If there is a Spaniard who has repeatedly made history in the field of science, it is Pedro Duque. On this occasion, he has done it again: he will be the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of the new Pedro Sánchez Government.
He made the history of our country for the first time in 1998: he was the first Spaniard to make a trip to space, a milestone that was part of his deepest dreams. When the Very Interesting team conducted the interview you are about to read, he was 35 years old, and was about to embark on his first space mission, STS-95.
Today, the aeronautical engineer can boast of having been in space twice and, furthermore, of having been the first Spanish to have done so. This pioneering scientist will now head a public office, that of Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, and will be the first astronaut in history to do so.
In addition, he has worked for the European Space Agency as head of the Flight Operations Office and the review of projects for manned flights, and has worked at the Higher Technical School of Aeronautical Engineers.
Image: Pedro Duque about to embark on mission STS-95 / Getty.
Interview
Pedro Duque: “When a colony is founded on Mars, I hope they don’t speak with a Texas accent”
Jorge Mayor
This interview was published in October 1998, in number 209 of VERY Interesting.
Pedro Duque is an aeronautical engineer. After a period of work as an engineer for the European Space Agency, in 1992 he became part of the European astronaut corps and in 1994 he participated from the ground in the Euromir-94 mission. In 1995 Boris Yeltsin imposed the Order of Friendship on him.
–What exactly is your mission going to consist of?
-During takeoff, what we call the rocket phase, I will be sitting in the cockpit with the two pilots and the chief flight engineer. There I will carry out general supervision work on the navigation systems, with special attention to the communications network. As number 4 in the booth, I don’t have many buttons to touch, although I do have to look in a lot of books and write down everything that has happened so that any problem can be solved. This first phase lasts only 8 and a half minutes but it is the most critical because it is precisely the moment when the rockets have a tendency to explode.
–How dangerous is it?
-Well, there are reasonable risk values that you have to assume. There is a 2 percent chance that the rocket will not reach orbit, and one of the causes is that it explodes.
–He says it with some disdain …
-Man, what you should not allow is that the feeling of risk conditions your work.
–In any case, your head is sure that everything to do in case of danger is already well recorded.
-Yes. Even so, now that I’m talking to you I’m going through everything step by step just in case.
–Once you have passed this critical phase and reached orbit, what do you have to do?
-When we are in microgravity conditions, we enter the so-called phase of conversion from rocket to spacecraft. Two people are destined to open the doors so that the radiators can expel the heat and deploy the communications antenna with the Earth. Then I take care of opening the Spacehab module where most of the scientific experiments that we have to plug in go. During the flight I have maintenance and supervision responsibilities for the 19 laptops on board, a new record! And if a spacewalk had to be done to fix a fault, I’d be one of two people to do it.
–I imagine this last mission will be the most attractive.
-Astronauts assigned to get out of the vehicle always face a curious dilemma. On the one hand, we don’t want anything to fail, but on the other, you hope to have the opportunity to experience a space walk.
–On board there is a Spanish experiment …
-Yes, one totally designed by the University of Granada on protein crystallization. It is inside an automatic apparatus of the ESA and the only attention that I have to pay it is that it continues to work. All these devices are thought to be installed in a space station without much interaction with the astronauts, so they are absolutely automatic.
–We are left with the last phase of the mission: the return flight.
-It’s the so-called plane phase. During it, instead of going in the cabin, I go downstairs and there I have to help everyone put on their suits and close the door that connects to the module. I also have to do a final review of the devices that must be changed to convert the spaceship into an airplane.
–Have other astronauts told you what it feels like to be in space?
-Of course. I think it’s a bit like what it feels like on a parabolic flight where aspiring astronauts experience zero gravity for 22 seconds. But of course, 22 seconds is not 9 days. It has been explained to us that during the rocket phase, the engines are regulated to produce no more than 3 g of gravity, but they shut down suddenly. So first you are pressed against the seat at 3g and when the engines are turned off the full elastic force of the backrest pushes you forward against the seat belts (like being hit with a car). You are instantly in zero gravity.
–Just days after launch, what worries you most about the mission?
-The responsibility that we have assumed, without a doubt. There are hundreds of billions invested in the flight and the experiments that go on board. Each of the 7 crew members plays a lot of pesetas. We are responsible for ensuring that everything works and that the advances for science that are foreseen and in which many people have put their money and effort are achieved.
–Joining the STS-95 team will be John Glenn, who is now 75 years old; A few weeks ago, the former Yeltsin minister, Baturin, who was not exactly a career astronaut, returned from the MIR. It seems like anyone can go into space …
-At least it’s much easier than before. With the arrival of theshuttleFrom a physical point of view, extraordinary conditions are not required to go into space. You have to be in good health, yes, and prove that one can withstand the 3 g of pressure in the heart. But the percentage of the population that would support a trip on theshuttleit is 10 times greater than the percentage that a trip on the Apollo would endure, for example.
–Does an astronaut have time to devote to other areas of science?
-When one is an astronaut, one is obliged to glancing at many areas of science, among other things, because there in space we are all laboratory assistants from dozens of different universities. You have to learn medicine, metallurgy, physics, astrophysics …
–And which one do you like the most?
-All; I do not disgust any article. But lately I am very interested in microbiology and genetics. I am delighted with the Spanish experiment that we carry out on the mission: trying to find out what the structures of the proteins that produce pathogens are like. These studies are now done on a computer, which is a fundamental change in the way we view science. The era of trial and error is over. Before, biology consisted of taking a little of this and a little of the other, making so and so drink it and waiting to see what happens to him. But now proteins are prepared, taken into space to crystallize, carefully put into an X-ray machine that produces 40,000 CD-ROMs of data, and the scientist’s job is to analyze them on a computer.
–And isn’t that a shame? Hasn’t the scientific profession lost some of its romanticism?
-Unlike. People don’t realize how much science can be done in front of a computer, analyzing and comparing data. We believe that the good ends when the field experiment ends, but in reality, it has only just begun.
–You know Moscow well. I imagine you will be saddened by the news that comes from there about the breakdown of the Russian economy and, therefore, its space race.
-From a distance I don’t know exactly how much truth is in this announced drama. If it were as sad as they paint it, it would be a real shame. The Russians have treated me very well, they have been very good friends of mine and they have taught me everything they knew about space. They deserve to remain at the forefront.
–Now from the West we only look at the MIR when it has a failure. But few remember the great successes of the Soviet and Russian space industry.
– Putting space stations in orbit has cost many years. In the field of engineering that means many achievements, from the materials with which you build the helmet to the way to protect yourself from meteorites or the development of lubricants that can operate in a vacuum. All of this has been done in the Soviet Union and has been continued by Russia and Ukraine. There is a lot of progress for humanity behind it. The MIR was launched to last 5 years and has now more than doubled. The weird thing would be if it didn’t break down. When the new International Space Station is underway we will realize this and will once again trust the Russians to ask them what to do.
–Realistically, what role does Spain have to play in space?
-A very good one, without a doubt. The only thing we lack is a budget. With a fifth of the money from NASA we have achieved great achievements. The only thing that Spanish politicians have to decide is whether they are also interested in having ships manned by Spaniards and perhaps participate in the adventure of going to Mars.
–Some say that investing in the space race is wasteful.
-It seems wrong to give money for the space race and take it away from other sciences, what you have to do is give more to research in general. Investment in science is the only one that truly defines the future of a country and its citizens.
–Do you still have the illusion of traveling to Mars?
-Well, the longer the trip is delayed, the less likely I am to go, right? But if it is not me, it will be someone else, no problem. Of course, I would like that the flag that we put on Mars is not the same one that was put on the Moon. And when a colony is founded on the red planet, I hope not everyone speaks with a Texas accent. Our peoples also deserve to expand throughout the universe just as we expanded from Europe to America.
