Yesterday I had the pleasure of partaking in a live Space-themed webinar organized by Space EU with cosmonaut Muhammed Fares and space scientist Ghina Halabi, a conversation I learned quite a lot from. Aside from the very practical and technical knowledge Muhammed and Ghina brought to the table, there's also a significant philosophical side to their thinking, something I think is vital when considering and talking about Space, but also science and technology in general.

One of the things Muhammed mentioned that will likely stay with me is how terribly frighting the pitch black darkness of space can really be. As someone who suffers from a degree of Thalassophobia, my perception of the oceans more or less = big deep death trap. And we're talking about an environment that still sustains some form of life, just not ours. Outter Space on the other hand sustains no life whatsoever, and it is vast. I'm not sure there's anything in existence even remotely scarier than being stranded in Space O_O

Muhammed recalled how being in space for 8 days only cemented his appreciation for Earth and its incredibly rich life-sustaining properties. He likened his return to Earth as a return to his mother's embrace.

How terrible we abuse our collective mother.

The webinar was conducted in Arabic (a tongue I've seem to have gotten embarrassingly rusty at), but it should be made available on Youtube with English and Dutch subtitles in the near future. Will post when available.

#Journal #Work #Space #Scifi #Talk #Webinar