After 340 days in space, Russian sees man on Mars

CHENNAI: Floating in zero gravity the International Space Station 400km from Earth, Mikhail Kornienko would often peer through the viewfinder with his favourite dish in hand — gastronomic delights like crab meat are on the menu these days, a far cry from the desiccated goo sucked through a straw in the early days of space travel.
“I’d look through the viewfinder at the azure, gleaming globe below and longingly wonder when I would go home,” the cosmonaut said.
The funny thing for the 57-year-old military officer and space scientist was that the wistfulness of the moment always reminded him of the feeling he would have as a child gazing at the skies on starlit nights, wondering if he could journey to space one day.
Back on earth a year after a 340-day mission on the ISS with Nasa scientist Scott Kelly, the cosmonaut knows that man’s future could depend on the ability to meet the challenge of extended space travel.
Kornienko, who was in Chennai on Thursday as part of the first Festival of Science organised by Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, said his daily routine at the ISS was a gruelling but methodical 16-hour workday.
There were near death situations sometimes. “Once we had to strap on and hope for the best when ground station informed us about approaching space junk,” said Kornienko, who served as a flight engineer on an earlier mission to the ISS.
His long stint in space took a heavy toll on his system, said Kornienko who returned home with vision and hearing problems. “I recovered in two weeks,” he said. “But there is never full recovery.”
The primary goal the Kornienko-Kelly mission was to set the stage for what many space researchers believe is the next frontier to conquer: Mars and the eventual colonisation of the red planet.
Kornienko and Kelly helped their countries collect a huge amount of data on the effects on the human body of extended missions in zero gravity.
Does he believe that it is possible for humans to inhabit Mars, given that the planet is anywhere between 54.6 million km and 401 million km from earth, depending upon the orbital stages of both planets?
“There are far more complex issues — radiation, for one — than distance to deal with on such a mission,” Kornienko said.
“Colonising Mars is possible, but it can become a reality soon only if there is cooperation between countries including India,” the cosmonaut said.
And Kornienko is ready to be a part of the mission — if he’s fit enough when the day comes.