“Space Brothers”, one of the best manga of the moment and the story of two brothers who have been passionate about space since childhood like Thomas Pesquet – © Chuya Koyama / Kodansha Ltd.
- Thomas Pesquet is in the ISS doing his scientific experiments. And U.S ? Here are some cultural tips for living the next six months with your head in the stars
- Addicting manga Space Brothers to the uchronic series For All Mankind by passing the Kerbal Space Program space flight simulator, there is something for all enthusiasts
- Share a little the daily life of the French astronaut with VR experiences, music from space or reading Dune, the novel he took up there
It’s okay, he’s gone. Thomas Pesquet took off on Friday, along with the three other astronauts from the Crew-2 mission, aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon 2 capsule, before heading to the International Space Station. An event experienced live by millions of spectators around the world, stars in their eyes. And now ? Well, months of scientific experiments, inevitably less spectacular. But, Thomas, you can’t leave us like this … 20 minutes offers you several cultural recommendations (manga, TV series, video game, etc.) for the next six months, the time of the Alpha mission.
The manga “Space Brothers”
Of the essential Objective moon from Hergé to the aptly named In Thomas Pesquet’s jumpsuit from Marion Montaigne, through science fiction and space opera stories, comics have always loved space. The manga too. One of the best series of the moment is by the way Space Brothers in Pika editions, the story of Hibito and Mutta, two brothers passionate about space since they saw a small UFO. If the first, the youngest, has become one of the youngest astronauts in history, the second is an unemployed loser.
But it’s never too late to make his dream come true, and Mutta decides to take the JAXA exam, the Japanese NASA, to follow in Hibito’s footsteps and become the model big brother he always wanted. to be. With around thirty volumes already and still in the process of being published, Space Brothers describes with realism, detail, humor and above all a lot of heart the fate of our Japanese Thomas Pesquet. The manga has a strong addictive potential, so try to enjoy each tome rather than devouring them, but be aware, at worst, that there is an anime adaptation and a live movie.
The “For All Mankind” series
Interstellar, Gravity, Ad Astra, Alone on Mars… If one often quotes films, and the revolution of the special effects, to speak about the fascination of the fiction for the space conquest, what then to say about the series with The First on Hulu, The stuff of heroes on Disney +, Away on Netflix and especially For All Mankind on AppleTV +. In this uchronia, Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) imagine that it was not the Americans who walked on the moon in 1969 but the Russians.
From there, it unfolds a thrilling and inclusive space conquest that had rather gone unnoticed in season 1 but which got everyone in agreement in season 2. “The best series you don’t watch”, headline thus the Slate site, while US TV critic Alan Sepinwall calls the Season 2 finale, which aired last Friday, “one of the best and most thrilling series I’ve ever seen.” Immediate take-off?
The game “Kerbal Space Program”
Not so fast the space boys and girls. Have you at least built your rocket, calculated its trajectory in great detail, prepared all possible failure scenarios…? This is the very complete program offered by the video game Kerbal Space Progam. Launched in alpha version in 2011, this simulation puts you at the head of a space center in an imaginary universe populated by little green men. But science, and even space mechanics to be precise, is very real. The game has thus won the loyalty of several million budding astronauts over the years, who can, for example, replay the Apollo program with the extension Making History. Available on PC, Mac, Linux, PS4 and Xbox One, Kerbal what do you occupy for hours, days … six months?
Virtual reality experiences
It’s the world upside down. Thanks to VR, Thomas Pesquet takes a piece of the Earth with him on the ISS, and will be able to cycle in Paris or Marseille. Great, but take off into space from your sofa, is it possible? You can imagine that virtual reality has from its inception aimed at the stars, and there are no more VR experiences dedicated to space. The favorite French astronaut even played the game with In the shoes of Thomas Pesquet, two 10-minute immersive films, the first on his training and the second on his journey, during the Proxima mission. Let us also quote
Blueturn, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, 2nd Step and 1st Step, or
Spheres, “The Million Dollar VR Movie”.
The soundtrack from space
No, Hans Zimmer didn’t compose the music for the cosmos, it’s just the soundtrack ofInterstellar which runs in a loop. As the astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet explained in his Space Chronicle on France Inter, “the virtual vacuum of the Universe offers no support for sound”. On the other hand, it evokes “a song of light”, because the light waves captured by telescopes can be transcribed into sound waves. This is what NASA did, which calls them the ”
scary solar system sounds “. Ah OK. Good night ?
For reading advice, there would be a choice, from the classic of the SF Foundation of Isaac Asimov to the scientific popularization of The Universe at your fingertips by Christophe Galfard, but let’s follow the guide and Thomas Pesquet. The astronaut has indeed warned to reread Dune by Frank Herbert on the ISS, a very good idea, especially since the novel had the right to a new edition and several tests in anticipation of the film’s release.