ISS: Astronaut Cristoforetti reads for return ′ home ′ | Science Detailed statement on science and technology DW

“I am delighted to announce the forthcoming Samantha space mission,” said Josef Aschbacher, the new director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), opening a press conference on 3 March 2021. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is expected to return to the International Space Station (ISS) for her second flight in spring 2022, following her two colleagues Thomas Pesquet and Matthias Maurer, who left for the ISS in April and October 2021 respectively.

Cristoforetti herself is very happy. “Not surprisingly, it was a real pleasure and gratitude for this opportunity. As I said before, I have had the amazing opportunity in the last few years to grow as an astronaut. But the This tends to make us want to get back to place as soon as possible, “she admits.

Freshly brewed ISSpresso

For Cristoforetti, it will be a return to the “home away from home,” as she likes to call the ISS. The Italian astronaut has certainly spent an amazing time there: From the fall of 2014 to the spring of 2015, she was at the station for 200 days working as a flight engineer for the mission “Futura,” the second longest time she spent in space by ESA Astronaut. Her colleague and class astronaut Luca Parmitano is the only one who has achieved that record – just one day.

The world record for the longest single space light is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov with 437 days. But his companion Gennady Padalka has spent more time in space as a whole than anyone else, making up a maximum of 878 days when all five of his missions are combined.

During her first voyage at the ISS, Samantha Cristoforetti performed many experiments, mostly related to biology and genetics. In one, she looked at how mammalian immune cells responded to different levels of microgravity. The data extracted from this test showed that it only takes a few seconds for these cells to convert to weightless.

But one test in particular caught people’s attention during her stay: Samantha was able to launch the first new brewery espresso on the ISS.

Commercial support

This time, there will be many different things both on the ISS itself and in terms of how to access it. “The positive side about waiting all these years is that the mission will have some different aspects. So it’s kind of an incentive to fly a new spacecraft,” Cristoforetti says, noting reference to the new US commercial spacecraft that will replace the Russian Soyuz Spacecraft for the next three ESA missions to the ISS.

It remains to be decided which spaceship Cristoforetti will deliver: Space-X’s Dragon or Boeing’s Starliner. The exact date for her flight has not yet been confirmed.

Recently updated

“The space station has been doing this mid-life upgrade for some time. New hardware up there, new jobs, much more exciting experiments,” Cristoforetti says. One thing she is particularly looking forward to is a new piece of equipment that is already waiting aboard the ISS to join the “Columbus” space lab: a 3D printer for metal printed in space.

Cristoforetti stands among her five other colleagues of the ESA astronaut class in 2009. On her right is French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who will be flying to the ISS this year.

ESA astronaut class from 2009: Cristoforetti and her colleague Pesquet (right) will fly to the ISS in 2022 and 2021

And the ISS now has its own space balcony: “Bartolomeo,” a newly installed platform outside the Columbus model that allows private companies to conduct experiments under space conditions.

Feet on the ground, eyes on the stars

Although Cristoforetti has spent the last few years back with her feet on hard ground, her fetus has been focused on goals even beyond the ISS, as preparations are renewed to put people on. the moon again. “It’s been interesting years since I returned. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to grow professionally and bring something back from my experience as an astronaut, “she says. For example, she leads the EAC Spaceship EAC campaign, where she advice for students dealing with the technological challenges posed by lunar missions.The plan is to launch such missions not from Earth, but from the Lunar Orbital Platform Gate, a space station orbiting the moon.It is expected to be built within nine years.

As an experienced astronaut, Cristoforetti knows exactly what one needs to feel at home in space. For this reason, he was chosen as the crew representative for the future occupants of this lunar station. “I was able to make my contribution from an astronaut’s point of view. And I’m really excited about that because Italy is leading the design and manufacture of these models for ESA,” she says, referring to the I-Hab modules that will be the main accommodations for future astronauts at the Gate.

This artist's impression shows a white cylindrical model docked on other parts of a proposed Lunar Gate orbiting the moon

This artist’s impression shows the proposed I-Hab model for astronauts working at Lunar Gate

Over the moon

Who the astronauts might be is a mystery since 2009, when the last official class of astronauts, owned by Cristoforetti, was selected by ESA. But that is about to change now: From March 2021 to April 2021, ESA is once again officially accepting applications from advanced astronauts.

“Samantha and her colleagues are fully qualified and very young and there is no expectation that they will no longer be in space,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. “But, of course, we need to modernize our class of astronauts and finally send astronauts outside the ISS towards the moon. And ultimately, in the next decade, even longer , to Mars. ” There are already three places for European astronauts to fly to Lunar Gate within this decade.

For now, Cristoforetti is returning to the ISS, where she will likely stay for the usual six-month period. Does it have more premieres than mind on the lines of that first espresso in space? “I don’t know, I have a few ideas. But that would be a little early to give,” she says.

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