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JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai returned to earth last month but still dreams of space, especially after the discovery of an underground lake on Mars that has brought closer the man of the mystery of whether life exists on the red planet. "I was so excited by the news," said Friday the 41-year-old doctor of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in an interview, "a major discovery that inspires dreams." "
International astronomers announced Wednesday had detected the largest volume of liquid water ever found on Mars, a breakthrough that could indicate whether life has already formed on the planet or even exists today. ; hui.
Kanai, who has spent 168 days on the International Space Station, firmly believes that we are not alone in the universe and that there is life there.
"I think there are some," he said. "In the vast universe, everything could be possible.I have high hopes that finding extraterrestrial lifeforms could open a new page in learning."
The soft-spoken spaceman, nicknamed "Nemo" for his experience as a diving doctor in the Maritime Self Defense Force, exploded in space for the first time in December
. Following the footsteps of other media astronauts, he tweeted about his stay at the Japanese space station. But his foray into social media is accompanied by some growth difficulties: he is obliged to apologize and to make a correction after having wrongly claimed to have grown nine centimeters a few weeks after his arrival .
When a colleague suggested that growth was improbable Norishige was remeasured.
It turned out that a mix of centimeters and inches was to blame, and he said Friday that he had actually grown only two inches. He has shrunk since returning to Earth on June 3, but he is even bigger than a centimeter, he said.
"It's interesting to see how long it will take to get back to Kanai, whose Twitter profile represents him as a comic with a broad smile, concedes that he was not always the candidate most likely to join JAXA, although he is now the youngest astronaut in the agency.
a "reserved, cautious" boy, rathe "I am a grandmother boy," says "When she was sewing, we did it together. I had a childhood rather "girlie".
But one of the skills that he acquired as a child proved to be a surprising application during the rigorous selection process of the JAXA
. a week in a capsule performing various tasks, including folding paper cranes, which, according to the agency, is testing the patience and stability in case of stress.
Fortunately, Kanai excelled at origami as early as childhood
benefit … but I knew how to do it. I am adroit and like doing small repetitive tasks. This task was easy for me, "he said.
While speaking, he cleverly folded a piece of origami paper into a crane, without even seated himself on a table to support him.
While Kanai now belongs to an elite group of astronauts, he is eager to see the space become more accessible.
"I think the space is not only for" I am in favor of the idea of a "nice" space or interesting ideas from the. private companies to use space. "
He still does not know where he'll be chosen for new missions and admits to having had mixed emotions while returning to Earth last month
"I felt sorry that this ends. But I was as happy as I finally go back to Japan, because six months is long.
"I had complex feelings, half happy, half sad."
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