NASA Could Soon Build A Mini Museum Aboard The International Space Station
By Alexa Heah, 10 Jan 2022
Following a recent agreement with NASA, startup Uplift Aerospace could soon be starting a mini museum collection aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It plans to send a wide variety of precious goods—including paintings, gemstones, and artifacts—to space beginning this year.
Members of Uplift’s Space+ community will have access to the collection, called the ‘Constellation Vault’, with the option to purchase some of the items and even send something of their own to the ISS.
“The Constellation Vault is an exhibition space where top brands, artists, and creators will be able to send items that are designed for space, that are unique, or are some of the most precious items from Earth to be showcased on the space station,” Josh Hanes, President of Uplift Aerospace, told collectSPACE.
“Whether they are more artistic-type items or something like investor-grade gems, we want the Constellation Vault to be a place that we can use to tell powerful stories and showcase incredible creators of our time,” he added.
However, according to Futurism, it appears that the company has yet to figure out how it’s going to get the items to the space station. Hanes said that at the moment, the firm is still working on “the exact process of how that will be done.”
And, of course, much like everything else in today’s landscape, there will be non-fungible tokens (NFTs) attached to the project. This time, the NFTs will feature as membership cards for the Space+ community, allowing holders to enter giveaways, attend talks, or receive memorabilia from the missions.
“The reason why we, as a company, have decided to create an NFT platform is because we truly believe that there is utility in NFTs and cryptocurrency in space applications for the long term,” Hanes explained.
“Our purpose in the long term is to facilitate commerce. We think it is a good infrastructural system for commerce between space and Earth.”
[via collectSPACE and Futurism, cover image via NASA]