Last Monday I was lucky
enough to spend an evening at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands. I
was part of a personal tour given by Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers. Andre has
completed 2 missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and has spent
over 200 days in space. Perhaps not surprisingly I found myself in awe of Andre
(I am very impressionable). He is in perfect physical form and positively oozes
a vibe of serenity and intelligence. You can imagine him calmly telling Ground
Control that the engine has died and he is going to have to land the craft with
nothing more than elbow grease and spit, and yet still being successful. He
also has that impressive capability many Dutch people possess of being able to
slip seamlessly between English and Dutch mid-sentence (I did say I was very
impressionable).
I confess to having a little
bit of a man-crush. However, impressive though Andre is, the star of this
story is Hidde Hoogcarspel, the man behind the astonishingly ambitious
SpaceBuzz Foundation and the reason I was at the European Space Agency.
The ESA is an amazing place.
Three thousand scientists and engineers working tirelessly to push forward our
knowledge. I got to see stuff I could never have imagined, from novel space
capsules to Mars robots. There is a huge model of the International Space
Station hanging in one of the main theatres and this enables visitors to get an
insight into just how magnificent, yet claustrophobic, life in space must be.
The ISS orbits 400km above the earth. It has 6 permanent astronauts and is
stretched out over an area the size of a football pitch. It has been orbiting
the earth for 20 years and is comprised of 16 pressurized modules, each
carefully and imaginatively named. Russia has Zarya and Zvezda. America’s modules include Harmony and
Tranquility. Europe has just one, but its name (Columbus) was clearly chosen to
carry the weight of history (and, I suspect, to remind the Americans that we
may not have won the space race but Europe ‘discovered’ America so any victory
they claim we also have a part in). Japan’s modules are called JEM-ELM-PS and
JEM-PM. They clearly missed the memo on ‘how to name your module’, but everyone
is too polite to mention it.
At
a time when Brexit and Trump might lead us to believe that each country should
plough its own furrow the ISS stands as a glorious example of what can be
achieved when we work together. But is it worth it, I hear you ask. All
those billions spent on Space Exploration, couldn’t they be better spent? A
quick google of ‘inventions we wouldn’t have without space travel’ gives the
answer. Literally thousands of inventions owe their creation to the space programme.
Teflon. Tick. Satnavs. Tick. CAT Scans. Tick. Ear thermometers. Eh??! Suffice
to say, modern life would be very different without space exploration.
This
December it will be 50 years since the iconic Earth Rise photo was taken. This
was the first time people on earth saw Planet Earth as it truly is: a
beautiful, fragile, speck of dust in the awesomeness of space. Astronauts
regularly return from space changed. They go into space knowing all the facts
about how precious our planet is, but they often return with a renewed
perspective and passion for conservation. Our planet is a fragile,
insubstantial, beautiful, speck in an unimaginably huge universe. We have
sullied it with our manmade boundaries. They may be necessary to have
functioning governments but they so often restrict our thinking when it comes
to doing what is best for the whole planet.
This
brings us neatly to the heart of the SpaceBuzz initiative. Hidde’s plan is to
duplicate the ‘holistic earth’ experience that astronauts encounter and use it
to inspire a generation. He intends to build 7000 Space Buses which will tour
schools around the globe, reaching 250 million children (Hidde doesn’t lack
ambition). The SpaceBuzz programme is aimed at the 9 – 11yr olds and will
involve a series of ‘pre-flight’ interactive lessons, followed by a flight in
one of the Space Buses (basically huge rockets installed with the latest VR
technology that will provide the children with a powerful
as-if-you-were-really-there experience). Hidde’s dream is to shift perceptions.
Just as slavery is now seen as abhorrent he wants to encourage the next
generation to see the world as a delicate, beautiful ecosystem that we cannot
take for granted. The SpaceBuzz mantra is Excite, Experience, Educate. I
briefly wondered if the SpaceBuzz programme was just another example of
scientists getting off on one and being nerdy, but the programme has been
carefully crafted to avoid this. Teachers can choose how to develop the
‘post-flight’ experience with their pupils, with options to explore either
ecological (flora and fauna), technological (Science, Technology, Engineering
and Maths) or humanitarian angles. The intention is that Isle, the business I
work for, will work with Hidde and his team bring to life some of the
water-related aspects of this education programme. If you want to help us,
please let me know. The more the merrier.
The
SpaceBuzz Foundation is supported by some big influential names (WWF, National
Geographic, Isle J). If just 0.5% of the children who use it
change their views then that is still an impressive 12.5 million people.
That’s enough to make a real difference. Working together we can preserve and
protect our planet for future generations. Making the change through the
careful design of an inspiring education programme isn’t a particularly new
idea. You might even say that it isn’t rocket science.
You
would be wrong.
