Astronaut diary. Week 2 – Biology and Media Training

11. 11. 2024

The second week of EAC training was completely different from the first. It focused mainly on communication skills development and media training. Each day we had two three-hour training sessions led by external experts. The exception was Wednesday, which was devoted to astrobiology, a two-hour meeting with the head of ESA’s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration (D-HRE) and a practical exercise in dosimetry.

Monday 4 November

The week started with the first of several three-hour series, this time on “Spoken Communication”, which is nothing but a bit of theory and lots of practical exercises on how to deliver a pre-written speech, how to communicate with an audience, or how to improvise. It was clear from the start that Jamie, who led the first two days of the training, knew what he was talking about and had years of experience in communication. The afternoon’s topic was “Presentation Principles”, the principles of presentations, mostly just using catchphrases and key points instead of a full, pre-prepared speech.

At the end of the day we had a group training session at a local gym, led by one of the EAC professional trainers. So jump rope, self weight exercises (squats, push-ups, sit-ups) and circuit training. After a full day in the boardroom, it was a pretty good diversion.

Tuesday 5 November

The second day was similar to the first – just without the exercise in the evening. So again three hours of communication in the morning on “Tactics” and another block in the afternoon focused on “Visuals and Q&A”. That is, the use of visual aids in presentations (slides in powerpoint or perhaps graphics in TV weather shows). Then also the principles of answering audience questions, preparing presentations, etc. There were a number of negative and positive examples of all this. Of course, there were also practical exercises, both impromptu speeches and prepared presentations. The improvised ones are often the worst – especially on random topics that one does not expect at all (like “spaghetti” or “football”) and there is no time to prepare. Or perhaps to create an interesting story based on a single photo…

Wednesday 6 November

Wednesday was a somewhat exceptional day this week, because not a single minute was devoted to communication, which I didn’t mind after two days spent practicing speaking. The morning was devoted to a very interesting lecture on astrobiology, a discipline that deals with the study of the conditions for the origin of life and the search for it outside our planet. In other words, the search for an answer to the question of whether we are alone in the universe (which we probably are not) and where in the universe we might find possible life forms. The talk began with an interesting account of the origin of life on Earth and continued with the conditions necessary for the emergence of biological life on other bodies in the Solar System – in particular Mars and the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter. She went on to talk about exoplanets and extremophiles. These are organisms that are able to survive in conditions so extreme that until recently we thought it was impossible – for example, the various bream that live around the so-called “Black Smokers” – hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean. These are mostly bacteria and other primitive organisms. However, a relatively well-known extremophile animal, very repulsive to look at, is the tardigrade (Czech for turtle), which might be able to survive in extreme conditions elsewhere in the Solar System, perhaps on one of the icy moons. The speaker knew what she was talking about, as she had been to Black Smoker herself by submarine as part of a research mission. The lecture ended with a talk about astrobiological experiments that are carried out not only on Earth, but also and especially on the ISS.

The next part of Wednesday’s programme included a very inspiring talk with Daniel Neuenschwander, head of the aforementioned D-HRE, which covers the entire European Space Exploration programme. That is to say, both human and robotic, including in particular activities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), in cis-lunar space (around the Moon), on the lunar surface and, in the longer term, on Mars and its orbit. Of course, it was interesting to talk about the immediate future – i.e. the remaining years of ISS operations and the absolutely crucial European initiative to develop its own vehicle capable of delivering cargo (and later a human crew) to orbit and performing a controlled reentry.

The afternoon was followed by a practical exercise in dosimetry, where we had the opportunity to try our hand at a variety of different sensors for measuring radiation, mainly cosmic rays. Most importantly, however, we were able to see the actual research hardware that has recently returned from space and is now in the DLR laboratories for analysis. It was quite unbelievable that what one was holding in one’s hand was until recently almost half a million kilometres away from Earth… However, such things are not unusual at the DLR research centre here. It was also nice to meet one of the few Czechs who work here.

The end of the day belonged again to the exercise in the gym, this time focused on aerobic training. So twenty minutes on the bike, twenty minutes on the treadmill, another twenty on the elliptical trainer and finally a quarter of an hour of stretching.

Thursday 7 November

Thursday and Friday were dedicated to media training. Again, under the guidance of an external team – i.e. professional reporter Estelle and cameraman Joe. Estelle gave us a very quick training session two years ago, just before the astronaut selection results were announced in Paris, and it was obvious even then that she was the man for the job. Practical advice and techniques were interspersed with hands-on exercises, including interviews. In the afternoon we worked on a three-minute video project to bring our EAC training to a wider audience. We were tasked with putting together a script, taking on the role of director and, of course, our roles. Joe was our videographer, Estelle oversaw the whole process and narrated some of the passages. They both then edited the entire video by the next day.

Friday, November 8th

On Friday, Estelle and Joe played us the final product of our efforts from Thursday afternoon. I have to say that the result was quite good. I hope that you will be able to watch it soon… Afterwards, we had a feedback session on our interviews and a training on crisis communication, again with a practical exercise. We finished with an introduction to some of the technologies used in the media, which we were again able to try out. The whole thing is actually a bit of a play school. Very interesting for me was the experience with the teleprompter (or autocue) – i.e. the reading devices commonly used, for example, by TV news presenters. At the end of the week we got the rather sympathetic information that the tailor-made blue ESA jumpsuits were already ready for us…