Members of 20th ISS expedition answer questions of RT viewers

RT: We have a question here from Ihab who would like to know what is the maximum range of a spacecraft at the moment, and when the flight to Mars will first take place in your opinion?

Robert Thirsk: The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was launched in the 1970-s, is currently 15 billion kilometers from Earth – that's twice the distance from the Earth to the orbit of Pluto. And it is still going, it is almost into interstellar space right now. So that's pretty amazing. The spacecraft that currently exists that has the longest range is probably the Soyuz, or the Space Shuttle. Right now it can only get to the edge of the lower Earth orbit. But in the future, we are going to go to the Moon.

RT: Let's ask you, Roman. What is the official language aboard the International Space Station, and is communication between all of you guys ever a problem?

Roman Romanenko: Of course, as with any international projects where there are partners from different countries, English is the official language. But we have our own peculiar language at the station; it has elements of both the Russian and English languages. We mastered it during the training process. We basically created our own language, so when we do work on board or when we are training, that is the language we use.

RT: We have a question here from Said in Iraq. What are the goals of this particular mission, what experiments or programs are you planning to do?

Robert Thirsk: This expedition is a milestone in space station history, because it is going to be the first time with 6 people on board the space station. When the 3 of us arrive, the population of the Space Station will go from 3 to 6. So the first important objective is to establish the Space Station as a living and working place for 6 people. Other objectives are to continue the assembling and construction of the space station. There are a couple more modules that need to be added. We will help prepare for that. And then also to do research and development. We built the space station to be a scientific laboratory in space. With 6 people on board, we are going to help fulfil that promise.

Frank De Winne: We also have some other important tasks, of course. One of the new things that will arrive during our stay on the Space Station is the Japanese transfer vehicle. And again it is very interesting to see how this is really a truly international space station, because when the HTV transfer vehicle arrives, it will be built in Japan, but it will be grappled by a Canadian arm that is built in Canada. It will be installed on an American module, but which has been built in Europe. And during that whole phase, the Russian segment will be in control of the Space Station. So it really is an international endeavour you can see with this one vehicle arriving in the space station.

RT: So special and so unique. I have a question here from Belizo from South Africa. At what speed and what altitude does weightlessness occur?

Frank De Winne: It is a little bit difficult to tell, because weightlessness, you can kind of create it. Weightlessness is something that occurs when you don't have a counter force. When we are sitting here on the ground, we feel weight, because the Earth is pushing it back against us. This is one of the laws of Newton. Weightlessness is when you are permanently falling and nothing is pushing back at us. And we have a situation when we fly with our Soyuz, in space we kind of fall continuously around the Earth. And we have this around 200 kilometres after our launch, and in order to fall continuously and not to fall back to the Earth, we need to have a minimum speed of 28 thousand kilometres per hour, that's 8 kilometres per second. That's what we have during our space flight.

RT: Thank you. Frank and Bob, we have a question for both of you here from Oleg in Russia. Which planet looks the most amazing from space? Which is the most unique or special?

Robert Thirsk: Well, of course, for me it has to be the Earth, and the reason why I say that is you only appreciate the beauty of the planet when you are up high. Before I first flew, for example, I thought the deserts were brown. Well, it is true, they are brown, but there are hundreds of shades of brown, hundreds of shades of yellow, hundreds of shades of red. My favourite colour after my first flight is now the ocean blue, it's just very, very beautiful to look at. But for people who have access to Hubble telescope images, then I guess that for some people, Jupiter is probably the nicest planet to look at, because it has that wind turbine look. Saturn with its rings. And then maybe for some people just the red planet of Mars, because we know that some day we are going to go there. I like the Earth's beauty, but there are good reasons to appreciate the beauty of other planets.

RT: We have a question here from Jonas, one of our younger viewers. He is from Belgium and would like to know how long it takes to adapt back to gravity again after a 6-month space flight.

Frank De Winne: Well, we have no experience, of course, of a 6-month space flight. We have both only been on short missions. So it is difficult for us to tell, but what we hear from our colleagues, it takes a couple of weeks to be again a normal person. We are also subjects for scientists, and scientists say that it takes a couple of months, sometimes up to 6 months for our bodies to completely re-adapt to the Earth's gravity. But maybe you can also ask Roman about it, because as you know, Roman's father was a very famous cosmonaut in Russia who flew almost a year, just a little bit short of one year. So I think Roman has talked about it with his father.

RT's Ryan Dollard with 20th ISS expedition members Frank De Winne, Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk

RT: That must be something you can give us some insights into…

Roman Romanenko: Yes, it was a long time ago, when my father came back from a long space flight, it was the record time back then. As far as I could see, and according to the people who took part in one way or another in his adaptation, he began to feel well only after a couple weeks. But every person is different, and has a different approach to preventative work ahead of the post-flight adaptation. That's why all cosmonauts and astronauts have to go through physical training. You need to exercise in space to keep yourself in shape, train your muscles, so that they will stay active in weightlessness. That's why if you exercise well during the flight, then adaptation will be much faster. Normally, it takes from 2 weeks to 1 month.

RT: Just to stay with you for a moment, Roman. Michael from the USA wants to know how it feels to be a second generation cosmonaut. Has your father given you any advice about the challenges you are facing?

Roman Romanenko: I am not the first cosmonaut to follow in his father's footsteps. When my father found out that I wanted to become a cosmonaut just like him, he said that this was a very difficult job. He told me to think twice, consider everything. In his three flights and training for those flights, he learned that this was constant work. He had to work with people and always be in shape. But he told me I had to make this choice for myself. I thought about it and decided to do what my father had done. I followed in his footsteps and now I am training for my first flight.

RT: Iman from Egypt would like to know how long do you think it is possible for a human to live in space, and would it ever be possible for people to live a whole life?

Robert Thirsk: I think the world record for stay in space is 400 days. So we know that people can live in space for at least 400 days. But the next major endeavour in human space flight is going to be a mission to Mars. Because of the existing rocket technology, it will be a 2.5 year mission. So we need to put in place some medical preventive counter-measures that will allow people to live in space for 2.5 years. That's part of the purpose of our space station expedition – to identify some potential medical problems for the Mars mission, and we will have to come up with counter-measures as well. We will have to re-create the environment on Mars or wherever we venture to, but I think the answer is yes, we can have people stay in space for months if not years at a time. Perhaps in a century or two we will have colonies elsewhere in the Solar system.

RT: Speaking on this point further, we have a question: How does it feel physically to live in space? And is your body altered?

Frank De Winne: Yes, indeed. Our bodies alter. It is very nice to be in space on the one hand, because we don’t have gravity and all the work that we need to do, to keep ourselves upright and in equilibrium here, and to stay fixed – you don’t need to do them in space any more. You just float around, any position is good. You always feel very relaxed.

But there is a counterpart, of course. Our muscles don’t work any more, our bones don’t get stimulated any more. So, when we get back from space, this is very bad. And this is why Roman explained that when we are in space, it’s very important that we continue to work on our muscle strength, that we continue to load our bones with exercises of a minimum of two and a half hours per day. We do this in order that when we come back from space, we can easily readapt to the Earth’s gravity and environment.

Also, the first couple of days in space are not so nice because we have what is called blood shift, for example. The blood, since we have no gravity any more, is mostly in our legs. It goes to our heads, our heads get swollen a little bit, you can see that on images of cosmonauts – they have kind of red faces, a little bit swollen, it’s all from the blood that goes there, creating a little bit of a headache; the back is aching a little bit. So, sometimes we don’t feel so well.

So, during the first days it’s really difficult, and we need to adapt to space.

But as in a lot of things, we see that our human body is very adaptable. And after a couple of days, all this goes away, and it is just marvelous and wonderful to float around in space.

RT: What does it actually feel like for the first time to be out in space looking back upon the Earth? What was your first impression?

Robert Thirsk: I can remember very clearly my first view of space. I had launched in the space shuttle, and I was busy doing my chores, my task, for about half an hour, when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Bob, look out the window!' And all along there’s been a window this size I could have looked up, being focused on my work. I looked out, and this chill went down my spine, because it was no longer a simulation, this was a real space flight.

And you can see the curvature from there and you can realize that the Earth is actually a ball floating in the middle of nothingness. Of course I knew that, because I read books. But until you’re actually up there and can see, the Earth is a floating ball and vulnerable, fragile, but also pristine and clean. It’s a magic, magic feeling.

Frank De Winne

Frank De Winne: When you see this ball you immediately realize this ball is in the middle of the vast Universe, and it’s tiny – because you see the ball, it’s still below you. But when you look everywhere else – it’s absolutely nothing. And what you also see is that the atmosphere is extremely thin, and it’s kind of an egg shell that protects our Earth, gives this life, gives all the good things that are here. And it makes you very well aware that our Earth is extremely vulnerable, in this enormous vastness of space and of the Universe.

So, it makes you think twice about what’s happening now: the climate change and the global warming, and all these things. So, I think a lot more people should get the opportunity to fly to space and to see the Earth in all its vulnerability, and all its beauty as well. From above, I think it would make a big difference for everybody here on Earth.

RT: I still would like to know – how do you feel when come back from space, and do you ever long to stay for more time, or are you always happy to come home?

Robert Thirsk: I flew once so far, and I had mixed feelings about coming home after the 17-day flight. I was anxious to come home, to see my family again, and to receive hugs from them, and to tell them about my incredible adventure. But on the other hand, I felt that 17 days in space was not enough.

As a crew we were just getting into our groove, just adapting to what life in space was all about, just becoming very efficient.So, I made a promise to myself that if I ever had a chance to fly on a longer duration mission, this was a goal I was going to strive for.

I think that the six-month expedition that we're about to launch on is about right. I’ve talked to other astronauts and cosmonauts, saying everyone after about four or five months begins to miss the beauty of the planet and their family.

I am thinking that six months is about optimal. We will see.

RT: A question for all you guys. Perhaps you all are needed to help us out. We have a question from Astma, an eight-year-old girl from Saudi Arabia. She would love to be a cosmonaut. What special conditions would have to be – an A-grader – in order to get to space?

Roman Romanenko: So as to get among those fortunate candidates who could fly into space and carry out space exploration on board an orbital station, first you need to have a wish, and set a goal for yourself, and go towards and try to achieve it by all means. I don’t mean at any cost, but you have to apply every effort to achieve it. This is what we, spacemen, do.

We never know when we’ll fly into space, because all is relative and changeable in life. If you have set yourself this goal, like flying into space, you should of course do sports every day, perform your duties, study everything thoroughly to become a professional. If you become a professional in earthly affairs, then you’re welcome to outer space.

RT: I have a question here, from Akhmed in Iraq. He wants to know if you could have a six month holiday in space or anywhere on Earth, which would you prefer?

Frank De Winne: For a holiday, I would probably pick Earth, because being six months in space and having nothing to do, I think it would be very boring, very tiresome, because, of course, the Earth is beautiful, but six months of looking out the window would be not very good. But if I could choose to work six months in space or working six months on Earth, I would choose to work six months in space.

RT: And you, Roman?

Roman Romanenko: I think that the first thing you would want to do after a lengthy space flight is to descend to Earth and have a rest. It is because we have very serious work to do on board – most of our work is dedicated to this work. Actually, working in space is the very reason why we go up there.

I suppose it is better to have holidays somewhere on Earth, to relax, to travel around it – to see what you have not seen so far.

RT: We have a question from a lady, Alia from Saudi Arabia, who is 13 years old. She says a meteor is due to hit Earth in 2012, and wants to know what can be done about it, and if that could be a significant problem.

Robert Thirsk: A meteor that people talk about arriving at the Earth in 2012 is fiction. There is no evidence that this is going to happen. But it’s still a good question, because we are concerned, and we track the objects in the Solar System whose orbits could intercept with the Earth’s. If an object that can enter the Earth's atmosphere is small, it will vaporize in the atmosphere and never strike the Earth.

If it’s medium-sized, most likely it will burn out, maybe a few remnants will hit the Earth’s surface. If it’s huge, and I am talking about a kilometre in size, then we need to worry. But there is nothing out there in the next tens and hundreds of years of that size that’s going to impact Earth.

RT: A question from Shadu from Egypt, a 25-year-old woman. She says she is an Egyptian woman, a Muslim woman, and neither the American nor the European Space Agency would include her as a cosmonaut. Can a person like her ever fly to space, she would like to know?

Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk

Robert Thirsk: How I can identify, because when I was about nine years old I decided I was going to become an astronaut. But there were only cosmonauts from Russia and astronauts from the United States that were flying in space, but my dream of becoming an astronaut did not disappear, and it did keep me interested in natural sciences, math, and technology. One day when Canada was ready to have its own astronaut program, I was very well qualified just because of my initial interest in space. So I encouraged people from other countries such as Egypt which had very solid research heritages to keep the dream alive. It’s nice to become an astronaut, because of a lot of other interesting vocations in science and technology.

RT: Roman, do you think the Russian space program is more available to the countries outside the USA and Europe? Do you think that’s the best chance for somebody from a place like Egypt, to realize their dream?

Roman Romanenko: In our country and in the Russian Space Agency in particular, there are options and programs developed for space flight tourists. Those who can afford this, can try. This is not for all, though. As I said before, a person who declares his wish to sign a contract with the Agency on a flight on board our ship must be of good health, and pass all the training and examinations. Any flight participant should be well-trained and physically fit. In all other respects, everybody’s welcome. It is open, and works so far.

Frank De Winne: I would like to add also that surely it has nothing to do with religion, because the girl said that she was a Muslim. But we have had Muslims flying to the International Space Station. And, again, we at the ISS, we come from very different cultures: from Canada, Europe, Russia, Japan. Religion does not play a role at all in space. We are people, first of all, that fly to space, that dream of space, and want to work in space, and want to live in space, and in the first matter, we’re people working together and having a good time together. Religion does not play a role at all.

Roman Romanenko: I would like to add that in our case, our expedition is unique because we have all the partners at once among those who are included into this space program. For instance, we have representatives from the USA, Russia, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Japan – six nations already. So, it is all wonderful. So, step by step we’ll check it all out, how it works and how we can work together.

RT: We have an excellent question here from Thailand. When you’ve been to space, when you’ve done this fantastic mission, what can possibly be next? What can top such a life-changing moment?

Frank De Winne: I think there are a lot things you can still do after you come back from space. First of all, you have been away a very long time from your family, so I will spend a lot of time with my wife, of course, and the kids. That will be the first goal after I come back – to build my family life again, to spend a lot of time with Lena.

For the rest, of course, after that we have had an enormous experience in space,and we can put this experience to the benefit of future fliers in the rest of the space program, because we do not fly for ourselves. The UN made a definition of astronauts and cosmonauts – we are envoys of humankind. We do this for everybody on Earth. So I think it’s our job after our space flight to put our experience and everything that we have gained through the space flight to the benefit of future space flights, of humanity in its entirety. And that, I think, is even a bigger goal than flying into space.

RT: Can anything top something like a six-month adventure in outer space?

Robert Thirsk: It’s true that the best thing about being an astronaut is living and working in space. But the second best thing about being an astronaut is doing challenging, fulfilling work. In this vocation I am challenged emotionally, physically, and intellectually, and I try harder. And I have an opportunity to work with gifted individuals who inspire me for excellence, and who inspire me to always be my best. There are many other locations out there in the world besides astronautics where you can find that formula for happiness.

RT: And we have another question from Fiona from Dundee in Scotland. She is a secondary school teacher trying to teach physics. Her children ask her what is weightlessness like, if you have the stars clear from space?

Robert Thirsk: Weightlessness is magic. If she’s ever seen the movie Peter Pan, which is a Walt Disney movie, she could probably remember that scene when Peter Pan comes into the bedroom and teaches Wendy and her brothers how to fly. For the first minutes, Wendy and her brothers bounce all over the place kind of uncoordinated. And then, after a little bit of time, they are very efficiently moving around and they have smiles on their faces. That’s what weightlessness is like. For the first couple of days, we were bumping into each other and into the wall, and then we got very proficient in moving from point A to point B. It’s like magic.

RT: The final question from our viewers. Six months the three of you together in space – shouldn’t that form a lifetime bond among you?

Roman Romanenko: Well, first of all, during our training here we have become close, and grown to know each other well. I think that during our flight we’re not going to have any problems, as we are working as one family, and we are ready for this flight. We are like one family.

RT: Gentlemen, it was an absolute privilege to speak to you today, and on behalf of hundreds of RT viewers that have sent their congratulations and their best wishes, I would like to wish you a safe flight and a safe return.