How Does the Moon See the Earth? Through a Child’s Gaze

Do you remember the first time you saw the Moon as a child? Think back to those moments of wonder — what did you think then? How did you see it? What fantastical lunar stories did you imagine?

At our exhibition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, we invited more than twenty children to explore a similar feeling — asking them: How does the Moon see the Earth? As they curiously examined our exhibits at the Bishop’s Basilica of Philippopolis — including the Moon Bound Book, ISS Payload, and artworks planned for the Moon Bound lunar mission — they were invited to participate in a cosmic journey.

Dr. Ivelina Kadiri, the exhibition project coordinator at Center for Projects – Plovdiv, Bulgaria, says that “As a parent, I find space art activities the ultimate trigger for unconventional ideas and creativity, as there is no existing analogue of most of the physical processes and phenomena for comparison on Earth. Therefore, space exploration is a generator of art in its purest form, with the least prejudices or social programming. At the same time, it is a very potent and powerful tool to address fundamental humanistic questions to the whole human civilization as it spills beyond our planet. This is a unique characteristic which we need to utilize in the best possible way for our children and future generations”.

The children participating in the workshop created their own pictures, inspired by the exhibition and encouraged to let their imagination run wild. They had no restrictions on either color or material – they gave planet Earth a personality while adding textures and whimsical details to shape the celestial bodies. Kids explored diverse art-making techniques — finger and brush painting, cutting, gluing, creating collages — testing how things stick, contrast, and feel through visual and tactile exploration.

Through this workshop, art served as a storyteller describing what young artists think about the universe. Such initiatives remind us that the future of space exploration will be led by the next generation. The questions that they ask as children may shape the future of space travel, as they grow up to become future astronauts, astronomers, and even perhaps lunar settlers.

Many of the children took for granted that space is full of life, both alien and human. Inanimate objects were also brought to life, including rockets, comets, and the Moon itself, anthropomorphised through the idea of the Moon ‘seeing’ the Earth and through the children’s drawings, where it is brought to life with googly eyes. In the drawings, space is also alive with colour; pinks, oranges, greens, reds, replace the blackness that adults associate with the void of space.

One child participant, Olivia Kadiri, decided to go beyond the imagery of Earth and draw Mars with its fictional inhabitants. She has been inspired by the Perseverance mission — a rover launched toward Mars in 2020, the year Olivia was born, and a moment her mother was particularly excited about. The second drawing Olivia created was a celestial map featuring a glowing cosmic portal, shaped like a door leading to the unknown depths of the universe.

Evident from the drawings is a level of knowledge of space that, in previous generations, may have been reserved for the elite few. The children are familiar enough with the image of the Earth from space to be able to depict this blue and green sphere with a certain level of accuracy and confidence. Evident too is a level of understanding of the function and functionality of rockets, comets, other planets, and the notion of orbit. While space and the cosmos was filled with fantastical colours, shapes, and beings, most children chose to preserve a true-to-life vision of the Earth. It is as if space is a place of wonder, but the Earth is constrained by reality.

This siting of the wildest parts of their imaginings in open space, as opposed to on Earth’s surface, is testament to space’s ability to inspire. Space – the great unknown – is a place where fantastic things may happen. It is reassuring to think that this generation, who will shape the future of spaceflight, are starting at such a young age with such firm foundations of knowledge about the cosmos and spaceflight, alongside a vision of space as a place where anything is possible.