German astronaut Matthias Maurer believes that “it will be normal” to fly into space within 100 years, as it is to fly by plane, but it will be necessary to create rules like those that exist to control air traffic. Matthias Maurer was speaking for the Lusa agency, on the sidelines of an initiative promoted by the Portuguese space agency Portugal Space, which led him on Friday to make a parabolic flight with 30 young people, from Beja, which simulated the effect of zero gravity, only astronauts feel in space.
“I think that in 100 years it will be normal to fly into space as it is now normal to fly to Spain or the United States on vacation,” he said, when asked about the future of space tourism, which had a ‘boom’. in 2021, with travel suborbitals, but also orbitals to the International Space Station (ISS), only accessible to millionaires.
The astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), who returned in May from a mission, the first, on the ISS, where he spent six months, recalled that today people travel by plane like they haven’t done it for 100 years and that to fly to space more consistently there will have to be rules.
“In space there are no rules, but if we fly in an airplane we have air traffic control,” he said, adding that it is also necessary to avoid the production of more space debris, using reusable rockets and spacecraft and developing technology that allows ” eliminate large satellites” that are disabled “before they collide”.
Matthias Maurer, 52, believes that, depending on political will, there will be astronauts flying to Mars in the 2040s, or even earlier, given that space knowledge and technology has accelerated greatly in the last ten years. The United States aims to bring astronauts to the planet’s surface in the 2030s, where there would have been liquid water and life in the past. “Flying in space is entering a new era,” he said, noting that we can learn from climate changes on Mars to control those on Earth.
During his mission on the ISS, which he called “Cosmic Kiss” because it was a “declaration of love for space”, Matthias Maurer, a graduate in material sciences, carried out more than a hundred scientific experiments, including tests of new materials. antimicrobials, to prevent, for example, contagion in hospitals through contact with contaminated surfaces.
From the dome of the ISS, a window that “opens” into space, he saw “the impact of humans” on Earth, from which the station is 400 kilometers away. He not only saw the effects of deforestation, but also the effects of the war in Ukraine, which, observed from the sky, appeared “completely dark”, punctuated only by the “flashes” of explosions.
One of the lessons he learned from his time on the International Space Station is that on Earth, for the sake of sustainability, everyone should “work together” cooperatively, as astronauts do on the ISS, to “success” in your mission. . “As humanity, we must work together and make sure that we treat the planet in a sustainable way,” she stressed.
On future missions, Matthias Maurer admitted that they could eventually go through a new stay on the ISS or a trip to the Moon -to its orbit or to its surface-.
Source: Observadora
