Reykjavík Grapevine - Oct 2020, Page 9

9 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2020
NASA ASTRONAUTS IN ICELAND IN THE 60S
a sort of “knowledge hub” that helps
make things happen. As a service
entity, they work closely with the
Icelandic government and bring
together institutions, companies and
individuals who want
to do anything space
related in Iceland.
"It's an odd job, but
what's so odd about it is
it's like any other office
job,” he says. “It's very
stressful and mundane
most days, but then you
have these tidbits that
make it a bit weird. Like,
'we need to go and buy
gunpowder' or 'meet an
institution because we
want to send up a rocket'
or welcome astronauts
because you're taking
them to training. But
90% of the job is just
being on the phone,
writing reports and making sure that
everything functions. I feel really
fortunate to be able to do this job, but
I think a lot of people get disappointed.
But in the end the projects we do help
with value, create jobs and contribute
to space in particular."
Thor believes it only natural that
Iceland gets even more involved in
space.
"We get this question of 'why should
Iceland participate in space?,” he says.
“We make a point of telling people that
we do participate in space; the only
questions we're facing now is do we
want to do it on our terms so it leaves as
much investment behind as possible,
or do we want to stay in the passenger
seat? There's no real question as to how
or why we would participate in space;
we've been doing it for 50 years."
Is there life
on Mars?
Ask Iceland
There is greater potential in
Iceland’s environment for learning
more about space than just the pres-
ence of wide expanses of rocks and
sand. Oddur Vilhelmsson, a professor
of biology at the University of Akureyri
who has collaborated
with NASA’s astrobiol-
ogy projects, believes
Iceland could hold clues
for how to detect life,
present and past, on
Mars.
Oddur first met Thor
in Húsavík, where he
learned about Space
Iceland and became
“quite enthusiastic”
about the endeavour.
"This opens an excit-
ing door in the field of
research with interna-
tional universities and
institutions,” he told us.
“There's a lot of demand
now that these institu-
tions come to Iceland
and do research related
to the field of space. It'd
be highly desirable to
have a regular budget
for this, to welcome
these people and assist
in the research. Person-
ally, I find it a rather fun
and exciting subject;
it's not more compli-
cated than that. I find it
fascinating to consider
where the 'edge of life' is, where one
can find microorganisms and where
one can't, why and why not. This to
me, is a fundamental scientific and
even philosophical question, which is
very exciting. It's something I've been
having conversations about with many
of my colleagues abroad."
So how exactly can Iceland’s envi-
ronment play a part in finding life on
other planets such as Mars? Appar-
ently, the answer is in
our lava caves.
"On the one
hand, [we're working]
in the desert sands
of the Highlands and
on the other hand,
in lava caves,” Oddur
says. “Astrobiology is
connected to this, as the
environment in Iceland,
especially in the High-
lands, is well suited in
many ways as an analog
for a planet, especially
Mars. The caves are also
quite exciting in this
context, because one of
the things that prevents
Mars from being
friendly for life is radiation, because
Mars has no magnetic field. So if there
had at one point been life on Mars,
as many believe was the case billions
of years ago, the best chance of find-
ing signs of it would be underground.
So we're working on researching how
microorganisms live in these caves
here in Iceland, examine what chemi-
cal processes to look for, and wonder
how that could apply to the conditions
on Mars."
That certainly is intriguing, but the
question of implementation falls upon
one primary factor: money.
"As with so many other things in
life, this research depends a great
deal on access to funding; to be able to
hire scientists and buy the equipment
necessary,” Oddur says. “Being a part of
the ESA would increase our access to
such funding, especially from Europe."
Iceland’s first
satellite?
Closer to home, Thor points out that
“only 10% of [the space sector] is actu-
ally exploring space. Most of it is under-
standing the Earth, and furthering our
knowledge of humankind.” In fact, he
says, we rely on space every day.
"Tinder is space technology,” he
says. “It uses GPS and
satellite clusters to
locate you and find you
a partner. I sincerely
doubt that these couples
are thinking 'Thank God
for the space sector, or
we would have never
found each other.'"
While Iceland
does not, as yet,
have a satellite of its
own, Jinkai Zheng, a
researcher for Space
Iceland, is hoping to
change that. He is
currently designing a
prototype for Iceland’s
first satellite.
"It's not for just
one purpose; this satel-
lite could be used in
multiple ways, provid-
ing different services
at different times,"
he says. “It could be
commercial commu-
nication or scientific
research, conducted by
organisations or the
universities. But what
we need to figure out
right now is who will
provide the biggest sponsorship and
who will be a client for such a project.
But for what I've seen in Iceland, this
satellite could be used for the global
navigation system, which could be a
part of the Galileo navigation system,
“WE DO
PARTICIPATE
IN SPACE;
THE ONLY
QUESTION
WE'RE FACING
NOW IS DO
WE WANT TO
DO IT ON OUR
TERMS?”
“TINDER IS
A SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
BUT I
SINCERELY
DOUBT
THAT THESE
COUPLES ARE
THINKING
'THANK
GOD FOR
THE SPACE
SECTOR, OR
WE WOULD
HAVE NEVER
FOUND EACH
OTHER.'”