From space to Silverstone | Pirelli

From space to Silverstone

 

Just five months ago, on 7th February, Marcus Wandt, an astronaut with the ESA (European Space Agency) closed the door of the space station behind him before heading back to Planet Earth after spending three weeks in orbit. Today, the Swede was at Silverstone as a guest of the FIA, whose flag he had carried into space as a symbol of its commitment to innovation and promotion of careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for youngsters and after the qualifying session, he presented George Russell with the Pirelli Pole Position Award.

It's the first time I've attended a Grand Prix and I'm finding it really exciting,” commented Wandt. “I was struck by how much the teams and drivers work on optimising every little detail and how they are always chasing the best possible performance. There are a few points in common between what the drivers do and our own work, especially physically. For example, we are both subjected to very high acceleration forces and we have to work a lot on our physical fitness. What do you actually feel? Once you're ready to deal with it, it's actually great fun: the acceleration you feel when you go into space on board a rocket powered space ship is an incredible experience!

During his time on the ISS, Wandt was in orbit around the Earth at a speed of over 28 thousand kilometres per hour, working on around 20 different experiments, spending over a hundred hours on scientific and research activities. These included the Surface Avatar experiment which involved managing a team of robots on Earth from space to contribute to paving the way for future remote robotic operations and the Orbital Architecture experiment, to study how people's physical and psychological wellbeing is affected by living in extreme and confined spaces.

 

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