Authoring the future

The mission was a unique chance to create awareness, perspective, and a more human, civilian presence in space at a time when space was becoming increasingly politicised.

In June 2024, however, Maezawa abruptly cancelled the mission, citing timeline uncertainties and leaving the crew to reassess their life trajectories and aspirations. The cancellation came just as American politics shifted further right, with Donald Trump’s campaign underway and Elon Musk openly supporting it. In that climate, Adam says, it became “impossible” for the project’s end not to feel political.

Space as a reflection of Earth

For Adam, this became the existential twist that sparked Rhi-Entry: a body of work forged from notions of responsibility, disorientation, and the strange gravity of a dream that unravelled. The project questions systemic power dynamics and how a few corporate tech billionaires drive space endeavours and hold immense power over the future of us all.

“I felt like there was a window of time when this project was happening, where regular people could have a say, a seat at the table, in the decisions that will shape our collective future. But part of my learning is that things that happen in space are reflections of what is happening on Earth. It’s not as abstract and dreamlike as we wish it would be. The same mechanisms of unjust power structures are at play.”

The space odyssey that never happened

Exploring Adam’s images in Rhi-Entry feels like stepping into a museal archive, where ordinary objects are elevated into relics of human aspiration. Drawing on her experiences in museums and on the interior aesthetics of NASA from the 1950s and 60s, Adam’s photographs transform everyday objects related to her experience into artefacts imbued with significance.

Even though the journey it references never took place, the objects in Adam’s project are presented as if they were actual artefacts from a mission, capturing the weight of what might have been. It is a way for Adam to unpack the impact the mission had on her life and the emotional fallout of its cancellation. Rhi-Entry conveys an emotional response to the cold tech-science practices of the space industry. It translates the aim she would have pursued if the mission had happened: to create work that felt human, not distant, detached, or prone to glorification – oscillating between feelings of aspiration, opportunity, responsibility, and grief.

The ideal astronaut

Being the only woman on the crew – and potentially the first woman to travel to the Moon – the artist grappled with wanting to be someone women and queer people around the world could relate to, while simultaneously meeting the near-impossible standards of the space industry.

“You really start looking at who has been to space and who has never been given that opportunity. That makes you feel like you’re carrying the world’s weight on your shoulders. I felt like I was carrying all women with me and had to be this perfect version that didn’t put a foot wrong. If I did, it would damage the reputation of all women. I feared it would be held up as an example of why women shouldn’t be given these opportunities.”

At times, she found herself adopting the heroic – or stoic ideals of spaceflight to validate her role – even though they conflicted with her desire to move past the archetypal, almost masculine image of heroism – a complex sense of responsibility that gave her a feeling of losing parts of her own personality. The intimidating weight of the opportunity began to undermine the connective human vulnerability that she had sought to encapsulate.

The lost dream of opportunity

The final cancellation of the mission, however, presented her with a severe feeling of grief on a deeply personal and collective level.

“When it first happened, it felt like the whole world was ending because it wasn’t only about a personal loss. It felt like a doorway had closed, a collective loss of an opportunity. I felt guilty even though it was not my fault. I felt like I was carrying the dreams of people – from the earliest humans who gazed up to the night sky, to our contemporaries who look to space and hope to see themselves reflected”

Adam channelled her grief into Rhi-Entry and transformed personal loss into a creative exploration that allows a broader audience to reflect on power, responsibility, creativity, and a reimagining of what might have been. The project gives rare access to a closed world governed by power and money. It solidifies that our aspirations for going to space – for going to the Moon or surviving on Mars – are mythologised to a degree that keeps making us turn a blind eye to the hows, whys, and whats.