Holder of a doctorate in physics, Gerhard Thiele is a man of science by training, but he gave up a career in ground-based research to become an astronaut. Science and discovery remain high on his agenda.
Speaking at the recent Green Paper consultation workshop in Berlin , ESA astronaut Gerhard Thiele said, “I think it is very appropriate that we are meeting in Berlin, the home of Humboldt University, to talk about space science.” The so-called ‘mother of all modern universities’ is the realisation of the academic and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt. His younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, is immortalised in a statue that adorns the University’s courtyard.
“Alexander von Humboldt was perhaps the last true renaissance man,” explains Thiele, “a universal scientific scholar who was recognised as a naturalist, a botanist, a zoologist, author, cartographer, artist and sociologist. Like Darwin, he was also an explorer.”
The references to Humboldt and Darwin seem appropriate. A physicist by training, as an astronaut, Thiele is also an explorer – a ‘space explorer’. As Mission Specialist, he logged over 268 hours in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, working dual shifts on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which mapped almost 80 percent of the Earth’s land surface.
In ‘A case for humans in space’, a publication presented by the European Astronaut Corps , Thiele explains that, theoretically, his space mission could have been carried out by an unmanned satellite system. Engineers estimated the cost of such a system at more than ?300 million, which exceeded the combined investment of the co-operating agencies, but for Thiele the argument is not just about cost effectiveness.
“This is not why humans venture into space,” he writes. “The human being who gazes on a clear night at a star-spangled sky is confronted with questions at the very heart of our existence. Who are we, where do we and the world around us come from, what is the universe like ‘out there’? We would not be who we are today had we not attempted to find answers to these questions throughout history.”
Again speaking in Berlin, Thiele said, “Humans can still do things in space that machines cannot do, but more than that, human space flight is a source of inspiration. It is our destiny, and it can go a long way towards illustrating our shared destiny as Europeans. We, the Astronaut Corps, see human space flight as a unifying force for Europe. I would ask you all to imagine the impact of a European spacecraft launching into orbit with a French captain, an Italian pilot and a Swedish operations specialist. I think we would all feel suddenly more European. We would all be better off in such a world!”
