Flight-Ready version

2019–2022 [completed]

In preparation for its flight to the International Space Station, Kac reduced the original cube at a 10:1 scale and laser-engraved the miniaturized optical cube at the limit of legibility. The Flight-Ready Adsum measures 0.4 x 04 x 0.4 in (1x1x1 cm) and weighs 0.08 ounces (2.5 grams) on Earth; it weighs 0.014 ounces (0.41 grams) on the Moon. It was produced in an edition of five. The work flew to the ISS on February 19, 2022, on an Antares 230+ rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. The Flight-Ready Adsum has orbited the Earth aboard the ISS for eleven months and returned to Earth on January 11, 2023, aboard a SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft, splashing down off the coast of Florida.

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Phase 3

Regex version

2022 [completed]

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 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.

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Phase 4

Planar version

2024 [completed]

Kac’s Adsum (Planar) is an original ink on paper drawing that has been scanned, miniaturized, and engraved on a disk that reached the Moon’s surface in February 2024 mounted on a lander. It was launched on February 15, 2024, and it landed on the Moon a week later, on February 22. The landing site is Malapert A, a crater near the south pole. The original drawing measures 12 x 16.5 inches (30 x 42 cm).

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Phase 5

Lander version

2025 [completed]

This is the final version of Adsum. It is identical in material, technique, and scale to the Flight-Ready version, with the significant difference that the Lander version is on the Moon and will stay there, protected aboard the lander, for endless time.

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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)