Meeting Andre Kijpers

I am mentioned in an article in Cursor, the Eindhoven University of Technlogy's weekly newspaper. It is about the session we had with Andre Kuipers (the Dutch ESA astronaut) and a group of students. First Kuipers gave a presentation about his experiences as an astronaut, which was really in-depth and targeted to students. Then we were allowed to ask any kind of questions.

I had seen presentations by Kuipers before, but those were targeted at 13 to 15 year old high school students, so they were less technical an less in depth. Also the questions after those presentations were more about the feel of space then about responsiblity and social relevance, as were the questions of today. The questions I asked Kuipers was about how 'the environment' is taken into account in the International Space Station. The answer I got was incomlete, though it sketched the idea: Waste from the space station is incinerated, just a waste from earth, but in space the incinerator comes in the form of the earth's atmosphere. All waste is put into a cargo rocket which is pushed back to earth and then burns to ashes in it's decent. In general, Kuipers added, waste left in space is a bad thing as it causes trouble to astronauts as well. Small objects (less than 10cm in diameter) cannot be tracked, though they can be lethal if they hit the ISS or any other space craft or satelite. So there is definitely a social responsibility not to litter in space, though I understood it is more from a practical point of view than from a principal ideal.

Whenever I get to chance to ask questions to astronauts again, I will. I always had an interest in space and space exploration and it will not go away.