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Pop and futurism have always been a close match. Sci-fi is a subversive genre, designing new futures and alternate worlds and it naturally connects with both pop's youth and its strong visual aesthetic.

But it's hard to find a current popstar who goes as all-in on hard sci-fi as Rihanna; from ultra-femme space worlds, to armored satellite parties.

Today she's launching 'Sledgehammer,' from 'Star Trek: Beyond' - we look at her best excursions where no popstar has gone before.

We can't put a lot of RiRi's absolute best sci-fi moments in an article because they contain heavy sexual or violent imagery. From the sexual violence and power/justice fantasies of 'Man Down' and 'B**** Better Have My Money' to the dripping threat of 'Russian Roulette,' Rihanna's play on alternate worlds has centred on explicitly black, feminine power in unflinching contexts. So, with apologies to RiRi's genuinely incredible artistry and boundary-pushing continuation of afrofuturism, here's some other good space moments she's had that we are actually allowed to show you before 9pm.

Starting in the middle; Rihanna really started building worlds around her songs and her persona around 'Disturbia' but it wasn't until 'Only Girl (In The World' that she truly cast herself as someone alien.

Coming off the back of the critically-acclaimed and unrelentingly dark 'Rated R,' 'Only Girl (In The World)' represented a more bombastic, optimistic turn. RiRi reappeared with bright red hair, in aggressively feminine clothes - floral and pinks suddenly appearing to replace black and leather.

To make it completely clear this wasn't an accident or an absentminded regression to a default, RiRi takes the Coachella aesthetic to a red planet, overblown fields of flowers and floating orbs making it otherworldly and stakes a claim of population: one.

In which boldly goes into a satellite, only to discover it's completely flippin' stuffed with synths and err, Rihanna.

Following on from 'Only Girl (In The World)', this took a lot of the darker aesthetics from Rihanna's previous album and turned them into something more cartoonish, albeit no less threatening. A disco space station this may be but make no mistake about who's got control of the lasers.

Ok bear with us here. and Rihanna's video sees RiRi in a sort of teleportation box of mirrors, in a desert, wearing a sort of space romper.

It's not the absolute furthest she's ever pushed into sci-fi but if we can have Jedi sports-casual as an aesthetic, we're completely onboard.