The Greatest Moon on Earth
In the Oberhausen gasometer nowadays you can see the planets as oversized models. One absolute attraction is the 25 m diameter moon, a cold air balloon on which the surface of the Earth's satellite is depicted.
The Earth's satellite consists of 160 individual components and is of course just a balloon. In the Oberhausen gasometer an exhibition called "Magic Moments - Miracles of the Solar System" is on until 30th December 2010 with large-format pictures from space and models of the sun and its planets. The absolute highlight of the exhibition is a monumental sculpture of the Moon floating in the gasometer's air space.
The gasometer - or the "Giant by the Canal" as Oberhausen likes to call it - was constructed in 1927 and served as intermediate storage for 350,000 m³ of coke gas for supplying neighbouring industrial plants. Since its shutdown it has been used as exhibition space. Due to its gigantic dimensions - it is 110 m high and has a diameter of 70 m - it is naturally predestined for huge exhibits.
It was thus here that the sheath of the Breitling Orbiter (the first balloon to circumnavigate the world non-stop) was displayed full size in 2004. Wolfgang Volz, the curator of the gasometer has practice in handling over-dimensioned textile objects, having been a close collaborator of the action artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo. He has long had the dream of seeing the Moon rise in this space. In the anniversary year of the Moon landing in 1969 it was intended to convert this dream to reality and now a 25-metre cold-air balloon floats over the heads of the visitors vested as the Moon. This satellite of the Earth looks extremely realistic because the whole shell was digitally printed with original Moon shots. However, as perhaps the largest ever cold-air display, this was a project which first had to be realised in practice.
That is where the company "geo • Die Luftwerker" - formerly "geo ballooning" from Lübeck was requested to get involved.
The company has been on the market as an aviation company for almost 10 years with the special manufacture of advertising for aviation. Apart from the sales and maintenance of hot-air balloons and their components, the core business of this aviation technology producer are exterior advertising on hot-air, gas balloons and airships as well as the specialised manufacture of inflatables. Quality and precision make the craft sections unique and that is where "geo - Die Luftwerker" has an advantage with the technical know-how from sensitive aviation technologies, also in the manufacture of special forms and fabrications. Just the right team then to bring the Moon down to Earth.
Since the Oberhausen luminary is intended to remain in place as a full moon for at least a year, extensive
tests were needed in advance, in co-operation with Ballonbau Wörner in Augsburg, regarding choice of material,
tensile strength, air permeability, seam processing, fan dimension and inner load transfer.
The picture data used originate from the Clementine Mission of NASA in 1994, during which a major part of the
Moon's surface was photographed. These shots were pre-processed by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und
Raumfahrt (DLR) in Berlin.
First of all the individual picture components combined out of hundreds of individual pictures needed a lot
of effort in retouching in order to achieve an even brightness distribution. On location in the gasometer
lighting tests for adjusting contrast and colour were done on the basis of printed and fabricated samples.
Subsequently the data were recalculated by "geo • Die Luftwerker" into spherical geometry and broken down into
individual segments with the corresponding seam machining tolerances.
The highly demanding digital print and thermotransfer were handled in a special printing company for technical
textiles in Lübeck. With a maximum component length of almost 20 m particular care had to be taken with the
correct scaling of the longitudinal and latitudinal dimensions in order to achieve the required segment geometry
in spite of material shrinkage in the thermo process.
After successful printing, the luminary then had to be sewn together out of a mere 160 individual parts. This work, however, lasted three months and at the very end took up almost the whole 1,000 m² production area at "geo • Die Luftwerker".
Technical data:
- Diameter 25 m, circumference 78.5 m
- Volume 8,200 m³
- Surface area 2,000 m²
- Picture data NASA / DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Berlin)
- Conversion of a cylindrical projection of the lunar surface onto the spherical surface as well as division into 53 x 3 vertical segments plus north and south pole with the help of special software by "geo • Die Luftwerker", Lübeck
- Material: polyester with special surface coating (advantage: excellent porosity values, very good properties for digital print: rich in contrast, abrasion resistant, UV-resistant)
- Print process: total surface by digital print / thermotransfer at a special printing works for technical textiles N³ Print & Display GmbH, Stockelsdorf
- Resolution 35 dpi, 1 Pixel = 100 m (real) lunar surface
- Dimensioning and technical realisation of electrical ventilator for permanent print production and suspension system from Ballonbau Wörner, Augsburg
- Production / assembly by "geo • Die Luftwerker", Lübeck
- In total approx. 100 days of staff work
Exhibition Gasometer Oberhausen (until 30th December 2010):
"STERNSTUNDEN - Wunder des Sonnensystems" ("MAGIC MOMENTS - Miracles of the Solar System")
is the name of the Exhibition - to be visited at
Gasometer Oberhausen
Essener Straße 3
46047 Oberhausen
Phone 0208.8503730, www.gasometer.de
Lübeck, November 2009
Robert Meyknecht
geo • Die Luftwerker
Hinter den Kirschkaten 10
D-23560 Lübeck
Phone +49 (0) 451 - 40 08 50
Fax +49 (0) 451 - 40 08 52 5
www.geo-dieluftwerker.de
info@geo-dieluftwerker.de