It began as a contest: the 2007 Google Lunar X-Prize Competition. No one won the $30 million prize because no private group or enterprise was able to launch a rover that landed on the moon, but the rover is complete and slated for launch next year, and the Moonark will be attached. The rover itself is about the size of a shoe-box, so the Moonark is understandably small.
What is a Moonark? It’s the creation of several Carnegie Mellon professors, scholars and a bunch of artists, who have endeavored to capture the story of mankind, our fascination with the moon and space, and our understanding of the cosmos, and engrave it all in microscopic form on platinum disks that sit on four tiny capsules weighing scant ounces and only inches in height.
It features music and songs, poetry and literature, fauna and fish and all about the earth where humanity came to life. The story of a people who have gazed skyward in search of understanding for longer than anyone knows.
It is a gift for any future explorers who may traverse the lunar surface, offering insight into the people who put it there.