Andrew Khosravani’s depicts the dreams of astronaut Helen Sharman

This animation created by Andrew Khosravani for The Royal Institution explores what astronauts dream of when they return to earth. Andrew is the RI’s animator-in-residence and in the film he hand draws the nighttime visions of Helen Sharman, the first Briton to travel to space.

In 1991 Helen joined a Soviet Union crew aboard the Russian station Mir for eight days. In the film she talks about a recurring dream where she sees earth for first time from the window of the space station. Reunited with her crew mates, she revels in the sense of discovery and Andrew’s animation emulates this excitement with swells of movement and colour that builds through the animation.

Andrew’s friendly, loose style fits the dream sequence perfectly, and his transitions from one scene to the next mimic the gentle fluidity of a dream. Andrew’s animation was part of the RI’s A Place Called Space, a content series which explored the human experience and cultural significance of space travel.