Rhiannon Adam’s early life travelling the world aboard a sailboat gave her a thirst for the unknown. In adulthood, image-making has seen her visit Earth’s remotest reaches. And now, it’s taking her further than ever before, beyond the stratosphere and into lunar orbit.
Rhiannon is currently deep in preparation for a forthcoming mission aboard the world’s first fully reusable rocket, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship. The ultimate goal for Starship is to take us to Mars, making humans multi-planetary. Saturday 20th April 2024 marked exactly one year since the Starship’s first test launch (IFT1) from SpaceX’s Starbase at Boca Chica, Texas.
The week-long journey will be the first civilian trip into lunar orbit where the crew will watch Earthrise, and the first time artists will be given the opportunity to travel beyond Earth’s confines. Adam is one of 8 creatives who beat the competition, some one million applicants from 129 countries, no less, to earn a place on the 11 person dearMoon mission, funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, known as MZ.
Rhiannon will make history as the first Irish woman and first out queer person to go to deep space. To date, just 24 people have travelled to the moon, with the last journey taking place in 1972.
Rhiannon is famously a Polaroid fan and she’ll be bringing a modified instant camera, built specifically for the mission, able to handle the unique stresses of space. Embracing the physicality of analogue against the backdrop of awe inspiring tech. “There is a fusion between these technologies,” she told El Pais, a nod to the fact that Polaroid’s inventor worked as an advisor to Eisenhower’s US Space Program.
Rhiannon has been chronicling her adventure from the beginning. From documenting a trip to Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where MZ first launched to the International Space Station with Roscosmos before the dearMoon crew was publicly announced, to Starship’s launches and tests. As ever, Rhiannon’s lens is drawn to the people who make the story richer – from those local to Starbase in South Texas, to the staff at Baikonur’s Cosmodrome, and her fellow crew.
The date for her take off to the moon is coming. Watch. This. Space.
