These Photographs Capture the Private Lives of Astronauts
​Astronaut dressing room where the Sokol spacesuits are stored, Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (Star City, Russian Federation). Image: Edgar Martins

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These Photographs Capture the Private Lives of Astronauts

Artist Edgar Martins got unprecedented access to the spaces and objects usually only seen by astronauts.

​Edgar Martins always wondered what happened to spacesuits when they weren't being used. Were they just kept in a drawer somewhere? Vacuum-packed?

Martins, an award-winning science photographer, learned the answer for himself when he set out to photograph the various facilities of the European Space Agency, from laboratories to launch sites, for his w​ork The Rehearsal of Space and the Poetic Impossibility to Manage the Infinite. Along the way, he got a firsthand glimpse at the secret lives of astronauts.

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Columbus Training Simulator, ESA-EAC (Cologne, Germany). Image: Edgar Martins

"Like most kids in the 60s and 70s I too wanted to be an astronaut," Martins told me over the phone. "Admittedly, this wasn't really an easy feat for a European person growing up in communist China."

In 2012, Martins sent an ambitious proposal to ESA, asking to perform a comprehensive survey of their facilities. Photography, he felt, was inextricably linked with space, owing both to the technological role of optics in space exploration and the cultural power of the medium in communicating pivotal milestones, such as in the famous Earthrise photograph.

Mobile gantry for the Vega Launcher, seen from underneath CGS-Europe's Spaceport (Kourou, French Guiana). Image: Edgar Martins

Over the course of the next couple of years, Martins got unprecedented access to more than 15 ESA facilities in nine or ten countries. It was at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia that his spacesuit question was answered, when he got access to an astronaut's dressing room.

A new exhibition of Ma​rtins' work is now showing at Wolverhampton Art Gallery; asthe first comprehensive exhibition of the project, it displays objects tested in ESA facilities and astronauts' personal items alongside his photographs.

STS-103. Discovery. Hubble space telescope repair mission. Original Pokémon cards taken into space by ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy as part of the few personal items that each astronaut can access during the flight.

The astronauts' belongings add a personal touch that contrasts the more clinical scenes of space simulators, clean rooms, and instrument mock-ups. "The objects really give the project that humanist dimension," Martins said.

Astronauts can take a few personal items like a photo or piece of jewellery with them, but they also get a ​Personal Preference Kit, a small bag for mementos kept in the spacecraft's hold.

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Rubik's cube of ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, flown on all three of his space missions. The astronaut is a big fan of puzzles and used to play The Rubik's Cube before falling asleep. Images of this Rubik's cube floating in space inspired the film director Alfonso Cuarón who included a similar scene in his Oscar nominated movie Gravity. Image: Edgar Martins

"I became quite intrigued as soon as I started meeting quite a few astronauts," said Martins. "What was the symbolism they attached to these objects? What sort of things did they take with them to space? Why?"

He got a few whats, if not all the whys. The exhibition includes a Rubik's cube, notebook, and two Pokémon cards (Arcanine and Kabutops) carried by French ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy.

STS-84. Atlantis-Mir docking mission. Crew Notebook of ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy. This particular page shows a list of 'fun' things to do, intended maximize the astronaut's living experience in space.Image: Edgar Martins

Martins photographed the notebook at a particularly interesting page; he explained that while Clervoy was in quarantine before a mission, he asked a veteran astronaut to compile a list of fun things to do while in space.

So what does a bored astronaut get up to? How about swapping the labels on your colleague's space food, or walking on a spacecraft window like a glass-bottomed boat to pretend you're a giant stamping on the Earth? "Tortilla frisbee" and "M+M basketball" also sound like fun.

Large Space Simulator, ESA-ESTEC (Noordwijk, The Netherlands). Image: Edgar Martins

Martins hopes to open a public and artistic dialogue with what often seems like quite a secretive organisation. He said that the main challenge in executing the work was managing the expectations of the ESA workers, who weren't used to a photographer needing such close access. "I have to be literally at a touching distance of whatever I'm photographing, so I have to be inside the clean rooms with the scientists ad the engineers and so on," he said.

Martins came away from the project with two main ideas: Firstly, that the "void of space" has actually become a very busy concept. Secondly, that "For all of the advancement in technology and robotics, space exploration is really still inherently dependent on the individual."