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Thomas Pesquet: "I dream of setting foot on Mars"

2020-05-29T15:24:05.670Z


THE PARISIAN WEEKEND. At 42, the French astronaut is not about to hang up his suit. It goes back into space in 2021, and does not


His ticket is already in his pocket. Next year, Thomas Pesquet will return to the International Space Station (ISS) to conduct weightless scientific experiments. Integrated into the European Space Agency (ESA), the French has already made his first stay there, from November 2016 to June 2017. But, at 42, he can dream of going even further. Three flights to Mars are preparing for this summer. They will be autonomous, with no one on board, but space agencies - NASA in particular - plan to send astronauts to the Red Planet.

Three missions for Mars are planned this summer. Why this craze?

THOMAS PESQUET. It is the planet that most resembles Earth. It is far enough from the Sun to house life, and its history is close to ours. We know that there was liquid water on its surface and a denser atmosphere than today. Mars had more or less the same conditions as Earth for the appearance of life, but everything disappeared, without anyone really knowing why. When we go into space, we seek both to explore our past - we want to know where we come from - and to anticipate our future. Can what happened to Mars happen to us? Can Earth Become a Lifeless Planet?

Man walked on the Moon in 1969. Has reaching Mars become the new challenge for humanity?

Exactly. March is the new frontier. But when we talk about space exploration, the distances are beyond imagination. The space station is 400 km above sea level, the Moon, roughly, 400,000 km. For Mars, it takes between 75 million and 400 million kilometers, depending on the position of the planets! However, we are likely to cross such distances. In the current state of propulsion, a manned mission on Mars is three hundred days to go there, three hundred days on the spot and three hundred days for the return. All this, in complete autonomy, in the most hostile environment that one can imagine.

Such a manned mission involves taking off from Mars. This has never been attempted yet…

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ESA and NASA are working to bring back samples from Mars. The idea is to take off pieces of pebbles, automatically, to recover them in orbit and bring them back to Earth. But just getting to Mars is difficult. On Earth, friction in the atmosphere slows us down and the capsule is posed using a parachute. On Mars, the atmosphere, too fine, does not brake enough but still causes heating by friction which requires having a heat shield. You also need a hypersonic parachute capable of deploying while driving at speeds of Mach 3 or 4, or about 3,700 to 5,000 km per hour. But this is still not enough. For the Curiosity mission, retro-rockets slowed down the descent of the capsule. Today, we are able to put 1 t on the surface of Mars. But a manned mission with astronauts, what to protect them, food, clothing, scientific equipment and the device to leave, it is 40 t. And for now, put 40 t on Mars, we don't know how to do it.

After a first stay in the ISS in 2017, Thomas Pesquet will leave there in 2021./ESA/Nasa  

We don't know, but are we thinking about it?

Several strategies are envisaged. We are talking about sending the missions in several installments: first the return vehicle, the logistics equipment and, only then, the astronauts with just a small backpack. But there are other obstacles. Here, we are protected by the Earth's magnetic field which deflects radiation from space. But in a mission to Mars, the astronauts would be exposed for nine hundred days. This is not reasonnable. We don't want people to get there with cancer. So we are thinking of a way to minimize this exposure.

Would you like to go to Mars?

Of course. For me, the key is propulsion. If we manage to fly much faster, we will limit the travel time. This means less radiation, but also less food, clothes, oxygen, water to transport. The mass is reduced, re-entry into the atmosphere therefore becomes easier. Once the question of propulsion is resolved, Mars will become the biggest adventure of all time. Going to the Moon was already supernatural. But Mars is the Moon on steroids! It is a real planet with an 800m high ice cliff, incredible things ... I dream of setting foot on this planet, like all my colleagues and many people in the world.

You are 42 years old. Is it conceivable that you participate in a manned mission for the Red Planet?

I already have a mission to the space station under my belt and I'm preparing for a second one. Then, before going to Mars, we will return to the Moon. It is less interesting scientifically, but we have to repeat, prepare our technology, and we can only do it around the Moon. This could happen around 2025-2030. And then, March, in 2035-2040. I will be at the end of my astronaut career. I will be in my sixties but it will take experienced people to command the mission. So it's not impossible for me. Yes, I would like to be!

VIDEO. Her best photos from space

Until March, what's your schedule?

I have to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2021, to spend six months on the space station. There, I'm going to Houston, Texas, to train on the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing CSP 100. These are the two American capsules that will bring us to the station.

Launched in 2011 and abandoned since, the Mars One project planned to send 100 volunteers to the Red Planet. Billionaire Elon Musk talks about creating a colony of a million people…

The Mars One project was totally bogus. Going to Mars is technically difficult. It is not enough to raise a lot of money with a reality show, as planned by Mars One! Very few structures in the world have the skills to organize this trip and they are the space agencies - NASA, ESA -, with the help of large industrialists like Boeing or Airbus. Of course, there is room for the private sector. Elon Musk, through his company SpaceX, does a lot for NASA. But people have the impression that, on his own funds, he will colonize Mars. This is not what he says. Tells him that the day a major international mission, initiated by space agencies, takes place, he will be there to provide services.

Thomas Pesquet: “A manned mission with astronauts […] is 40 tonnes. And for now, put 40 t on Mars, we don't know how to do it. ”/ Photo ESA / Nasa  

In the case of Mars One, people still signed up, knowing that they would not come back ...

Suicide exploration is not exploration. The advantage of going somewhere is to come back to share your adventure. That is why we have astronauts in the space program. A rover (Editor's note: a space exploration vehicle) a space probe is very nice, but we cannot say that humanity has been on Mars as long as nobody has set foot in it and is came back to talk about it. Then, only through this boy, this girl, people will be able to tell themselves that they have all gone a little to Mars.

As beautiful as the destination, you would not take a ticket without return?

No. But the question does not even arise, because that is not how agencies work. Or you send 90 year old people to end their lives up there, like Elon Musk, who says he will die on Mars. But what interest? We, the astronauts, want to do science, research, exploration. It involves bringing back samples, and bringing people back.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-05-29

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