Thomas Pesquet: Purpose France – "On the ISS we can see and feel everything that happens on our planet."

It takes a look at what only 500 people in human history could have owned. It took only three minutes to fly over mainland France and 1.5 hours for the entire world. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet spent more than a year in space, split between two missions. During his stay he took at least 250,000 photos; some of these, France and its territory, reveal the causes of climate hazards. For the needs of this documentary, he compared his own perspective to that of grounded experts.

“On the ISS we can see and feel everything that happens on our planet.“, says Pesquet. Connecting the ‘global’ with the local was the experience he wanted to lead. We find him at sea with the sailor Thomas Coville, with whom he shares his awareness of the magnitude 70.8 of our planet. On the first day of my assignment, I saw water and small clouds at dawn over the Pacific. I found myself in space but at sea…“” A feeling the sailor had when he discovered the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean: “We come across such an extraordinary place that we experience a shock as if we had discovered our planet for the first time.”

POWERS OF NATURE

When Thomas Pesquet returns to his high school in Dieppe, he also notices natural changes. “The path along the cliff was deflected 300 meters by water eroding the chalk.observing. And that’s probably going to happen more and more on the coast. Even high school will be threatened one day…” In France, 20% of the coast is affected by the combined effects of waves and bad weather. Thomas Pesquet of the ISS saw hurricanes form in the Atlantic south of the Equator and hit the West Indies:We are aware that a shredder has been installed. I took pictures of the eye of the storm, where you can see a swirling cloud wall tens of kilometers high.

If water can be a destructive element, it is also a rare commodity. Fresh water represents less than 3% of our planet’s total. Nearly all of the water is recycled on the ISS: steam from respiration, urine, perspiration, and humidity of the air. Everything is recovered, cleaned and reinjected into a closed circuit. Thomas Pesquet knows how precious he is… Just like his family! His uncle, Côme Pesquet, whom he visits, owns a farm in Pays de Caux in Normandy. “with my childrensaid, We are trying to implement practices that enable us to use less pesticides and to make better use of water resources…” We hope this documentary contributes to the growing desire to protect our planet so that it looks as beautiful from the sky as it is from the ground.

Thomas Pesquet: Objectif France at 02:10 on Tuesday 25 April at France 2

THOMAS GAETNER