Photographer picked to be Britain’s first Moon tourist is an anti-fracker and fossil fuel critic

A British photographer who flies to the Moon in a rocket booster that burns two million times faster than the average car, is an anti-fracker and fossil fuel critic.

Rhiannon Adam, 37, originally from Ireland and based in Hackney, was one of eight artists selected by Japanese billionaire Yasaku Maezawa to join an ambitious civilian flyby around the moon on a SpaceX Starship next year.

The photographer, who has been fiercely critical of the excessive use of fossil fuels in the past, justified her trip out of space by claiming that “the positives outweigh the negatives.”

In 2018, Adam fiercely told The British Journal of Photography that societies “should stop relying on fossil fuels to invest in (fracking) which will potentially cause more environmental damage.”

She said: “Right now I’m sitting in London during one of the hottest summers on record: if there’s ever been a time when climate change seems most apparent, it’s now.”

Adam will be the only woman in SpaceX’s team of eight artists to travel around the moon next year and will become the first female member of the LGBTQ community to go into space.

When asked why she had chosen to make the trip, particularly in regards to the impact on the environment, she said it would help her “reflect on some of these issues in a deeper way.”

The propellant that launches the rocket can burn fuel at a rate two million times faster than the average family car.

She said The Telegraph: ‘Naturally, I’ve thought about these things, but I think we also need to remember that space has a long legacy of foundational research on climate change.

“It’s this experience completely out of this world, no pun intended, and being able to create work in space allows us to reflect on some of these issues in a deeper way, by being able to look back at Earth.” and see it in its entirety.’

Adams went on to say that the trip would help “amplify voices” by creating a “very powerful perspective”.

She added: “So of course I’ve thought about it, but I actually think the positives outweigh the negatives on this.”

The civilian crew of the ‘dearMoon’ tourist flight will take off next year, where they will remain aboard SpaceX for seven days, without landing, before returning to Earth.

Adam will be joined by South Korean K-Pop star TOP, US Grammy-nominated music producer Steve Aoki and Indian TV actor Dev Joshi.

Should any of the eight have to drop out, US Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu have also been chosen as alternates.

Speaking after her selection this week, the photographer said: ‘Every day I pinch myself, it seems like a pipe dream come true. My goal is to create work that does justice to this transformative experience.

“In the middle of the pandemic, of course, we were all grounded, which was incredibly frustrating for me because I felt like I had lost my purpose.

“But then, while idly scrolling through Twitter, I came across dearMoon, and found it to be the most epic and life-changing adventure.

‘When I found out I was selected, I cried. And I’m not usually very crybaby. I think it was overwhelming and it seemed so impossible, and even then, it didn’t seem real. He made me think that maybe I should have played the lottery more.

TOP, whose real name is Choi Seung-hyun, started out as an underground rapper before joining Big Bang, one of the world’s top boy bands, in 2006.

The 35-year-old said in a video posted by the website dearMoon that he has always fantasized about space and the moon since he was a child, adding: “I can’t wait.”

“When I finally see the moon closer, I look forward to my personal growth and to return to earth as an artist with an inspiration,” he said.

Maezawa first revealed his plan for his space journey in 2018, but applications didn’t open until March 2021. He received a total of 1 million applications for the dearMoon mission.

Those selected were chosen as a result of a “strict selection” process.

Speaking about the process, he said: “I had in-depth conversations with each candidate, asking them about their childhood, why they dream of going into space, what kind of challenges they would like to undertake,” he said.

There is no set task for each of them, but I hope that each and every one of them recognizes the responsibility that comes with leaving Earth, traveling to the moon, and returning in seven days.

“They will benefit a lot from this experience, and I hope they use it to contribute to the planet, to humanity.”

It will be Maezawa’s second spaceflight after he made a 12-day trip to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft last year.

Maezawa, 47, and his producer Yozo Hirano became the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. He has not disclosed the cost of that mission, though reports say he paid $80 million.

The spacecraft will not land on the Moon, but is expected to come within 200 kilometers (120 miles) of the Moon’s surface while circling the Moon for three days.

SpaceX plans to transport humans using a two-stage spacecraft comprised of the Starship (the passenger-carrying section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster.

The firm still has work to do on building the $216 million Starship, formerly known as ‘BFR’, though it has been testing launching Starship prototypes into the air and landing them.

These launches have met with varying degrees of success, with some exploding in a chaotic ball of flame.

A full-scale orbital test flight of the rocket has yet to take place, despite Musk saying a year ago that it would likely happen in 2022.

The dearMoon project has also revealed the specially created spacesuits to be worn by the crew, designed in-house by SpaceX.

The dearMoon website says: “Each custom-made suit is intended to provide a pressurized environment for all crew members aboard Dragon in atypical situations, such as cabin depressurization.

“This suit also routes communications and cooling systems to onboard astronauts during regular flight.”