Published time: September 12,
2014 16:40
Edited time: September 12, 2014 19:04
Edited time: September 12, 2014 19:04
Russian Federal Space Agency
Cosmonaut Yelena Serova (RIA Novosti/Grigoriy Sisoev)
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The first 21st-century Russian
female cosmonaut is heading to the ISS in September. Ahead of her space
journey, she told RT about her extreme survival training and how her scientific
research at the station will be of great help for the future.
The space odyssey of 38-year-old
Elena Serova “started right with my birth,” she said. Her
father, a serviceman in the Air Force, and her schoolteacher told her stories
about the Earth, space and stars.
“So later I fell in
love with astronomy,” she told RT. “I would go out at night to
watch the stars, and each of these small steps brought me closer to my
cherished dream.”
However the life of a cosmonaut
is not only fame and zero gravity. It’s hard work, and you have to prove your
skills every day.
Survival training is an
inseparable part of a cosmonaut’s life. For Elena, extreme situations are
enjoyable, not a burden.
“We once had a
survival mission in a desert where we lost 5 kilos in just two days – just
imagine 5 liters of water simply evaporated,” said
Elena. “It was great, and an invaluable experience for me, too, because
one day it could save my life.”
RIA Novosti/Roman Sokolov
During this kind of training, the
cosmonauts learn to survive in any harsh kind of environment, as you never know
where you are going to land. And you have only a parachute and a survival kit.
“It’s not just about
your physical abilities, you need to identify where you are and quickly figure
out what kind of environment and climate you are in, what kind of fauna is
found in that area. You need to know how to get water, how to build a makeshift
shelter,” she said.
Elena told RT that when she heard
that she was actually going into space, she was happy, but she also realized it
was “a great responsibility.”
“After all the sweat
and hard work, naturally, the news made me happy, but I also realize it’s a lot
of responsibility. Your body and mind automatically brace for a new mission,” she
said.
Elena is planning to write a blog
during her space mission and describe all the experiences she faces in space.
“The way it is done
here, cosmonauts keep their blogs at the Roskosmos website. So I think that is
where my own blog will be hosted, too,” she said adding that she is
going to add photos to make the blog interesting and to write it from a
professional, not a personal, point of view.
Serova is the fourth Russian
female cosmonaut to head into space and the first since 1997.
The first woman in space was
Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Almost 20 years later, in 1982, Svetlana
Savitskaya matched Tereshkova’s achievement. The third Russian woman in space
was Yelena Kondakova, who in 1997 stayed over 178 days in space.
In fact, Elena even doesn’t like
the term “woman cosmonaut,” as she strongly believes that there is no
difference between a man or a woman in space.
“The profession of a
cosmonaut can be further broken down into test engineers, researchers, not men
or women. The gender doesn’t matter here – it’s all about a specific set of
skills and the right personality type.”
Olympic flag-bearer
Earlier, Elena told the
journalists how she plans to wash her hair in conditions of zero gravity, as
she doesn’t want to cut her hair short.
“This process [of
washing my hair] will be recorded when we are on board ISS, and you will have
the opportunity to see this procedure,” she said.
She added that on her space
mission, she will take an Olympic bear, which was given to her by her daughter.
Serova was one of five cosmonauts who raised the Russian flag at the Sochi 2014
Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
However, hair will not be Elena’s
main problem during her flight, as her mission will be the research and
experiments she performs on board the spaceship.
“For example, they’ve
been studying how a human body reacts to microgravity,” she
said. “That is something humanity will need in the future, once our
descendants get around to exploring other planets – which I’m sure they will.”
RIA Novosti/Roman Sokolov
Elena will also testing Vizir, a
device capable of locating space objects we observe with a very high level of
precision.
“This is a brand new
system that has been installed at the ISS, and I will be the one testing it,” she
said with pride.
During the space mission, she will also be studying lightning and the properties of plasma.
“This might enable
humanity in the future to forecast natural disasters, such as earthquakes.”
According to Elena, the results
of this research may not be so obvious today, but in the future the“benefits
of these experiments would turn out to be much more valuable than anything done
here on Earth.”
“So our future will
heavily rely on the operation of the ISS… We have to leverage this rich
experience that we’ve gained over these years in terms of engineering,
equipment, and materials. There’s so much you can learn from decades of
research.”
“I like to think of
humankind as a big family of cosmonauts – we all live on planet Earth, which is
like a huge mothership traversing the vast expanses of the Universe. This is
the metaphor that always comes to my mind,” she said.
As for her own family, Serova’s
husband and daughter will wait for her. It was passion for the stars that
brought her together with her husband, whom she met at the Moscow Aviation
Institute.
“Our shared interest
grew into a romance and then a relationship. Together, we went on to work at
the Energia space corporation. I love my husband, I love the time we spend
together, and I think we are a happy family,” she
said.
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