O.U.R.S.
Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite
Technical Description
The O.U.R.S. - Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite - was a project to create a visible "circle in the sky" to celebrate the advent of the new millennium. It was palnned that the sculpture would be launched into orbit in the year 2000.
The O.U.R.S. sculpture was technically defined to be a continuous toroidal structure with a crown diameter of one kilometer and a ring thickness of approximately 30 meters in diameter. Once launched into space and placed into orbit, the sculpture would be automatically deployed by inflation.
Utilizing a technology under development by the European Space Agency via the Swiss space firm Contraves called ISRS (Inflatable Space Rigidized Structures - a laminate of Kevlar, Kapton and an ultra-violet sensitve resin) after inflation the material membrane of the sculpture would harden upon exposure to sunlight.
It was planned that the surface of the sculpture would be decorated by artists from around the world in a effort to make the sculpture a global artwork belonging to the entire world symbolizing world peace and global unity.
Once realized, the sculpture would appear to viewers around the world in the early morning or early evening sky and would be visible to the naked eye as a recognizable circle approximately one-quarter the size of the Moon.
Artistic Description
A "circle in the sky" to celebrate our passage into the new millennium was the message of the O.U.R.S. - Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite project. The circle is perhaps the most ancient and universal symbol of humanity. As such, this symbol speakes to our inter-connectedness with each other, with our planet and with the cosmos.
In the English language, the acronym "O.U.R.S. " also means "belonging to us". To add this quality to the O.U.R.S. project an international effort was launched to have people from around the world participate in the decoration of the orbital sculpture. Public painting events were held at international art and space meetings where the public was invited to paint upon large walls of stretched Mylar material. Pieces of these public paintings were then framed and sold as "pieces of the ring" to finance the project.
As such, the O.U.R.S. was designed to become a "global" artwork that was in fact created and supported by people all over the world and one that would have been experienced by much of the world's population as a symbolic sign of planetary unity and peace in the night sky.
Publications about the O.U.R.S. project:
- 1987 Arthur R. Woods, The Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite Project - The Spirit of Enterprise - The 1987 Rolex Awards. Van Nostrand-Reinhold, Berkshire, England. pp. 184-186.
- 1989 Arthur R. Woods, O.U.R.S. - The Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite Project: A Synthesis of Art, Technology and the Human Spirit - Paper 0329 submitted to "A Delicate Balance: Technics, Culture and Consequences" 1989 IEEE Conference, Los Angeles, CA. Published in the conference proceedings 1991.
- 1989 Arthur R. Woods, O.U.R.S. - The Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite Project - Paper SDC 89-072 presented at the 8th International Space Development Conference, Chicago, Illinois, May 26-29. Published in the proceedings pp. 551-554.
- 1992 Arthur R. Woods, O.U.R.S. - The Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite: A Global Artwork In Space for the Year 2000: Communicating the Urgency of Outer Space Development, - Paper ESW 92-26 presented to the 1st European Space Art Symposium, Montreux, Switzerland. March 21-27, 1992. Download PDF