Can you imagine how Tim Peake must be feeling right now? HE”S ON HIS WAY HOME and due to land any minute now!! Yes I’m sure we can all imagine the excitement he feels to be reunited with his entire family again, like anyone who has been away for 6 months – but what he’s got to go through to get back? Quite another matter and is it any wonder that not a lot of us would have ever got through (nor wanted to) the rigorous testing he had to do to get where he has gone….
To the moon and back. Incredible. But honestly, would you agree to do this if this was the list of things you need to be aware of before you set off on your long journey home? It’s hardly a “pull over or grab a coffee if you feel tired” is it? Imagine how his wife, children and parents must be feeling right now.
This is what he is going through in the next few hours or so and with a high risk involved obviously:-
1. As you are wearing a bulky space suit – please be aware that you will feel rather squashed in the capsule with your two colleagues. Don’t worry – you will only need to sit like this for three hours.
2. Once you press the button, that removes you from the space station, please note that you will have an hour before you start falling to earth.
3. You will fall at 250 vertical miles and decelerate from 17,500mph to a complete stop in three and a half hours.
4. As you have been floating for 6 months please be aware that this will feel like four times your body weight as the atmosphere thickens and the air resistance increases.
5.Whilst you are feeling like this do not forget to release the two modules you no longer need – please be aware that when the explosive bolts fire and release the unwanted bits it will feel as if “someone is attacking the capsule with a sledgehammer”.
6. As the G-force builds up it will feel like 10 times your own body weight as your perception of weight has changed.
7. With the friction in the atmosphere, it will feel rather like you are in a ball of fire as the heat shield can reach temperatures of around 2500 degrees C. This can be the most unsettling part of the journey as you will be plummeting towards us at 25 times the speed of sound.
8. DO NOT WORRY – it is nearly over. Seconds before touchdown as you are still hurtling towards earth six retro-rockets will fire to slow the capsule down further.
9. So in the meantime, although you will have been experiencing quite extreme conditions having been hurled about, shaken and spun – please do keep your wits about you because you will need to release your parachute – expect a rush and a snap when that happens. Especially if it’s a windy day in Kazakhstan.
10. Once you land, don’t be surprised if you roll about a little and you are a little bit in flames, that’s normal. Hopefully the rescue crew will reach you ASAP and you will be rushed off to have a few medical checks followed by a little ceremony.
11. Don’t worry too much that it will be a little weird – your head won’t clear for a few days, you won’t feel normal for a few weeks, you won’t be able to weight bear and run for months, your muscles will have wasted and it will take over a year for your skeleton to grow back to normal as bone density will have significantly reduced. Oh and your face and neck will swell and you will look a bit puffy for a few weeks as you will have more fluid in your upper body than usual. Gravity will eventually pull it all back down. It may take you a few weeks to learn how to walk again too as you will feel quite wobbly.
12. However, it is all so worth it and you will deserve the fame and fortune this brings you. Running the marathon from a space capsule, giving Adele an award, saying Happy Birthday to the Queen – you are destined for great things, but after that landing, you completely deserve it.
13. SO GOOD LUCK TIM AND WE ALL SALUTE YOU!!
And no doubt, because he was unquestionably the right man for the job, his response to all of the above is going to be “best ride I’ve ever been on”.
Watch this (outer) space.
