At the University of Leeds we have a shared commitment to work together to make a positive global impact. But for one former Leeds student, his influence is truly out of this world.

In this special edition of My Leeds Story, Mark is in conversation with Matthias Maurer, an astronaut with the European Space Agency. They discuss Matthias’s upcoming mission to the International Space Station, explore the impact Leeds had on his journey to becoming an astronaut, and reflect on the value of international collaboration.

[00:00:00] Actually the beginning of my astronaut career. The path that led me to space was studying abroad. That was eyeopening. It was such an enriching experience. And my dream is to float into the cooler and to be there 90 minutes after my arrival and to watch down on our planet earth and just to see the entire planet gliding by.

Here at the university. Steve leads, we have a shared commitment to work together to make a positive, global impact. But for one former lead student, his influence is truly out of this world. In this special edition of my lead story. Mark is in conversation with Mathias Marah. And astronauts with the European space agency, they discuss Matea says upcoming mission to the international space station.

[00:01:00] Explore the impact that lead's had on his journey to becoming an astronauts and reflect on the value of international collaboration. But tell us, I just want to start by thanking you so much for joining us this afternoon. It's a real pleasure to be able to speak with you, um, to reflect hopefully a little bit on your leads, a story.

And talk about your, um, career as well. But I just wonder if you could start by just really briefly introducing who you are and what you do. Yes. So my name is Martinez Murra I'm a well, he's an astronaut currently in training for my very first space flight mission. I hope to fly in autumn 2021 to the international space station.

Thanks for noticing. And obviously a lot of young children would dream of becoming an astronauts and going to space. Was that how your journey started in terms of space and wanting a passion from, from a young age to want to go into space? Actually not the I'm from an age where flying to space was.

Something very special. Um, I mean, I [00:02:00] could see on television, how at the very first West German was nearby and flew to space, but for me, that was so far away. It was almost too big to be even part of my dream. The, for me, it's actually a dream of an adult. It was exactly in 2008. When I came back home from work.

And I switched on TV and I saw on TV that ISA is looking for new astronauts. And I thought like, hang on. What does next astronaut actually do in space? And that. So, and then I sorted through and I figured out, okay, the astronauts today are scientists. They love technology because we write on rockets to space and we need the best technology that's out there.

We work in international teams and I've studied in several countries and I love this international corporation and what that's really like, the excitement, the adventure, and all these four facts together. That's the job profile of an astronaut. And for me, it was after a few minutes was clear. I will apply and I hope that I would become an [00:03:00] astronaut.

Uh that's that's fantastic. And you, you spoke there about your background as a scientist and your current role, uh, and you mentioned also you studied in different countries. I know you gained a doctorate in material science and engineering, and as a scientist, you've achieved national recognition for research before this transition to becoming an astronaut.

But, um, I just wonder if you could tell us why it's important, uh, to, to have that scientific, uh, Background in that. Um, and how that, that helps you in your current role? Yeah. Well, the very first astronauts that flew to space, they were test pilots because at that time, flying to space was the main challenge.

Well, nowadays we fly to space already, like for almost 60 years. Um, And while it's are flying to space, unless it's a very new spacecraft, it's not the big challenge. Uh, we fly to space to use micro gravity, to perform research research that we cannot do on the ground. And so like when I'm six months in space, the flight up and down takes only one [00:04:00] day at the beginning and one day at the end.

But the major part of my mission is. Being in space and working as a scientist. Thanks for tennis. And, um, we, you, you mentioned briefly some of your many qualifications, but I just wonder if you could take us back to that time in 1993, where you spent a year studying material science and materials, engineering and leads, um, what took you to leads and tell us a little bit about your, your memories of studying in Yorkshire.

Well, yeah, actually leads is the beginning of it all. I believe it's, um, The year before coming to Leeds, I was traveling around Ireland with my motorbike and I thought like, wow, my English is not good enough. And then like, as an engineer, I should speak proper English and India is so important. So I screened a little bit, which universities in the UK, or maybe even Ireland would be appropriate.

And so I very quickly found out that leads is for me the best option. And that's why I applied to come over to study for a year material science and. Being in leads that [00:05:00] was such an eyeopening event for me. It's, uh, I lived in a house together with three other British students, two Canadian students. And so I was fully immersed into the British language, the English language, the British culture, and, um, the student life there.

So I studied material science while at the same time, getting a full exposure to a different culture, different language. And I was so eye-opening so enriching. That I thought like, wow, that's exactly the way how people should study because you learn so much at the same time. It's way more fulfilling than studying back home and in the UK.

Um, while studying them, I learned about a new exchange program from my home university in Germany. And that exchange program allowed me to continue straight from Leeds on to France. And I started one and a half years in France and then half a year in Spain. And in the end I got a diploma from four different universities.

And so it's like, I [00:06:00] had the best of it all. So leads was actually the beginning of my astronaut career because I believe that this international, um, training that was actually the baseline for ISA to accept me. That's brilliant. The first to hear you say that, and is it fair to say that your English section now has a slight Yorkshire twine to it?

Do you, uh, did you pick up any Yorks or words on during your time with us? Well, there's like, it's only 93, so it's a long time ago, but don't assume, remember, born and bred yes in York. But I love to time in leads for all the life events, the concerts. I think that's such a brilliant place, much better than we had in Germany.

Oh, that's nice of you to say that. And I'm sort of following that up with another leads related question. I don't know if you already know this, but you're not the first leads the numbers to head into space. Uh, the late peer sellers and a renowned climate scientist astronauts. And this is quite a long, uh, title here, but deputy [00:07:00] director of the sciences and exploration, directorate, and acting director of the earth sciences division at the NASA Goddard space.

Flight center. He received, uh, a doctorate in, uh, biome, meteorology from the university of Leeds back in 1981. Um, so I just wonder how does it feel to follow in the footsteps of astronauts like peers and what you learn from their experiences? Well, it's like, uh, I'm surprised I didn't notice the effect, but on the other hand, I'm not surprised because leads is such a, like such a renowned university.

And, um, I mean, people have come to Leeds and a lot of. Scientists like, uh, have studied or like studied part of their career. So, um, yes, PSE actually he performed several space walks. He contributed actively in building up the space station. So when I'm flying now to the space station, which is already in space for like more than 20 years, um, actually, um, yeah, taking the profit and the benefit of all my colleagues work, um, like peers, [00:08:00] for example, in the past, and then.

Well, yeah, it's like the astronauts, we all work together. And every little piece of work that we contribute, we'll build a future for the next generation of astronauts and the way P S spirit, the international space station. It's a, we are now in the preparation to build the next step, um, which is this flight towards the moon.

So in a few years we would see a small station being built. That will fly around the moon and, um, between 24 and 28, this will be built. And from there. Um, hopefully the first European would also then land on the moon still in this decade. So then what an exciting prospect that will be as well. Um, thinking about your route towards becoming an astronaut, you sort of alluded to it already.

It wasn't something in your mind as a child, but I know that it's not being straightforward and even. Counted a number of challenges and setbacks along the way. I just wondered what's kept you motivated during this. Well, over a decade, I [00:09:00] suppose, of preparing to become an astronaut. Yeah, that's true. It's like, for me, it's kind of a special challenge.

It's been 13 years between my application to become used to astronauts and my space flight. And so a long, long period and several ups and downs. So it all started during the astronaut selection process in 2008, 2009. It's like we had eight and a half thousand applications. And in the end we had 10 persons who passed all tests.

And the director general at that time said like, U-turn, you could all fly to space. But unfortunately I only have six tickets and you Mathias, you will not fly to space. So that was when you are so close and then the bus, you, sorry, it's not your fault. It's uh, the system doesn't provide the logistic for it.

So that was a massive disappointment, but that's what, like now being exposed to space for over a year in the selection process, I definitely. Wanted to be [00:10:00] part of that. And, um, so I joined ESS team and I was so happy the first two years working there knowing actually that I was not going to become an astronaut, but I could actively shape space flight missions by working from the European astronaut center and working in the sector is so fascinating.

And that, that was, I got so much positive energy. And then, um, like in 2014, 2015, when my boss came to me and said like, ah, we got more tickets. I still, I felt like I, how you choking? It's like, obviously, yes. It's. I think the lesson that I learned it's um, if you really have a dream and you wanna, you wanna achieve something, just don't let the first obstacle stop.

You. Just keep on going. That's that's really inspiring. And I guess your journey is living proof of that mindset as well. And coming on to your current mission, uh, last December, you were officially assigned to the international space station [00:11:00] mission notice cosmic kiss, and you'll become the second, the essay astronauts to find a NASA's commercial crew program as hopefully part of space X crew three.

Um, just tell us about. That mission and your roles. And I say roles because you will have multiple roles to play within that team. Yes, that's correct. So the very first European astronaut who will fly on a commercial vehicle is my colleague Tomar, pesky from France. He will launch on the 22nd of April and I'm his backup.

So in case something happens, I might need to fly earlier, but I'm pretty sure I will have to wait till October. And, um, then I will be the second European who flies on, uh, on the space X dragon. And I will have a handover of Toma, uh, on the space station and tomorrow he has already been on the station and he, by the time I arrive, he will be the commander.

And that's for me, actually a great help, because he can help me to get familiar with the space station, familiar with all the systems and also getting a quick [00:12:00] start into all the experiments. During my six months in space, I will have to perform around 100 to 150 different experiments. Many of them have already been started years ago, even Tim Peake, my British colleague, when he was on the space station, he started some of the experiments that are still ongoing because sometimes in life sciences, you need a lot of test subjects and I'm sorry, it takes a few years until some.

Some experiments are completed. I will also have a lot of material science experiments on board of the station and they are, will throw my, all the lessons that I learned in Litesa and different universities. No, that's great. Like you said, you'll, you'll not only be doing research experiments, but you'll also be the subject of those research experiments as well.

Um, are there any that are slightly concerning you or worrying you in terms of what you're going to have to do worrying? Not really, but, uh, I mean, there are stuff that I like to do and stuff that I like a little bit less, like, for example, [00:13:00] drawing blood samples and doing on my own. That's kind of, it takes a little bit of, uh, me say it like effort encouraged to put the needle in your arm and pulling all that blood out and think like, okay, it's for science.

So I get over it. It's not my favorite part. And then from a personal perspective, what do you think will be the most challenging aspect of this trip? You mentioned you're up there for, for six months. You said that the journey either way, it was only a day. So what is it that some, you think you're going to have to rely on all that resilience for the most.

Yeah. So when we are selected, we are selected for a long duration space flights. And, um, so the most important part that the psychologist look at candidates that applied to become an astronaut is, um, the social competence to work in a team effectively. I mean, six months being in space. There are moments when there's a lot of stress and you have people from different countries, different cultures, different languages.

We have Russians on board. We have Americans, we have [00:14:00] Canadians Japanese, uh, Europeans from different countries. So it's, um, the team effort that's, that's usually considered to be, um, The most challenging part, but I'm very, very happy with my team. Um, I've met like all my mates from the dragon. Uh, I have three hour, two and three Americans on boards.

It's not yet decided if there might be a Russian cosmonaut joining us. Um, and on board of the station, I have two, uh, Russian cosmos colleagues and maybe another American. And so I'm pretty happy with the team. We all are good friends, good colleagues. And I think we will have a perfect time on board. Did challenging part, um, for.

The mission, I think will be the spacewalks because being outside in space is on one side, the big dream of every astronaut, because you're out there, you have the best view ever, but you only have two to three millimeters of polycarbonate between you and vacuum of [00:15:00] space. Um, so, and it's a tough work being six hours in space, working there and being fully concentrated.

And for me, there's the option that I might have an Eva either in the American space suit or, and that is still being a kind of disgust to perform it with Russian colleagues because the Russians would bring up a new module and on this module will be a new European, robotic arm. And the there's a chance for me also to work on the Russian side.

You mentioned that the space will start, you set a dream for any, any astronauts. Um, but thinking there about the complexity of some of the training you've had to do, and you mentioned international collaboration, I just wonder, um, yeah. Tell us a bit about the training regime. How has that been? What surprised you the most?

I heard you talking about a story when you were training with some Chinese astronauts and there was some confusion. Uh, before you entered the w the, the C, uh, which made me laugh. But, uh, essentially I think what was really [00:16:00] interesting, there was just the need for communication skills. And as you've already said, you've studied, uh, universities across the world, and it feels like you've really prepared yourself to, to work effectively in an environment where there is international collaboration.

Yes, that's true. Um, communication is the most important aspect. And it's even if you speak the language properly, sometimes there are communication problems. Um, when you talk with the ground, for example, I had another small problem. Let me phrase it this way. When I was, uh, In the Nimo training, that was a training underwater.

I lived there 16 days in a station, 20 meters below the surface of the water on the bottom of the sea. And it was a training provided by NASA. So we had the team in the station on the ground and we explored the bottom of the sea, which for us was the surface of Mars. And one day we thought like, okay, today's plan actually has some Slack in there and let's optimize it.

So we shifted around [00:17:00] some activities. And, um, since the communication with the ground was a bit poor, um, they didn't follow up in time what our changes were. And we saw it, like we optimized our plan, but in the end diversity of years with us, because they're like, you messed it all up and it's like, it's, you didn't know all the constraints and boundary conditions and the.

Please, never, ever again, change a plan before you have our approval. And that actually is it it's. We are in space, seven astronauts, but on the ground, there are literally hundreds of people working for us and it's a big machinery and, um, it's all been optimized. And even as an astronaut in space, you don't know all the details.

And so you need to rely on the team and, um, yeah, that was my lesson learned to not try to optimize a plan without having like mission control on board. That sounds like very good advice to take on board. Um, you you've mentioned already you'd be flying, uh, and the dragon [00:18:00] developed by space X. I just wonder how you've been preparing specifically for the launch and, uh, just some general thoughts on obviously the private funding of space exploration and how you think that's going to change and shift and adapt in the future.

Yeah, so far, um, all the astronauts have been flowing to space either in a space shuttle or in the last 10 years or the soils and the Russian capsule. And, um, so the soil has, has been developed around 50 years ago and now having the dragon space X, which is brand new. And if you look at that automobile automobile industry, and you compare, for example, the folks wagon beetle it with an electric half today, you can immediately see that there's a huge development and the same development is now in.

Visible in these vehicles that we fly to space with. So the space X dragon is more or less like a Tesla car and the inside, everything is fully automated and it looks like, uh, you fly the spacecraft using an iPad. Um, [00:19:00] and, uh, so it's in the soil. So you have a lot of mechanical interactions. You need to do certain calculations by yourself and you need one and a half years of training to fly to soils.

For the dragon it's more or less like plug and play. Um, you would see later this year, there will be tourist flights, where there are no professional astronauts on board. They fly around our planet in a dragon capsule, fully controlled from Michelin control for us. It's um, my mission on the flight with the eyes as I have a commander who is a very experienced test pilot.

Yeah, actually, it's a test pilot for the F 35. Um, and so I I'm very happy. I have a very experienced pilot on board who will manage to fly the dragon safely to station, even if the computer takes most of it. But yeah, it's exciting times and I'm very happy that, um, commercial industry is now picking up, um, space development [00:20:00] because we see massive advances in technology and that's, that's what we need.

And I guess it would be remiss of me not to touch on, um, the impact of COVID on your training, your preparations. Obviously I'm speaking to you here today from my own bedroom. Um, so, uh, yeah, just tell us how that's affected you over the last year and, and, and what impact that's had on the training. You're speaking from your bedroom to my bedroom and you see that like COVID is affects everyone the same.

So, um, well, when I'm in training, I wear a mask and, um, we also apply the standard, um, precautions, like wash the hands, sanitize, everything. We're always a mask, keep social distancing. We have only a limited lumber of trainers with us because we want to have like a small number of people in the room, just to make sure that if somebody is infected, that we don't have a super spread event.

Yeah. So, uh, that affects us [00:21:00] all. It also affects the preparation towards the launch. Um, in the past we had two weeks of quarantine before launch. Now it's more or less three weeks and even more restricted, uh, just to make sure that we keep, uh, COVID on the planet and don't bring it to space because, um, we don't have the resources to rescue somebody in space, like an intensive care station.

What we have here on the ground. So yeah, definitely it affected us all. It affected also the preparation of the mission, the building of the hardware and the building of the rocket everywhere. All the teams have been affected. But, um, yeah, I believe we adapted and, um, hopefully as soon everyone will be vaccinated and then we, uh, Can return to a more normal thing.

Absolutely. Let's let's hope that's the case. Um, uh, coming on then to your sort of role as an ambassador and someone that can inspire future generations as well. You mentioned your colleague team, Tim peak, uh, previously who's [00:22:00] obviously done an excellent job of doing that. Um, but, uh, You know, your role is to inspire future scientists.

What tips would you give to students, perhaps, even students that are studying at Leeds right now, uh, who were hoping to get into space exploration in the future. Well, I mean, Israel has currently an astronaut selection open, so that's the unique chance because in Europe it's not every four years, like it is in NASA.

It's more like 10 to 15 years. So everyone who has the big space stream should apply. Now it's the unique chance, but I wouldn't bet like all my chances on becoming an astronaut, there are a lot of fascinating jobs out there and being in science or being as an engineer or working in the space sector in general.

So, uh, uh, The path that led me to space was studying abroad. That was eye-opening. It was such an enriching experience. And that is actually what I want to share with all those students who are currently in Leeds. [00:23:00] Um, if you have the chance go abroad, study abroad, it's an interesting feeling, being a foreigner in a foreign culture, and you learn a lot about different country and.

You also learn a lot about yourself and your own country. Great. And we touched on it before, but, um, in terms of the role that. Private industry is now playing in space exploration, but I just wonder if you could reflect and, uh, help us dream a little bit about the future of a space fight. For instance, do you think in our lifetime, we'll see a human land on Mars.

Obviously we've been watching with great interest, the, uh, the feed that's come back with the perseverance, uh, or. Like you alluded to earlier, your focus is more on perhaps becoming the first European to land on the moon. Well, it's like I'm part of a team who's dreaming to become the first European on the moon.

So Tim, so it might be the first European on the moon or one of the first Europeans on the moon. And then I think that's the chance for everyone who's out there. Who's studying now. It's [00:24:00] like this generation or the next generation will fly to the moon for sure. And, um, Maybe even in the next 10, 20 years, people will fly to mass.

And I'm a big fan of Elon Musk. It's the founder of space X and he has the great vision of flying to Mars. And, uh, so he's pushing the envelope quite a bit. And, um, he's building a huge new space craft, which is called the stash it and, um, So, and he has such a pace and he says like he wants to fly actually in the next four or five years, two months.

Um, I think that's maybe a little bit too ambitious, but we need ambitious people to push the envelope. And, um, even if it's not four to five years and only 10 years or 15 years, I'm very positive that I will see people land on Mars. And that's what we need. We need people on the ground to share their emotions, to share their dreams, to explore it because.

Uh, a human being on Mars can do in a few weeks that what, um, a Rover [00:25:00] can, can do in 10 years or even more. You've developed the cosmic kiss mission packs, taking inspiration from the Knepper sky disc. I just wonder, I know you were instrumental in developing that mission punch. Just tell us more about the inspiration behind that as well, if that's okay.

Yes. Um, so we fly to space and in Europe, it's very important that we share why we fly to space. And in the past, we always were instruct to say like every Euro that we invest into space brings back a 1.4, 1.8 euros. So. This is economically correct, but I think it's absolutely not inspiring to talk about these numbers and people, people actually, every one of us looks in the evening to the night sky and asked the same questions and the questions are like, how did all this come to being?

What's the beginning of the universe? What is, what are the driving forces? Is there life somewhere else in the universe? And how did life come to our planet earth? And these [00:26:00] questions were already asked thousands of years ago. And the proof of all this it's the sky disc. It's an artifact of archeological artifact that was found in East Germany several years ago.

And it's around 4,000 years old. And it's the first realistic illustration of the night sky. And for me, that was such a. And inspiration to look at this sky disk and to see like, wow, the people 4,000 years ago, they actually fed exactly what we've heard today. When we look at the night sky, we want to understand, we want to know, and we are fascinated by the idea that there's life out there.

And that is I think, a more emotional and fascinating driver to inspire people for space. Then the economy. Absolutely. Metasys, I'm aware that our time's coming to an end. So, um, if it's okay, I've got two questions that I wanted to ask you that my children, uh, Rupert aged [00:27:00] seven and Toby aged five have pitched for you.

But before I do that, I just wanted to thank you so much for joining us. Your story is one that's inspiring. And one that we can't wait to share with the rest of our leads, alumni community. So we're so thankful that you had a positive time in leads and we're rooting for you over the next few months as well.

Yeah. I mean, it's like, uh, I think that today is the beginning and I hope that we keep in contact also during the space flight missions. So yeah, just as we finish, I'm aware you're incredibly busy, but I've got two questions for you. One from my son Rupert. So his question is, hi, my name's Reed and I'm seven years old.

My first question is how do you get dressed in space floating? And, um, so basically it's like getting dressed when you are lying on your bed. So it's, it sounds complicated, but actually it's not so complicated there you can, you adapt to it, but, um, yeah, there's not a big difference. I would say. [00:28:00] How fast will you rock to go on the way to the space station?

Yeah. Um, we need to fly very fast. It's 28,000 kilometers power. Um, I'm sorry, I don't have this in my spouse, but it's roughly 30 times the speed of a plane in the sky. Hi, I'm Kevin I'm five years. Why am I looking for, to about down to space? My favorite part is, and I've been dreaming about this for a long time.

It's like I fly in the dragon capsule and it's a small capsule and we only have two small windows and I fly to the space to space and I want to see our planet and flying at 28,000 kilometers per hour means that we have, uh, the, uh, around the world trip every 19 minutes. So every 19 minutes, I see a sunrise and a sunset.

And my dream is to float into the Kukula. That's the most favorite area on the space station. It's about big window on the station [00:29:00] and to be there 90 minutes after my arrival and to watch down on our planet earth and just to see the entire planet gliding by in one and a half hours. Amazing. Thank you so much.

Um, I do really appreciate you taking the time and I know you've got one of our university patches to, to join you on, uh, uh, as you go up there as well. Yes. The university of Leeds patch will fly with me to space. That's brilliant. Uh Metasys I wish you the best of luck for the rest of your training. Um, and again, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you very much for this opportunity and well hello to everyone and leads. Listening to my leads at story, a podcast series brought to you by the alumni team at the university of Leeds. More stories about our global leads community. Why not visit our website, alumni.leads.ac.uk. Or join us on our social media at, at Leeds alumni.

And if you [00:30:00] have a lead story that you'd like to share, email [email protected]. Okay.