Japanese astronaut dreams of life on Mars after lake discovery
TOKYO: Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai came back to earth last month but is still dreaming of space, especially after the discovery of an underground lake brought mankind one step closer to unravelling the mystery of life on Mars.
“I was so excited about the news,” the 41-year-old doctor said yesterday, calling it “a major discovery that inspires dreams”.
International astronomers announced on Wednesday they had detected the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet, a breakthrough that may hold clues to whether life has ever formed on Mars — or even exists today.
Kanai, who spent 168 days on the International Space Station, is firmly convinced that we’re not alone in the universe and there is life out there.
“I believe there is,” he said.
“In the vast universe, anything could be possible.
“I have high hopes that finding extraterrestrial life forms could open a new page in learning.”
The soft-spoken spaceman, nicknamed “Nemo” for his background as a diving medical officer in
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force, blasted into space for the first time last December.
Following in the footsteps of other media-savvy astronauts, Kanai tweeted about his stay at the space station in Japanese.
But his social media foray came with some growing pains: he was forced to apologise and issue a correction after mistakenly claiming he had grown by 9cm just weeks after he arrived.
When a colleague suggested the growth was unlikely, despite the fact that astronauts’ spines do extend in the zero-gravity environment of space, Norishige had himself remeasured.
It turned out a mix-up over centimetres and inches was to blame. He said he had in fact grown by just 2cm to 3cm during his stay.
He has been shrinking since he arrived back on Earth on June 3, but is still 1cm taller, he said.
“It’s interesting to see how long it will take to get back to my original height.”