lavie.fr, Sixtine Chartier, 2021-04-21
French astronaut Philippe Perrin on the first extra-orbital (EVA) trip around the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2002. NASA PHOTO/AFP photo.
Nearly 20 years later, astronaut Philippe Perrin still has the emotion in his voice when he talks about his time in space. In June 2002, the former fighter pilot spent 14 days on the International Space Station. A short but intense mission as it will result in three extra-vehicle (EVA) voyages. Three times when astronauts face the vacuum of space, protected only by a simple space suit, to attach new systems to the station.
When he returned, after a few years working for the European Space Agency (ESA), he was a test pilot for the Airbus company. He is currently the deputy mayor of Toulouse. He told La Vie newspaper about his memories of space, his amazement at the blue planet as if it was suspended in a vacuum, and his spiritual quest for the origin of his calling to become an astronaut.
In June 2002, he spent 14 days on the International Space Station. What would life without gravity be like?
Astronaut Philippe Perrin: We Earthlings are so used to hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, standing upright that we forget what gravity is, a huge force acting on us. With zero gravity, all constraints are removed, so we can get into a state of euphoria. You suddenly feel so light, like a fetus in a mother's womb. It feels like a very natural thing.
This experience was so strong that when it returned to Earth, it was difficult for humans to withstand gravity. During my first nap after my time in space, lying on the bed I felt as though hands were pushing me to the ground and my body distorting the mattress. I have also lost the habit of dropping objects thinking it will stay in the air… Even a short flight like mine, is enough for me to have reflexes to live in zero gravity.
Is zero gravity a release or a bondage?
At first, it was a release, but it quickly became a compulsion because we had to think through all of our actions. First of all, to keep the legs stable, they must be tied to the metal bars of the station. To shave, you must keep the soap in the paper or it will fly away.
Zero gravity forces us to constantly arrange objects. However, they usually disappear and we can find them before the ventilation ducts. That's why NASA invented Velcro!
Zero gravity also affects physiology. The inner ear is completely disoriented. On Earth, the inner ear helps us determine the vertical direction our minds need to navigate. In space, there is no natural vertical. It must therefore be shaped arbitrarily.
On the station, everyone tries to have the same vertical so that social life is organized. Naturally, we chose the Earth, which is below us. Once, I overturned a trash can because it was so light in zero gravity. One of my friends, who had been on the station for six months, helped me get back on track.
During his time on the International Space Station, he went out three times, and he had nearly 20 hours of work. Please tell us about this experience.
From the moment you step out of the station, you yourself become a small vehicle in orbit around the planet. I remember shooting stars whizzing past my feet and the beautiful southern dawns in the atmosphere. Amazingly, no one told me that in zero gravity I could see so clearly!
I feel what it's like to be satisfied. And the impression of an immense beauty and of a real fragile state.
All around me was the deep black sky, even during the day. The Earth's glow is very strong because it is not attenuated by ultraviolet filters in the atmosphere. We see it as a big ball on nothing, while on land or in a plane we are used to seeing the earth as a disc. Even though we know the law of gravity, we still ask ourselves, “What is the Earth doing there?”
And it was also a sacred, almost mystical experience. I feel what it's like to be satisfied. And the impression of an immense beauty and of a real fragile state. Life, all we know, is before our eyes. Countries are not spread out like that. We quickly flew over. Borders do not exist. All humans share the same atmosphere. As I myself was surviving in a small spaceship with limited means, the Earth also appeared like a spaceship.
Spacewalking (EVA) is an extremely dangerous activity. Are you stressed?
No, on the contrary, I am extremely calm. Usually, astronauts don't feel stressed, especially on their first outing. We're really committed to working for success, to the point where we don't even think we belong, like in the military. We're here on a mission, no wonder if it's dangerous.
I am more aware of what I do in the second and third go. I realized this when I was a fighter pilot and test pilot: young pilots they don't know the risks. Only when we get older do we understand.
In space, I internalize my fears, especially when I'm afraid of running out of air.
But this does not mean that there is no stress. In space, I internalize my fears, especially when I'm afraid of running out of air. A few months after the flight, I couldn't get anything under the bed. I was afraid of a kind of closure that I had never been afraid of before.
You're ecologically conscious from wrong when you're in space, aren't you?
Above all, I am aware of the connection between living people. Life is capable of union. Jesuit priest, paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin hypothesized that atoms attract each other, molecules become more complex, and create objects that tend to self-produce by RNA (those that are self-produced by RNA). This molecule is the result of DNA that allows the synthesis of the proteins that make up the cell). Thus, life was created.
At our level, each individual interacts and society itself comes to life. Pope Francis develops the ecosystem in this way. Life is a whole. So we don't do ecology to preserve humans but to save life in its entirety, meaning all living things from the smallest to the largest.
Back on Earth, what do you think when you look at the sky?
When I went into space, I was very confident. Since then I lost faith. Strange, faith… Back then I had no doubt, I felt strong and supported. When we were children, together with our parents, we used to look at the stars when summer came. I realize this can teach us a lot about ourselves. I said to myself, "If I can go up, I'll understand something."
I find life, its power, its absurdity, and the desire to preserve it.
I went there but I didn't see God… I found its life, its strength, its absurdity and the desire to preserve it. That's why after spending time in space, I do a lot of environmental lectures. Then I entered politics, working for the City of Toulouse. After working at Airbus, now I'm in charge of cycling!
Did space flight make you lose your faith?
When I had faith, it was obvious. I also carry a statue of Our Lady in my pocket when I go into space. I feel like I'm beyond something very big. I tried my best, I tried so hard.
When I returned to Earth, I saw a shrinking, self-absorbed humanity… In a way, I was a consumerist myself. Now I'm trying to find a meaning.
What do you believe now?
I try to grow old in peace, asking myself questions that space travel has yet to answer. I am still attached to Christianity in a somewhat opportunistic way, like Chateaubriand in Le Génie du Christianisme : if God exists, God is a Christian because he is a God of love.
But one question remains: has man built this mental model, because exactly, is it the best model?
In essence, faith cannot explain anyway. That's all the magic of it!
With all the satellites we send into space, the sky is no longer really God's domain. So is it no longer a mystery?
When people go into space like when climbing on the spindle at an entertainment center, when space is invaded by the military and commercial, when Space X saturates low orbit with satellites… we are at risk. lose the spiritual dimension of our relationship with heaven. But I think we'll find this dimension in missions to Mars.
If we do find traces of life on Mars, the divine effects could be phenomenal. I've always been drawn to it, ever since my childhood movies like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey . I became an astronaut to get close to the monolith!
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catholic