NFTs that arrived at the International Space Station
Yes, NFTs were sent to the International Space Station thanks to Infinity Labs.
In July 2021, Aku became the first NFT to orbit the Earth on a space station; it featured a young black astronaut.
Artist Micah Johnson’s nephew inspired him to create NFT when he asked his mother, “Can astronauts be black?”
According to the Artemis music, Aku was sent from Nanorock control in Texas and sent to the server. The file remained on the station’s server for 2 hours while it orbited the Earth and then was sent back to Earth. Engineers used transmission data and telemetry to authenticate the entire process.
In September’s Inspiration4, private spaceflight via SpaceX also included NFTs, including music from Kings of Leon in a three-day flight. All Civil Space had 51 NFTs, and “Time in Disguise”, the first featured NFT song played in orbit produced by the Kings of Leon band. The project aimed to sell the NFTs at an auction and raise $200 million for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Payload to ISS
While crypto developers dream of pumping coins and non-fungible tokens to the moon, this project organized by Infinity Labs will send NFTs to the stars.
Infinity Labs is a project by Solana that will see a collection of non-fungible tokens from a variety of projects radiate into space.
Infinity Eve, the founder of Infinity labs, shared with Decrypt that she was inspired by the 1977 Voyager space voyage which included a golden disc inscribed with music from around the world; she got the idea while undergoing aggressive cancer treatment during the Covid pandemic.
And I was obsessed with this idea that if I could put art and stories on the blockchain, I could build something really beautiful that could survive me in some ways if something were to happen to me.
Infinity Eve
Dreambound Orbital is a web3 company launching blockchain experiments into orbit. Project Infinity was their first payload to the space station, launched on December 15, 2022. Dreambound Orbital will streamline activity directly from Houston, Texas.
Alongside InfinityLabs on the tour will be NFTs from Solana, Brave, Phantom, Metaplex, World of Women, OpenSea, Magic Eden, MonkeDAO, DeGods, Fractal and many more.
The NFTs span the Solana and Ethereum blockchains and will be “radiated into neighboring systems,” Infinity Eve said. Such projects can enable a future digital space economy and NFT space museum.
The project uses Nanorack’s Bishop Airlock, the first permanent, commercial addition to the space station’s infrastructure that has launched over 1,300 payloads to date.
Final thoughts
Responding to harsh critics, Eve shared that people should keep an open mind as such actions breed inspiration for future innovations. Similar experiments resulted in GPS innovation.
Outside of web 3, such an initiative can also bring practical commercial applications and research. Eve added that some of the realities of life, such as smartphones, were inspired by science fiction (Sci-fi). At least the project helped her reinvent herself and heal.
Creators have auctioned off NFTs flown into space for charitable returns back on Earth.
Crypto degenerates can now dream of a reality. The new paradigm provides opportunities for NFT creators and allows artists to dream.
The crypto winter of 2022 has been harsh for the entire crypto industry, and such events are a hope for many distressed enthusiasts.
