“I’m getting better and better”Thomas Pesquet, who has been back on Earth for a week after spending several months in space, within the International Space Station (ISS), said on franceinfo Tuesday, November 16. “I feel like my body is experiencing it better than the first time.” The French astronaut is in Cologne (Germany), where the European Astronaut Center of the European Space Agency (ESA) is located, where he undergoes a battery of tests and gets back in shape.
>> “Mal de Terre”, fitness and holidays … What awaits the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet back on Earth in the coming weeks
Thomas Pesquet also returned to the destruction of a satellite in orbit by Russia. The ISS crew had to take temporary refuge in their ships in order to prepare for a possible emergency evacuation. “It is one of the roles of the Space Station to show that this cooperation works and we hope that the tension between the states disappears and that then we will be left to work”, reacted the French astronaut.
franceinfo: Russia considers “hypocritical” the statements of the United States which accuse it of having endangered the crew of the ISS, Paris denounces the “space wreckers” … There are two Russians , a German and four Americans on board, can that spoil the atmosphere?
Thomas Pesquet: The tensions are rather at the state level. We, on board, as part of a crew, always get along well. Obviously, we don’t talk politics every four mornings. Politics and religion, if you want to argue, these are subjects that work 99% of the time. You have the intelligence to keep your opinions and convictions private to yourself and to make it work. Within the crews, there is always a good understanding, even if at the level of the States it is stretched a little. Precisely, it is one of the roles of the Space Station to show that this cooperation works and we hope that the tension between the States will disappear and that then, we will be left to work.
Did you also prepare for an emergency evacuation, faced with this type of danger?
Yes, this is a scenario that you prepare for in the event that you need to get to safety. Great care is taken to ensure that spaceflight remains safe for the participants, for the mission, for the equipment, for the Space Station. As soon as we have the slightest doubt, we prepare for the worst eventuality. There, the debris cloud did not approach very close to the station but they still chose to get in the best conditions and it was the right decision to make. It forced them to react quite quickly but that’s what we train for, it’s part of the job.
Were you worried when you learned the information, especially for the four astronauts who will relay on board the ISS?
No, because we reason very carefully. Approach probabilities are calculated. This debris is tracked by radar from the ground, their trajectory is calculated with a few orbits in advance and this allows us to anticipate conflicts. As soon as it passes within 10 km of the station, we take our precautions. But 10 km that leaves a little margin. But it must have been a bit funny for them to arrive on the space station, to try to find their bearings to orient themselves, to move, to start the job very slowly and then to be not welcome an emergency like this. But that’s part of the job.
You’ve been back on Earth a week ago, how are you?
I’m getting better and better. I spend more than two hours every day at the gym or with a physiotherapist or people from the astronaut center who help me find my marks, my Earth body, balance, coordination, things that I have. lost in getting used to the space environment. To get back to 100%, it takes ten months, but here I am already at more than 90%. I feel like my body is experiencing it better than the first time [en 2016-2017]. I was not sick at all.
What does the body undergo on returning to Earth?
I have back muscles that remind me of their existence every day. Sitting, standing or lying down can sometimes be a bit painful at first. Overall, we have a bit of muscle loss, bone loss, but it’s going pretty well. I’m lucky to be still quite young for space flight and we have a training program aboard the Station which limits the negative effects. We did not measure the extent of the damage but I have the impression that things are going pretty well.
What is your schedule since your return?
It starts around 6.30am. There are three things that will occupy me a lot. Getting back into shape, the medical part, sport that takes me a good third or even half of the day. Another big part is going to be being a scientific experiment guinea pig. It starts with pre-mission, during-mission, and post-mission samples. I redo the same protocols that I did on board the station. The third theme is the debriefings, we come back to the mission, we share our experience.
What will be your next step?
All my colleagues and international agencies have stepped forward to return to the Moon in a slightly more sustainable way, using the resources there. It smacks of the great mission that will await us in the years to come and then it will be Mars in a little longer. As an agency, we are committed to placing Europe, France, at the heart of this project.
Why do we have to go back to the moon?
There is a scientific aspect, we can do things on the Moon that we cannot do in the ISS or on Earth. We are talking about standing on the far side of the Moon and looking towards the shallow universe without being hampered by a light source. It’s something you can’t do on Earth. The Moon is a bit of a dress rehearsal for going to Mars. On Mars, we clearly know that we are going to look for the origins of life: how liquid water appears on a planet and how it disappears, can this happen to us on Earth? Going back to the moon is going to serve as a dress rehearsal before we can do all of that.