Southern engineer’s digital art blasted off to moon

By day, Edward Fee is an engineer servicing trains at Southern’s Stewarts Lane Depot in Battersea. By night, he is a digital artist with his works exhibited all over the world.

Ed’s digital artwork is now reaching new heights after it was blasted off to the moon on Wednesday in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, inside a capsule with different items representing human life and technology.

The 44-year-old engineer was invited to Cape Canaveral, in Florida, to watch the launch from nearby Peacock Beach with other artists who also had their work stored on a memory stick inside the lunar lander.

• Watch the launch on NASA's YouTube channel here.

The payload is being funded jointly by Copernic Space, a web platform for investing in and trading space assets, and the Lady Rocket Foundation, a charity that raises money through space ventures, for the benefit of life on earth.

The rocket’s engines ignited at 1.44am Eastern Time on Wednesday, bound for a 45-day-long mission through space towards the moon.

Ed said: “When it started, there were big cheers, and then there was this pause where we were all gathering our thoughts.

“It was a little bit surreal, that we had all come from around the world to watch the launch on the beach. It felt like we were part of a momentous moment, watching these first-time technologies going up to the moon on it.

“Five years ago, when I started, I never believed I’d be standing on a beach on the other side of the world watching my art being blasted off to the moon.”

Ed at work in Stewarts Lane Depot, Battersea

The engineer, who lives in south west London, uses a range of computer technologies, like Photoshop, Blender and more recently AI to create his pieces – all of which are humorous contrasts with human life on earth and mankind’s interest in outer space.

His pieces, which are traded on the internet as NFT images, have even been displayed in Times Square in New York City as part of a festival celebrating the digital medium.

He first came across the foundation during the Covid lockdowns, after picking up a stylus and using computer software to create striking abstract pieces, often with a focus on outer space.

Ed's picture Own up, who ordered the pizza? (More pictures below)

One of his pieces depicts a pizza delivery moped on the moon’s surface, and another – which he dubs The Enlightened – portrays an astronaut amidst the vast expanse of outer space.

Ed said: “The astronaut has a a profound sense of wonder and introspection that comes with the realisation of humanity's place in the cosmos, suspended in a moment of weightlessness, both physically and spiritually.

“It serves as a visual ode to the resilience of the human spirit and the ever-expanding quest for knowledge in the boundless reaches of outer space.”

Along with hardware containing Ed’s artworks, the capsule will contain DNA samples, foundational documents like the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, and messages from 25,000 people.

Ed, who goes by the name Edster59 online, said: “I’m thrilled to be going to watch my artwork launched into space for preservation on the moon.

“It’s really exciting to be involved in this game-changing period of history when aerospace, business, digital finance and artificial intelligence are coming together to make space accessible.”

The payload will spend approximately 25 days in Earth orbit, four days travelling through space, and 16 days in lunar orbit before landing on the moon on Sunday, 2 March.

Before Ed landed his job working on Southern’s fleet of Electrostar trains, he was a stagehand on Charlie and The Chocolate Factory in the West End.

He has worked as an engineer since the age of 25, following eight years of service in the Royal Engineers’ Commando.

ENDS

Notes to editor:

• SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 1:11am EST (6:11am GMT) on Wednesday, January 15.

• Falcon 9 is a partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX.
  • In 2022, it reached its peak of launches in a year (60), becoming the U.S. rocket with the most launches in history (now over 350 in total) and with a near perfect safety record, having suffered two flight failures.