For the past six months it has been orbiting the Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).
Something as ordinary as a hot shower becomes a “real treat” if you have spent, like the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the last six months orbiting the Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).
“It sounds simple for you, but it is a bit more complicated for me, because anything that involves a movement of the head can make you dizzy”, joked the astronaut at a press conference that took place this Friday at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne (western Germany).
Pesquet explained from there his experience after returning this week from the ISS and landing on our planet on November 9.
Life on the ISS, where Pesquet has been developing his second space mission, known as Alpha, can become very boring, as the astronaut explained to the media: “If you have nothing to do all day, it is a kind of a prison with great views. You are limited to doing anything. Activity is what saves us, so we are constantly busy. “
But the rhythm of day-to-day life on the space station keeps astronauts busy with their studies and research.
“Every day is different. Sometimes we do medicine or physiology, and the next day we have physics experiments. The important thing is that we are able to do all these things and that we have the support of the entire team,” said the astronaut.
After 199 days in space, Pesquet returned to Earth with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hohside in the early hours of November 9.
Pesquet has thus become the first European astronaut to travel to space and return in a commercial spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavor, and the European who has spent the longest time away from our planet.
The spacecraft, which autonomously undocked from the International Space Station and entered the Earth’s atmosphere by opening its parachutes, landed in the water in an area near the coast of Florida (United States) at 03:33 GMT last year. Tuesday.
From there, the astronaut headed to the German city of Cologne, where the ESA medical team is monitoring him as he continues to adapt to Earth’s gravity.
“We resumed work as soon as the plane landed,” Pesquet told the media, to which he specified: “We have to take samples as soon as we touch Earth, before we get used to the terrestrial environment again.”
The conference was also attended by ESA’s director of space exploration, David Parker, who pointed to the Moon as one of the agency’s next goals: “A European astronaut on lunar soil by 2030.”
“Setting foot on the moon would be the most exciting thing, there has never been a European,” Pesquet said, calling this “the agency’s goal.” “The idea is to go back there for a longer time. And once we do that, we will do the same on Mars.”
Investigations continue
During his second mission in space, called Alpha, Pesquet has broken many of ESA’s space records, including that of the European who has spent the most time in space.
In addition to supporting 200 investigations, including 40 European and twelve new experiments led by the French space agency CNES, the astronaut witnessed the arrival and departure of seven different spacecraft.
It also witnessed the definitive retirement after twenty years of the Pirs module and the arrival of the Russian Nauka laboratory module with a very special passenger, the European Robotic Arm.
From Earth, Pesquet will continue to work with European researchers on experiments such as the study of the impact of space stations on the hearing capacity of astronauts or the TIME experiment that studies changes in the perception of time by astronauts in space until may the time come for a new mission. (I)
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