Training Geese for a Trip to the Moon

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Agnes Meyer-Brandis entwickelt grade ein Kunstprojekt, basierend auf dem 1638er Buch „The Man in the Moone” von Francis Godwin, in dem der Held mit nem Wagen zum Mond fliegt, vor den Mondgänse gespannt sind. Dazu zieht sie elf Gänse groß, denen sie Namen von Astronauten gegeben hat, die sie als ihre „Gänsemutter“ akzeptieren und denen sie das Fliegen beibringt. Die Vögel leben auf einer simulierten Mondbasis in Italien und lernen Morsecode für Interspecies-Kommunikation, 2024 sollen sie zum ersten mal unbemannt auf den Mond fliegen, drei Jahre später will Agnes mitfliegen. Aber ich glaube, den letzten Teil des Projekts hat die Dame nur erfunden.

Hier die Website zum Projekt, mehr Infos gibt’s auf We Make Money Not Art:

Meyer-Brandis’ scientific experiment is inspired by The Man in the Moone, a story written in the early 17th century by English bishop Francis Godwin, a believer in the Copernican heliocentric system and of the latest theories in magnetism and astronomy. The book tells how Domingo Gonsales flies to the moon and gets to meet an advanced lunar civilization. The adventurer managed to escape the ‘magnetic attraction of the earth’ by harnessing a flock of birds called gansas, specifically trained for the purpose. Some critics regard the story as the first work of science fiction in English.

Since it has become so difficult to locate moon geese, Meyer-Brandis breeds her own moon geese. She acquired the eggs last April, named each of them after an astronaut, placed them in an incubator, watched over them, witnessed the hatching and imprinted herself on to them as their stand-in mother, just like Konrad Lorenz did with greylag geese.

The surrogate mother had to spend the weeks following the hatching in close contact with the eleven geese. The astronaut training started almost immediately, the young birds were encouraged to walk in a V-shape –the formation used to tow Godwin’s chariot– taken on expeditions into the mountains for high altitude training, taught how to use morse code devices for improved interspecies communication, and given lectures about astronomy and navigation.

The Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Migration Bird Facility