"What will be the first thing you will do on Earth?", Jon asked Thomas Pesquet
For the latter of the space program, the students of the Ahetze school, in the department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, ask their questions to Thomas Pesquet who will soon do in the coming days, after 6 months spent in space, his return to the planet Earth!
Julian and Andoni would first like to know, """"How are you going to land on earth?"""".
Then the capsule will fall into the water and parachute.The astronauts will then be recovered by a boat, then brought back as a helicopter on land!
""""How long does it take to land on earth?"""", Hugo asks Thomas Pesquet who answers him: """"It depends, from the moment we leave the space station, it takes six, seven, eight hours.It depends a bit on the trajectories, on the way we take...We really pay attention to the trajectory, we move more and more, etc..And then, everything accelerates a little at the end, once we get atmospheric back to school, there, it becomes really dynamic.You see the last 100 km altitude, we do them in 15 minutes, maybe, and we go very, very quickly.So here it is, it takes between 6 and 8 hours.You see, it is not very, very far.It's like a big train trip, or a plane trip """".
Small clarification on Thomas Pesquet's response, it is the ideal scenario that is targeted, but it is not completely excluded that the trip can finally be longer, if the weather gets involved (since it can have changedAfter the decision to leave) and that the trip lasts 20 hours in the end...
Millie is worried about the conditions that astronauts will undergo on arrival, """"Is landing, strong? Can there be an explosion, smoke?"""".
The captain of the ISS replied: """"The landing in itself, it is quite strong.It's a shock.It's like a small car accident, if you want, it goes in all directions, it hits fairly strong, etc..But we are protected, we have seats that are made on purpose for that.We have our helmets that protect us...""""
""""We were in a vacuum, so there was no air, there was nothing.And when you enter the atmosphere, there are air particles.So there, it rubs on our capsule and in fact, it rubs so quickly, so strong!Like when you rub your hands against each other, it's hot, well there, it rubs so hard that it raises the temperature of the capsule to 1600 degrees.It burns, it makes a ball of fire around.We have a thermal shield, we are protected, but that's especially what is a bit impressive.We are crushed by our weight.It moves in all directions after we see flames through the window, etc.
And after, when the parachute opens, once it has calmed down a little, it goes in all directions too.It shakes us like in a salad basket.So there you go, it's a little before it is the most impressive.Afterwards, once we are under the parachute, it's quite quiet.We descend quite slowly, we go down to 9 meters per second, you see it is as if we still fell from three floors per second, but we are under parachute and as we fall into the water, that's fine.It's a bit soft, so it's not very impressive.There is no explosion, there is no smoke """".
Rehabilitation to life on earth
Paul demande """"Comment pourras-tu remarcher après avoir été en apesanteur ?""""
""""It will be very difficult for us to walk because we will be really crushed by the weight of our body...There will be doctors and they will go out calmly.They will put us on a chair, they will pay attention to what we are always lying or seated, etc..We are not going to take off right away...we must relearn everything.And then after, already, the next day, it will be fine, we can walk.""""
Et enfin, """"Quelle sera la première chose que tu feras sur Terre ?"""" s'interroge Jon. Voici ce que lui répond Thomas Pesquet : """"La première chose que je ferais, ce sera peut-être dormir dans un lit...Take advantage of the comfort...And then, I also think of taking a shower, a real shower with flowing water...So I'm going to do that at first, simple things in the end! """".
On this page, you can listen in its entirety this last episode of the space program, in which the astronaut Thomas Pesquet answers children on life aboard the ISS.An appointment to find in podcast.
