Elon Musk’s idea of living on Mars is wild, but many uncommon ideas became normal parts of life, and this happening would be groundbreaking for humankind, Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist of Crew-6 Andrey Fedyaev told Sputnik.
Fedyaev will be part of the four-man team that will be aboard the Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-6 mission, which is scheduled to launch on February 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“The idea of colonizing Mars, this idea seems kind of crazy. But in general, the history of mankind knows many examples of what initially seemed like a crazy idea, and then it became a completely common activity,” Fedyaev said.
Icarus, from Greek mythology, he added, also wanted to fly and fell down from the sky when he burned his beeswax wings for being too close to the sun. Yet, here we are today, calmly flying around the globe, he said.
“So it is quite possible that this venture will be crowned with success, and I will only be sincerely happy about this because humanity will take a huge step forward in this case,” Fedyaev said.
The Crew-6 is an international team, and it is worked out through a collaboration between Roscosmos and NASA.
Musk, who is the CEO of SpaceX, said that a manned mission is to reach Mars this decade. He founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal to reduce transportation costs and colonize Mars. Musk believes making life multi-planetary will ease life on an overcrowded earth.
Crew-6 Mission Has Diverse Menu
Cosmonauts aboard a spacecraft get a great selection of meals, NASA astronaut and mission specialist Warren Hoburg told Sputnik.
“Yeah, so we have a great variety of food. It’s really wonderful and amazing. There’s an amazing food lab here at Johnson Space Center that puts together many of our meals. Russian food often comes in cans, so you open a metal can, and there’s your food. Our food on the American side is often in bags of one form or another,” Hoburg said.
Some food and pouches, Hoburg added, just need to be heated, while others require something more.
“Other food needs to be rehydrated, so we inject hot water into the food pouch, and then let it rehydrate for a few minutes, and then it’s ready to heat,” he said.
They get everything from pasta to meatloaf to granola smoothies – there are hundreds of different menu items, he added.
Astronauts need carefully structured meals because weightlessness has a great impact on their bodies, especially over longer periods. Muscle mass and bone density can be decreasing by about 20%, and this could be an issue when they return back to Earth by having bone fractures.
The change in taste also may occur – when we are on Earth, our body fluids are usually closer to our feet, but when in space, they move freely throughout the bodies, which can block sinuses and make the meals tasteless.
The International Space Station reportedly has a dining room with tables and chairs where the cosmonauts can strap themselves in to normalize the dining experience.
Other members, apart from Fedyaev, of the crew are NASA astronaut and spacecraft commander Stephen Bowen, NASA astronaut and pilot Woody Hoburg, and UAE astronaut and mission specialist Sultan AlNeyadi.
Hoburg will be part of the four-man team that will be aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Crew-6, which is scheduled to launch on February 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The duration of the mission will be 6 months.
Meanwhile, Hoburg also said he cannot wait to fly in space with his friend, Roscosmos Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Hoburg and Fedyaev will be part of the four-man team that will be aboard the Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-6 mission, which is scheduled to launch on February 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station.
“He has been an amazing crew member, I consider him a friend, and I can’t wait to fly in space with him,” Hoburg said.
The Crew-6 team looked very interconnected and with great respect one for another while speaking altogether at a press conference at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston last week.
Hoburg can also speak Russian, which he explained one starts early in training at NASA. “I think it’s an important part of just being good crewmates with our Russian colleagues,” he said while greeting in Russian prior to the start of the interview.
After working for Boeing until 2014, Hoburg became an assistant professor at MIT. He was selected to be an astronaut candidate in 2017 and was selected to be a SpaceX Crew-6 pilot in 2023.
By Sputnik News Agency
