Floral Cosmonauts
with Harpreet Sareen

Silver crystal grown in silver nitrate media in normal gravity.
Image credit: Anna Garbier, Harpreet Sareen, Jiefu Zheng.
Floral Cosmonauts is a set of self-assembling silver dendrite networks formed as part of a site-specific installation sent into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. Image credit: Anna Garbier, Harpreet Sareen, Jiefu Zheng.
Once aboard the spacecraft, the installation was controlled by a custom-programmed Raspberry Pi computer. Video artifacts of the crystal growth were recorded using Raspberry Pi-controlled cameras.
Anna Garbier was the sole coder (Python), testing & prototyping lead, and co-designer.
External Links
Read the full documentation

Silver crystal grown in silver nitrate media, controlled experiments in lab.
Image credit: Anna Garbier.
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Controlled experiments, early side-by-side variations with varied voltage.
Image credit: Anna Garbier, Harpreet Sareen, Jiefu Zheng.
Image credit: Anna Garbier.

Controlled experiments, early side-by-side variations with varied voltage.
Image credit: Anna Garbier, Harpreet Sareen, Jiefu Zheng.
Working prototype: Raspberry Pi controls three cameras, LED lights, and crsytal growth inside custom chambers that meet safety requirements.
Image credit: Anna Garbier.
Image credit: Anna Garbier.
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