 This week I'm talking about art satellites! They're satellites with art on them. They're kind of like art cars for space geeks. One art satellite that I really love is ArtSat2, which is essentially a 3D printed sculpture that was put on top of a satellite and launched into deep space. The ArtSat2 satellite is this beautiful sculpture that looks like nothing else that has really been sent into space ever. ArtSat2 is really cool, not only because they sent a sculpture into deep space, but it also created poetry along the way. Yeah, the satellite actually created its own poetry. It actually created poetry based on the sensor readings it took in space and sent those back into Earth. So in a way it was a satellite not only as a sculpture, but it was a satellite that was actually creating art as it went along in space, which is pretty damn cool. ArtSat2 was launched on board the very same rocket that launched Hayabusa2, the very badass space probe that I talked about a few episodes ago. Another really cool art satellite is actually a constellation of satellites from Planet Labs. All of their satellites have artwork etched into the sides of them, which is incredibly cool. And this is thanks in part to the artists in residence at Planet Labs, Forest Stearns. The Planet Labs satellites feature artwork of animals and radio waves and doves and all sorts of beautiful things. Possibly even cooler is that Forest actually applies his artwork not only to the satellites themselves, but also to the ground stations that are talking to these satellites. These ground stations actually have radomes on them, essentially radar domes that protect the antennas that communicate to the satellites. And he's put his artwork on the outside of these ground stations so that they're kind of these beautiful pieces of artwork to look at here on Earth. What I love so much about both of these projects is they're not only viewing space as art, but they're actually viewing the act of space exploration itself as art and actually using it as a new canvas. Thanks so much for the quick geek out with me this week. Remember to subscribe on YouTube and donate to the Patreon campaign to support space pods like this one.