interview
Status: 11.11.2021 3:22 a.m.
What can ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer expect during his six-month stay on the ISS? Before starting SpaceX, he told tagesschau.de what he was planning to do on board – and what he had to do without.
tagesschau.de: Mr. Maurer, your start date has now been postponed several times. How did you spend the waiting time?
Matthias Maurer: In the past year and a half, due to the intensive training in preparation for my mission, I hardly had the opportunity to go on vacation. So I used the waiting time to relax a bit. Of course, we continue to train: We do sport, we train different types of work again, such as “Catch and Capture”, in which we virtually operate a robotic arm and the like. Of course, we also go through various procedures in detail. A few days ago we only had emergency training on how to behave if something should happen to the Dragon capsule after the start, such as a fire or a pressure drop in the Dragon.
Of course we spend a lot of time together as a crew, but we also had the opportunity to see our families a few more times. When it got more or less boring, we started collecting plastic waste on the beach. We have a so-called Beach House that is available to us and there is a private stretch of beach that is not open to the public. Beach House sounds great by the way, but it’s more of a conference center. The mood within the crew is still good and couldn’t be better. We are of course happy that things will start soon. But we don’t let any frustration or impatience arise. We as a crew quickly came to an agreement on that.
tagesschau.de: Do you also feel something like excitement before the start?
Matthias Maurer: Actually not yet. I think the excitement comes when the hatch closes and we hear the rocket fill up. That makes a lot of noises, we have already been prepared for that. But of course we haven’t heard or felt it properly yet. I’ve been in my capsule before. We had to try out whether the spacesuit also fits with the connections in the capsule.
Weightlessness – also a problem for astronauts
tagesschau.de: Despite the long preparation: Are you actually afraid of not being able to tolerate weightlessness in space?
Bricklayer: Not tolerating space – according to statistics, this applies to 85 percent of my colleagues. So I’m actually firmly assuming that I can’t stand space in the first three days either. That would be like on a ship with a little more swell than you are used to. But we take medication for motion sickness; that means I’ll be able to dampen it. With a bit of luck, I’ll be with the 15 percent who laugh and say: That’s not bad. But I prepare myself to have to suffer for a few days. That’s part of it.
tagesschau.de: The weather has to be right for you to start. And not only in Florida, but also across the Atlantic west of Ireland. Why is that?
Bricklayer: We start in Cape Canaveral and then fly parallel to the US coast towards Canada. Then it’s on to England and Ireland. And when we reach the skies over England, we are in orbit. But if the start were to be aborted, we would fall into the sea. That is why the weather must also be good at the landing sites that are intended for an aborted take-off. Even with the best conditions in Florida, the launch could be postponed due to bad weather in the emergency landing areas.
Experiments that can only take place in space
tagesschau.de: Let us come to your work in space, such as the experiments. Why is it so important to experiment in space?
Bricklayer: Because of the force of gravity here on earth, we have physical effects that we do not have in space. For example, if you take water and pour some oil over it, then here on earth an oil film floats on top of the water because the oil film is lighter. The oil film does not float in space, but behaves differently because of the weightlessness. We want to look at that and study additional interactions between the water and the oil, such as the surface energy or interface effects. I have a lot of experiments with me in my luggage, we also do combustion experiments, for example. Because the combustion takes place differently in space than on earth.
tagesschau.de: You will also practice on the ISS for long-term stays on the moon and Mars. Can you give us an example?
Bricklayer: Bringing resources to the ISS is time-consuming. You can assume that every liter of water we fly up costs around 10,000 euros – for transport costs and the entire logistics chain behind it. If I have to bring water to the moon, it’s even more expensive. That means: every drop of water that I can actively save helps to make the mission possible and sustainable. So we need devices that create closed cycles. The water we drink on the ISS turns into urine, which is purified again into drinking water. At the moment we’re recycling almost 90 percent of the water – that’s very good, but it’s not 100 percent yet. We have to get there.
“People on the ground should be part of my mission”
tagesschau.de: In the past few weeks you have been asked very often what you are taking with you to the ISS. So the other way round: What would you like to take with you, but are not allowed to?
Bricklayer: We have a couple of holidays up there, Christmas and my birthday. A toast with something you drink at a party would have been nice. But we are not allowed to take that with us. Something crunchy, such as pizza or pastries, is also prohibited – because of the crumbs. They don’t fall on the floor, we could breathe them in. Then they would be a real danger.
tagesschau.de: Your German predecessor on the ISS always let us be part of his mission with photos he posted from space. Is that what you intend to do?
Bricklayer: When I applied to be an astronaut in 2008, I didn’t realize that social media would grow like that. This is now part of the astronaut’s compulsory craft. Fortunately, I have a team that supports me. But of course I have to “feed” this team from above: I have to and will create pictures and video clips and put into words the emotions that I have up there. I don’t just do this because I have to, but also because photography is one of my hobbies and hopefully the people on the ground will also become part of my mission.
The interview was conducted by Ute Spangenberger, SWR, for tagesschau.de.