French astronaut Thomas Pesquet delivers a talk on ‘From Space Stations to Permanent Bases’ at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Credit: DH Photo/ B H Shivakumar
French astronaut Thomas Pasquet on Wednesday narrated his adventure and experiences after his six-month-long stay at the International Space Station (ISS).
“Conducting experiments outside the space station is very taxing as it involves heavy physical work. Following a routine for seven hours is like rock climbing in a full-metal suit. I am smiling in the picture, but I was drained out,” Pasquet said.
He was speaking on the topic, ‘From Space Stations to Permanent Bases’ at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here on Wednesday.
The ISS is the largest modular space station in the low earth orbit and is a project involving space agencies of the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe. Pasquet was the representative of the European Space Agency (ESA) and part of two missions to the ISS, in 2016 and 2021.
2-year training
Terming a rocket launch as one of the most exciting life experiences for those watching it, he recalled various incidents from his two-year-long training in Cologne, Germany.
He said astronauts are specifically trained to handle exigencies such as fire accidents and toxic atmosphere. He added that their experiments include those on neurology, medicine, microbes and so on.
The astronaut narrated an intriguing episode from 2021 when a couple of Russian film actors were on the ISS for 10 days to shoot a Russian film.
Pasquet showed visuals of different astronauts aboard the ISS where they were dining, playing sports and moving through floating mechanisms.
He also showed pictures taken from the space station of different places on Earth, including Mount Everest, Madrid and parts of France.
Space sickness
Pasquet actively fielded questions from the audience. Answering a query on the psychological and physical challenges faced by astronauts, he said they struggle with space sickness since a few body parts, such as the neck, will be unused for months together. This results in vomiting and other issues, he added.
“Psychologically, it can be hard since we suddenly move from groups of five to six people to interacting with a large number of people,” he said and drew parallels with military service where servicemen have a transitional period before returning home. He said artificial intelligence is yet to catch up in space operations and said it is still 95% normal intelligence.
Criteria
To another question on the criteria for becoming astronauts, he said people with technical degrees, operational experiences, physical fitness and international exposure will be preferred over others.