American astronaut and special space mission

(Baonghean) - On the morning of March 1, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and his two Russian companions Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov landed on Earth in the desert of Kazakhstan, successfully ending a nearly year-long trip by an American who loves to explore the mysteries of the universe, making Kelly the American astronaut with the longest stay in space to date.

Living outside Earth for 340 days is a "unique" experience that not everyone has the opportunity to try once in their life, even though it comes with significant trade-offs and risks to health, social relationships, etc.

Scott Kelly - American astronaut holds the record for the longest time spent in space. Photo: NASA.

Before Kelly returned, many people were concerned that his long stay in an extraterrestrial environment could affect his vision and skeletal system, but he reassured those concerned that his physical condition was still very stable. Even in a short interview with reporters from orbit last week, the 52-year-old astronaut was still humorous: "I can live in space for another 100 days or 100 years."

In addition, mentally, the pioneers who experimented with the new life in a zero-gravity environment also had to go through lonely moments, lacking the affection of their loved ones. For people like Kelly, the most difficult thing was having to live far away from their loved ones on Earth, not only not being able to meet them, but also having limited communication and exchange due to the inconveniences in daily life.

Despite the hardships and difficulties, for a space lover like Scott Kelly, any trade-off is completely worth it, especially when he gets to witness breathtakingly beautiful scenes of his beloved Earth on his journey to complete his assigned mission.

He was happy to “enjoy” unique views of the aurora phenomenon occurring on Earth, the view from above when flying over the Bahamas and monitoring major storms like Hurricane Patricia. Thanks to the days moving around the orbit, he had the opportunity to observe and evaluate the Earth's climate. Calling himself a true environmentalist after being “stationed” at the International Space Station, he shared his concerns with everyone: “There are many areas of the Earth that are polluted, the weather has become unpredictable, and hurricanes occur with much stronger intensity than before. These are all caused by human impact, completely not natural phenomena.”

Kelly's recent trip will help NASA realize the idea of ​​sending people to Mars in the future. Photo: NASA.

The astronaut, who has been concerned about environmental issues for a long time, also told CNN in a recent interview that the Earth’s atmosphere “looks incredibly fragile” when viewed from space. However, he remains optimistic that humanity has a lot of opportunities to solve the Earth’s environmental problems, as long as “we dare to dream about it.”

One of Scott Kelly’s biggest hopes for the legacy of his “Year in Space” mission is that it will help NASA conquer the challenge of sending astronauts farther from Earth—a prerequisite for sending humans to Mars in the future. The space station is a magical destination, an incredible place for space science research, and Kelly hopes that many more people will experience the same precious opportunity in the future.

Despite being so far from Earth, Scott Kelly has spent as much time as possible communicating with people back home, using social media messaging apps. He has shared many photos he took at altitudes of up to 320 km above the ground, and posted them on Twitter. He has also maintained the habit of keeping a personal travel diary about his experiences on the space station, which he plans to share with anyone interested.

Together with his close colleagues, Kelly conducted countless experiments and research on the space station. He and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko conducted many studies to help NASA better understand what happens to the human body in space: the eyes, brain, bones, muscles, ... all change more or less in a zero-gravity environment.

This is what NASA always aspires to explore in order to be more prepared for further journeys, hoping that one day the idea of ​​sending humans to Mars or other planets will become a reality in the near future.

Life on the International Space Station is very different from normal life on Earth in many ways. The space station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, meaning astronauts will see 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.

Daily routines, hobbies, etc. will all be "turned upside down" quite a bit and need to be rearranged for those who have just completed a special trip like Kelly. Therefore, in the coming time, what Scott Kelly needs to do is adjust to adapt to the most ordinary things of daily life, even very normal habits such as drinking coffee, eating, sleeping, walking, gardening or stargazing will also take up a certain amount of time for this famous astronaut to adjust. And then, although the long 1-year journey has ended, the mission placed on Kelly's shoulders has not completely ended. In the next few years, he will continue to work with NASA to conduct specific analysis of the tests that this astronaut has conducted in the past 340 memorable days./.

Phu Binh

(According to CNN, NASA)