Welcome home, Tim! It’s a sentiment that will be shared by most scientists and engineers – whether or not they are involved in space research. You will no doubt feel a bit rough for the next few days, but you’ll recover. Whether your life will be normal again after travelling 125 million kilometres and witnessing so many of Earth’s glories from space is a different matter. I am certainly jealous of the experiences you have had and have waved at you several times as the bright dot of the International Space Station moved across the night sky.
In the UK the impact of your mission – especially on schoolchildren – is likely to be enormous. A million pupils have been involved in carrying out experiments connected with your adventure and it will be important to see if this enthusiasm is translated into a long-term interest in science and technology in secondary schools and universities – something this country sorely needs. If such a surge takes place, you could certainly argue that the cost to the UK of this venture will be justified on these grounds alone.
Some cynics will no doubt point out that you were often closer to us 400km above our heads than are our friends or families in New York or Moscow and that the mission was not that remarkable. But that misses the point. You have been part of an international cooperative effort that has seen men and women from 17 nations occupy the space station for nearly 16 years. The collective experience in training, maintaining and returning these diverse people from space is enormously valuable and will form the basis for our next, bolder steps into the cosmos. Certainly we shall go further – back to a lunar colony and then to Mars and beyond.
It will be similar to global shipping and air routes we have established: all based on ventures and experiences at sea and in the air over the centuries. When our descendants look back next century, they will undoubtedly see the ISS as an important stepping stone in our progress as a spacefaring species.
About 200 experiments are carried out on the ISS at any one time. You will have operated many of those and indeed have been a human guinea pig for many physiology experiments. Most will provide results from the station’s zero-gravity environment – something that is very difficult to replicate on Earth. Collectively, these experiments will undoubtedly contribute to our growing understanding of human biology, materials science, space radiation physics and other fields.
But what about the cost? Some say it goes far beyond reasonable levels. But in the grand scheme of things it is not enormous. Remember the cost of the station is shared between the taxpayers of the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the 22 member states of the European Space Agency. I certainly don’t begrudge the few pounds of my tax that has been used on this project, especially as the money will have been spent on companies and research groups generating high-technology jobs and possible spin-offs.
Back on Earth, the past week was a particularly grim one. Is it sentimental or idealistic to point to ventures like the ISS, where diverse nations seem able to work together almost seamlessly towards a common goal? I don’t think it is. We need to remind ourselves what we can do when we are able to put aside our differences and collaborate on worthy ambitions.
Professor John Zarnecki is a director of the International Space Science Institute