Scott Kelly documents a year-long space mission with a new photo book

NEW YORK – After spending nearly a year aboard the International Space Station during a mission that breaks all records, retired astronaut Scott Kelly knows the planet well orbiting the Earth.

"Depending on your position on the Earth, it sometimes happened that, if the shades were closed, just by the light infiltrating – after being in space for a long time – to From the color of the light, you could tell where on the Earth you were, in general, "Kelly told Space.com.

The retired NASA astronaut took the time to talk to us before an event Monday (November 5th) at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, where he would present his new photo book "Infinite Wonder: The photographs of an astronaut of a year in space "(Knopf, 2018). In an office above the Hayden Planetarium, he flipped through the thick coffee book to point out some highlights and talk about his move to the station. [‘Infinte Wonder’: Photos from Scott Kelly’s Year in Space Mission]

The book includes three types of photos: Views of Kelly's mission, including launching and landing, and the crew's daily life in the space; views of the natural world from the space; and artistic photos taken with a long lens, illustrating the patterns and textures of the planet. The third challenge was difficult to achieve with the shift of the station to 5 miles per second (18,000 km / h), it took time and practice to move smooth enough to follow the characteristics of the surface and take their pictures, said Kelly.

"There is a picture of the aurora on which you can see the reflection of the colors on the bottom of the space station and the arm of the robot," he said while reflecting on his favorite images of the 39; album. "Some of the images of the Earth in the back that I had blown up and stuck at home, so these are certainly the ones that are important, or that I liked so much that I reproduced them in large format. "

Kelly landed in March 2016 after 340 days in space, sharing the "Year in Space" mission with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. Since landing, he has published a memoir, "Endurance", and now this photo book.

"I hope people will understand what we are doing in space, its complexity, its importance, but also our understanding of the Earth," Kelly said. "What does it look like in space, its beauty, the fragility of the atmosphere. And then, I'd like them to simply appreciate the book for its value aesthetic.

"My mother was an artist, I think it was her inspiration that made me want to take this kind of pictures from the planet and share them with people," he added.

Yusaku Maezawa (@ yousuck2020), it will be a great adventure! Good luck in your trip and if you need someone with a little experience to accompany you, my schedule is wide open in 2023. https://t.co/esOU51ojch

– Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) September 18, 2018

"Maybe he'll take me with him," Kelly said. "I m said good luck, and if you need someone with a little experience, my schedule is wide open in 2023.

"I think even if the spaceship is completely automated, you should always have someone who has some experience in the space just to help the rest of the crew," he said. he adds. "It's hard to get around, there's always someone who throws up and you have to help them."

In fact, Kelly said he was determined to return to space after a few years on the ground, but "my phone still does not ring," he said.

During the interview, a discussion between Kelly and space policy expert and historian John Logsdon revealed his daily on the station: "This is the most joyous place and the more magical than I can imagine, "said Kelly. "But it's not an easy place to live in. You can not go out, there's no sun, no rain, no wind. When you go to bed, you're at work, and when you go wake up in the morning, still at work. "

Kelly's almost one-year space mission was his second long-term stay at the space station and his fourth space flight. He also did two shuttle missions. But in this case, the researchers carefully observed the long-term effects of spaceflight on its physiology and the expression of its genes. (Her findings were compared to her twin brother, Mark Kelly, also an astronaut.) Although her mission was by far the longest, she continued a long tradition of investigation for the orbiting lab.

"I think the biggest scientific experiment in this field is the fact that people have been living and working in space for 18 years, to demonstrate that we can do it, we can do it safely, we learn from it. more about our physiology and how our human body reacts to the environment, "Kelly said during the interview. "Also, how to make the systems work for a very, very long time, because if we go to Mars one day and the toilets break, and you can not fix it, you will die." [Scott Kelly’s Yearlong Space Station Mission: By the Numbers]

Kelly and Logsdon discussed the longevity of the space station – Kelly thought it could last at least another 10 years, if the budget was allocated to maintain it – and where humans should move next. Kelly's mission, which lasted a whole year, was aimed at long journeys to Mars, but current US policy tends to send humans back to the moon first.

"The question of whether we do this or that, it's no longer a question of rocket science," Kelly said. "It's really political science now, it's a matter of politics, it's that we want to spend our limited resources to maybe go back to the moon, to the detriment of going to Mars, because the two will be expensive, or should we simply avoid the moon. "

"My opinion would be that if we could only go to one place, I think we were going to Mars, but I'm not sure we're willing to commit ourselves financially to do it," he said. he adds.

Kelly answered questions from the audience about what could help loneliness in space ("people," he said), if there are extraterrestrials (he says). "Has never had personal experience with extraterrestrials") and about food in the space (saying that "ice space" is a hoax – he ate Klondike bars up there).

Before the presentation, Space.com asked Kelly if her pictures reflect what she really looks like in space. Many do, he said, although the close-ups are ultra-zoomed and some have improved colors (although no wrong color is added), and the camera can capture views in more detail than the human eye chooses. But he pointed to an image, looking at the glass dome of the space station, which reflects exactly what it looks like by looking at the space from the Earth.

"So, if you cross a mountain range, it's probably in North America, in the western part of the United States, I think," he said. "This gives you a good idea of, even though you can see the branch of the Earth, and that Earth looks around you, when you look down, you get the impression that you are about 250 miles above from the surface. "

In the ensuing conversation, he asked a question about people who question the roundness of the Earth, explaining how he reacts with the wisdom he has gained as a long-term viewer and documentator of the planet. Seen from above.

"If you are ready to doubt that Earth is round, you are ready to doubt anything – and that could be dangerous," he said. "What I always say to people who claim that the Earth is flat, is that I flew over 8,000 times."

Email Sarah Lewin at [email protected] or follow her. @SarahExplains. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.