Space industry organisations have teamed up with one of the world's most celebrated artists, Sacha Jafri, to send the world's first official artwork to the Moon.

The artwork was revealed to the world today at a press conference at The USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE.

The artwork will be placed on the surface of the Moon later this year by Spacebit, a company developing technology for space exploration, and Astrobotic Technology, a company providing end-to-end delivery services for payloads to the Moon. The artistic/humanitarian aspect of the mission has been put together by Selenian, a company specialising in the curation of art in space.

This will be the first commercial lunar mission under the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative known as CLPS. The landing site where Jafri's artwork is placed will then become a world heritage landmark preserved forever.

Jafri said: "The placement of my moon-landed heart artwork, entitled: 'We Rise Together – with the Light of the Moon', aims to reconnect humanity to: ourselves, each other, our creator, and ultimately to 'The Soul of the Earth'. With figures, entwined in love, reaching for a newfound understanding of unity and consequential hope, as they embark on their journey of exploration from our inhabited planet to our uninhabited Moon; through space and time, over mountain and star, to unlearn what we thought we knew and relearn everything through the hearts, minds, and souls of our children; the purest essence from which we have drifted so far, aiming to shine a light back on our broken planet, and start to heal its fractured heart. We rise together, with a like-minded goal of creating a new vision for our world, focusing on the five pillars that will allow humanity to thrive once again: universality, consciousness, connection, empathy, and equality."