The Orbital Perspective

Ankie Hoefnagels
March 7, 2023
Ankie Hoefnagels
March 7, 2023

With my 91-year-old father-in-law, former engineer at the European Space Agency ESA and always up for a conversation about the universe, we fantasised about Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spending a week together on the International Space Station ISS. In orbit above Earth, they would be moved by so much beauty and end the relentless war in Ukraine. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, once described it somewhat less poetically: ‘From the moon, international politics looks so petty. You want to grab politicians, drag them along for a quarter of a million kilometres and say, ‘Look at you, asshole!’

The trigger for our thoughts was the news that Russia is delaying the end of the 15-nation joint space mission until at least 2028. At the same time, it was announced that the current crew, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and their US colleague Francisco Rubio will have to stay on the ISS for an extra six months because of a malfunction on the spacecraft that should have brought them back. While their compatriots on Earth are diametrically opposed, they still work together smoothly and amicably. In almost the only Western-Russian project still active, “the atmosphere is very much: don’t mention the war.” German astronaut Alexander Gerst who spent time on board in 2014 and 2018 tells NRC: “on board you interact very intensively. You constantly bump into each other […]. If you have technical problems, or if you’re going through it, you help each other. We ate together, chatted together. It really is one crew.”

Astronauts are known to go through a life-changing experience in space. Looking through the window in their capsule, they are touched by the beauty but also the fragility of the earth. This phenomenon is known as the ‘overview effect’ or the ‘astronaut’s gaze’. US astronaut Ron Garan wrote an impressive book about it: ‘The orbital perspective: an astronaut’s view.’ On the ISS, former fighter pilot Garan worked side by side with Russian cosmonauts. If 15 nationalities could work together on one of the most ambitious, technically complicated undertakings in history, surely we should be able to achieve such cooperation on Earth too, is his thought. Garan speaks infectiously about what it was like to work and live with such a diverse group of people in an environment that only a small number of people have ever experienced.

Another great example of a person with an astronaut’s eye is Dutch astronaut and scientist Wubbo Ockels, who became a true environmentalist through his time in space. The thought of what should be done to save this blue pearl prompted him to develop sustainable innovations such as a solar-powered sailing yacht. Just before his death, Ockels wrote another moving manifesto, an outline of a “religion”. Including ten commandments: 1 humanity is inseparable; 2 humanity’s goal is survival; 3 humanity needs the earth and nature; 4 our goal is to support humanity, and with it the earth and nature; 5 we must respect everyone who fights for that goal; 6 everyone is connected to everyone through humanity; 7 everyone is connected to nature and the earth 8 we are all astronauts of the spaceship earth; 9 whoever has no respect for others, has no respect for humanity; 10 humanity, nature and earth are inseparable.

How about we send Putin and Biden to the ISS with Ockels’ Ten Commandments and then tell them to stay there for at least a year? Just an idea.