By Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station
This article is part of: Shaping the Future of Mobility
On this episode of Radio Davos we talk to an astronaut and two people involved in the business of space.
Samantha Cristoforetti is a highly experienced astronaut, she spoke directly from the International Space Station.
The CEO of Voyager Space says his own trip to space re-affirmed his commitment to environmentalism.
The boss of Relativity Space says we will eventually have a large city on Mars.
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What are humans doing in space and why are we talking about bases on the Moon or missions to Mars when there is so much here on Earth that requires our immediate attention?
In this episode of Radio Davos, we hear from two people involved in the business of space – one of whom visited space last year, the other who is convinced there will be a city of 1 million humans on Mars.
And we link up with the International Space Station to speak to astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
Podcast transcript:
Opening montage:
Dylan Taylor, Chairman & CEO, Voyager Space: People ask me: the Moon, or Mars? My answer is ‘yes’.
Robin Pomeroy, host, Radio Davos: Welcome to Radio Davos, the podcast from the World Economic Forum that looks at the biggest challenges and how we might solve them. This week: space. Why are humans still going there when there’s so much we need to do here on Earth?
This investor, himself, a space tourist, gives his view.
Dylan Taylor: These challenges can seem intractable because we have oftentimes too parochial of a view, and space seems to be a universal antidote to that parochialism.
Robin Pomeroy: We’ll hear from this astronaut talking to us direct from the International Space Station.
Samantha Cristoforetti, astronaut: As we develop space capabilities and the space economy, that becomes a multiplier of all the technological tools that we have at our disposal.
Robin Pomeroy: What about life beyond the International Space Station? Should we have a permanent presence on the Moon or go even further? What about a city on Mars?
Tim Ellis, CEO and co-founder, Relativity Space: We’re literally talking about putting a million people on another planet in an extremely hostile environment. Many of the challenges that we’re going to have to solve to do that are going to also help us solve the climate issue on Earth.
Robin Pomeroy: Subscribe to Radio Davos wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating and a review, and join us on the World Economic Forum Podcast Club on Facebook. I’m Robin Pomeroy at the World Economic Forum and with this look at space, why we go there and where we’re going next…
Tim Ellis: I really do think it can be one of the greatest adventures in human experience.
Robin Pomeroy: This is Radio Davos.
Samantha Cristoforetti
NASA Mission Control: European Space Agency, this is Mission Control Houston. Please call station for a voice check
Samantha Cristoforetti: This is Station and I am ready for the event. Welcome aboard the International Space Station.
Robin Pomeroy: That’s Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, connecting from the International Space Station to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos a few weeks ago. She’s one of a select band of human beings who’ve not just blasted into space, but have spent time living and working up there.
In this episode of Radio Davos, we also hear from space entrepreneurs who see human activity in space so far as just the start and who are setting their sights on the Moon and Mars.
First, though, here’s Samantha Cristoforetti speaking from space. She was interviewed at Davos by Andrew Sorkin of The New York Times and CNBC.
Andrew Sorkin, journalist: I’ve never, by the way, interviewed an astronaut in space before, so I want to know what it’s been like and what’s it like the second time up there? Is it different? Did you bring different things with you? Are you getting better sleep? Just tell us about what what the experience is like.
Samantha Cristoforetti: The second time is very different. Not worse or better, but different. I would say that the first time I came to the Space Station as a rookie, it was quite overwhelming, you know, all the way from from launch. It was this influx of new experiences, new physical sensations, new skills that I had to learn, you know, like like floating in zero-G and handling this rather complex environment of Space Station and handling the work up there – or up here.
And, and I think if I look back at those, especially the first days and weeks, it was all a little bit of a blur. I didn’t have very clear memories. So I was really looking forward to come up here a second time as a veteran astronaut this time and have a little bit more of both cognitive and emotional buffer, to experience this a little bit more in slow motion, and it’s definitely been the case. I mean, you know, I didn’t have to learn everything from scratch. It came back to me fairly quickly, like riding a bicycle, I guess. And so I had that space in, you know, in my heart and in my mind, to observe the experience and really take note of details and and hopefully also remember it better for for the future.
Andrew Sorkin: Given the challenges that we’re we’re clearly facing about inequality and climate change. And we talked about that a little bit down here before we got to you. Can you tell everybody about the purpose of your mission and how you would tell everybody on Earth how you think it’s going to ultimately help resolve some of these issues?
Samantha Cristoforetti: Yeah, I think that global big challenges like obviously climate change and inequality are best faced when societies have at their disposal powerful tools. And those tools are knowledge, technologies and … strong economies.
And so I think that there’s two ways of answering your questions. I mean, of course, I could go and go off and tell you about all the space-based assets that monitor the Earth on a daily basis. And some of those are free flowing assets, but some of those are here installed on the external platforms of the International Space Station. Because they benefit from the fact that they have this platform and all the power that is available and the data transfer. And so it was possible to install them here.
So I could go off and tell you that. But I think that one should also have a more holistic perspective and understand it. Space is really part of our lives, of our technological development, of our scientific advancements, ultimately of our economic resources and the technological and scientific resources that we overall have at our disposal to tackle challenges, especially like like climate change.
So as we develop space capabilities and the space economy, that becomes a multiplier of all the technological tools that we have at our disposal to tackle climate change and all the great challenges that face humanity.
Andrew Sorkin: What’s the most exciting thing you’re working on up there right now?
Samantha Cristoforetti: Well, this weekend we had quite an exciting event. We actually had a brand new space vehicle. It’s called Starliner.
The demonstration flight occurred this weekend, so the vehicle came knocking at our door in the night between Friday and Saturday, I believe. And we had a pretty intensive short docked mission, which demonstrated a number of of capabilities. And then we closed the hatch last night and it will undock. And of course, we are we are all confident that it will safely land to earth shortly after that.
Other than that, there’s always a lot of science on board. It’s always difficult to pick a favourites … You may can glance in the camera – that I’m not supposed to touch but I set up yesterday – is a facility to demonstrate tailor robotic operations. So once we are ready to do the demonstration operations, I will actually use this. It’s like a haptic controller. So I will hold it in my hand and kind of move my hand. But actually on the ground I will be moving remotely the hand of a robot to perform tasks remotely. So that that’s pretty exciting. That’s the stuff that is is going to be useful for future surface explorations of Moon and and hopefully one day of Mars.
Andrew Sorkin: And I don’t know if this audience knows this and this is so cool, I think. She’s been a great champion of women and space engineers. And Mattel, the toymaker, has made and commissioned a Barbie doll of Samantha. And I just thought maybe you could tell us about that, how it came about. I don’t know if you have one up there with you. How did that happen?
Samantha Cristoforetti: Yes they have this campaign, which I believe is like the Dream Gap campaign. And the idea is to provide young girls, especially starting at a young age like pre-school age, with role models so that they keep dreaming big. They do not start to think already, like in pre-school age, that some professions are maybe not suitable for them. Some career paths, some, some disciplines that they can study in college, for example, that are not suited for them, that that’s what we want to prevent.
I encourage women to consider a STEM career, consider working in the space sector. I don’t necessarily have an end state in mind because it depends in the end on individual choices, on individual freedom, which remains sacred. But what I hope to help accomplish is that young girls and women feel that freedom. They make those choices knowing that they are free to choose from the full palette of of human enterprises.
Andrew Sorkin: Samantha, you are an inspiration. I’m super grateful to have this conversation. We want to thank you for joining the World Economic Forum in Davos from space. Thank you.
Robin Pomeroy: Andrew Sorkin ending that conversation with astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Just to be clear, he was in Davos, Switzerland, here on Earth at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting a few weeks ago. Samantha was floating in zero gravity in the International Space Station – in space! You can watch the whole interview on our website.
Dylan Taylor, Voyager Space
Another person who has seen Earth from space is Dylan Taylor. He’s the chief executive officer of a company called Voyager Space, which provides space infrastructure and services to companies and government agencies and he’s an investor in the business of space. Last December, he was a passenger on a space flight operated by Blue Origin, the private sector company founded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
My colleague Nikolai Khlystov, who leads space-related work here at the World Economic Forum, spoke to Dylan Taylor about the business opportunities of space, how investing there can improve life here. And he started by asking about that flight into space.
Nikolai Khlystov: The one aspect which I know many cannot wait to learn a little bit more about is your trip to space in December with Blue Origin making you, if I’m not mistaken, the 606th person to see Earth from space out of 100 billion people that ever lived on planet Earth. Can you share a little bit of the intellectual, but also maybe the emotional, aspect of that experience with us?
- Editor’s Note: This article is part of: Shaping the Future of Mobility
