This post is sponsored by Nutella.
World Space Week is here, and Artemis II offers a fascinating reminder that space exploration is also about the small details that make life beyond Earth possible. Among the items travelling with the crew was a familiar one: Nutella, which joined the astronauts aboard Orion on their journey around the Moon. It got us wondering: what is everyday life in space actually like?
Dr. Maggie had her eye on the jar too. Her first thought was that somebody probably should have tethered it down, but she loved seeing it float through the cabin. So when we wanted to know what life in space actually looks like once you get past the spectacle of launch day, she was an obvious person to ask.
Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist, science communicator, and co-presenter of the BBC’s The Sky at Night. She has worked on instruments for the Gemini telescope and the Aeolus satellite, and she’s now Chancellor of the University of Leicester. She has also spent much of her career getting people excited about space who might never have thought it was for them. Space has been her obsession from the beginning. “All my life I have dreamed of getting into space,” she told us.
We asked Dr. Maggie 10 questions about what space is like once launch-day is over. What does microgravity do to your body? How do astronauts decide what food comes with them? And why does a fresh apple become a luxury item on the International Space Station? She also talked about what astronauts bring from home, and why something completely ordinary can hit differently when Earth is that far away.
Her answers bring space travel back down to a very human scale. Even hundreds of thousands of miles from home, food remains a personal part of the journey, with astronauts choosing familiar flavours to bring along.
Nutella, it seems, has earned its seat.
The post From Microgravity to Nutella, Dr. Maggie Answers 10 Questions About Space appeared first on VICE.
