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In 2012 and 2013 Portuguese-born photographer Edgar Martins was granted unparalleled access to the European Space Agency (Esa).

For those two years he photographed 20 classified facilities belonging to Esa across Europe, from the UK to Germany to Kazakhstan.

And now he's revealed the stunning photography he took, which includes space simulators and launch sites, in a new art exhibit opening tomorrow.

Photographer Edgar Martins has revealed the images he took inside Esa after being given unparalleled access for two years. Pictured is the sight up from the bottom of the 50-metre (165 feet) tall mobile launch gantry for Esa's Vega launcher in French Guiana. When preparation is complete, the 1,000 tonne gantry rolls back on rails, leaving the Vega rocket on the pad ready for launch

Known as The Rehearsal of Space and the Poetic Impossiblity to Manage the Infinite, the collection will be on display at the Wapping Project Bankside in London from Friday 25 April to 29 May.

The photographs were shot in long exposures of up to one hour using a 10x8 inch, large format camera.

The locales include test centres, robotics departments, space simulators, laboratories, launch sites, astronaut training centres and satellite assembly rooms.

'Whilst the visions that inspired the space age were drawn from artists and writers, in more recent times the gulf between the space community and arts world drifted apart,' says Martins.

'So in 2012 I presented the European Space Agency a very ambitious proposal: to produce the most comprehensive survey ever assembled about a leading scientific and space exploration organisation and its programs.

'I explained my intention to critically engage with ESA and its partner's programs, such as the telecommunication, navigation, integrated biological life support system for space applications, microgravity, human spaceflight, lunar and Mars exploration programs, whilst also reflecting on the new politics of space exploration as well as the impact of this kind of technological application on our social, cultural and existential consciousness.

In this image Portuguese-born Martins has show the exterior of a Node 2 mock-up at the Erasmus centre in Esa's scientific and technical heart at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Node 2 is a European-built module of the International Space Station (ISS) that was installed in 2007

This is the interior of the Large Space Simulator (LSS) Vacuum Chamber at Esa-ESTEC, Noodwijk. At 15 metres (50 feet) high and 10 metres (33 feet) wide, the LSS is the largest vacuum chamber in Europe and is used to test full-size spacecraft in representative space conditions

Pictured is the interior of the Columbus Training Simulator, at Esa-EAC in Cologne, Germany. The is a full-sized mock-up of the Columbus module on the ISS

Pictured is a space glove once worn by a cosmonaut at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia

'I was also interested in reflecting on the impact of imagery of space exploration on popular culture and our psyche and how this might also impact the work I would produce.'

'On and on I had hoped this project would promote a dialogue between space exploration, science, contemporary photographic art and the wider public.

'I am interested in the techniques of artistic expression these engagements can activate, and in the dialogue that these projects and envrionments can provoke.

'So I was extremely pleased when they agreed to support my endeavour.

'It seems I had contacted Esa at crucial time in their history, when they have recognised the importance to mantain a coherent dialogue with the general public and hopefully now also the arts.'

Martins says his project is the first time in the history of Esa that an artist has been granted exclusive access to all of their facilities.

He was also given full access to staff, their programmes and technology at the space agency.

Even for other large institutions such as Nasa or Cern, such access is unprecedented.

From his time on the sites, Martins says the things that most struck a cord were the complexity of operations.

'Esa is unique in that it is a multinational, "world" space agency,' he says.

'Although my way of working is more akin to a scientist or an archaeologist than it is a photographer, witnessing "space time" in motion is a humbling experience.'

He also says that he was able to read astronaut's mission notebooks, exchange stories with them and get 'an insight into an astronaut's life in space.'

Here you can see the cleanliness of a fuelling hall where spacecraft are filled with propellant before launch - the S5 payload preparation complex at CGS-Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana

This is an 'Ergolier' (French for fuel) helmet photographed in Kourou, part of the protective wear for people handling spacecraft fuel. They are specially designed to ensure protection during use and manipulation of special products like fuel for satellites and rockets

Martins says he was given unprecedented access to staff, programmes and facilities at Esa. Here is seen the NIRSpec Flight Model Assembly at the ISO Class 5 Integration Facility in Ottobrunn-Munich, Germany

This photo shows some of the equipment in the astronaut dressing room in the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia. All of the images shown here are part of Martins' project The Rehearsal of Space and the Poetic Impossibility to Manage the Infinite, which is on display at the Wapping Project Bankside in London, from Friday 25 April to 29 May, and will also be released in a book of the same name in May 2014

But Martins adds that he hopes his project will remind the public how important space exploration is to the development of science, technology, engineering, education and medicine.

'I was able to photograph a myriad of technology which will have similar applications in the future.

'Although the framework of space exploration has traditionally been tied with national security and the political aspirations of states, today, budget cuts in an era of worldwide economic downturn has opened the doors to the commercialization and privatisation of space.

'However, I'm pleased to say that there is a continued focus on more exploratory programs, allowing us to peer further into deep space and to better understand our surroundings and humanity's origins.

'There are new and exciting programs being developed at present and I have no doubt that we are entering a new golden era of space exploration.

'We are slowly getting a new picture of the Universe that is pushing the limits of understanding current cosmological theories, making the confluence of the infinitely large and the infinitely small an ever more viable proposition.'

But, he concludes, 'for all the advancements in technology and robotics, space exploration is still inherently dependent on the individual.'