Earth as small as a thumb: Artemis II crew issue appeal in Tenerife

The commander of the Artemis II mission, Reid Wiseman, said upon receiving the Stephen Hawking Medal at the Starmus Festival that when you see the Earth from the Moon, looking as tiny as a thumb, you feel the need to call for «love, peace, hope and unity».

Reid Wiseman has received the Stephen Hawking Medal alongside his colleagues, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, who have described what it was like to fly over the Moon for ten days last April, and the experience of gazing at the planet from space.

«When you come back, you realise that our choice as individuals is whether to make tomorrow worse or better: let’s make it better!», insisted the Artemis II commander, whilst Jeremy Hansen went on to explain that, when viewing the Earth from their satellite, the first thought that springs to mind is, «What are we doing on that blue dot?».

Starmus: Artemis II crew promote positivity and vision

But there is no reason to despair, Hansen went on to say, as on Earth «there is so much good all around us»; he therefore emphasised that «humanity needs positivity, and you can give it a voice».

Pilot Victor Glover conveyed a message of gratitude from the fourth crew member, Christina Koch, who has been unable to travel to Tenerife and who will take up the post of acting deputy director of engineering at NASA on 1 November.

Glover also expressed his appreciation for «the visionaries» who have spearheaded the Starmus Festival and, in this regard, recalled a phrase displayed in the Parliament Building in Ottawa: «Where there is no vision, humanity perishes».

One such visionary is the founder of Starmus, the astrophysicist Garik Israelian, who admitted that 15 years ago, when the festival first began and featured pioneers of the space race such as Neil Armstrong and Alexei Leonov, he could not have imagined that humanity would return to the Moon three lustros later.

Santa Cruz: Starmus honours Figueres and Brian May

Starmus held its opening ceremony this evening in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, during which the first Jane Goodall Earth Medal was awarded to the Costa Rican anthropologist, economist and analyst Christiana Figueres for her pioneering work on climate change.

Figueres, who received the award from Jane Goodall’s family, expressed her gratitude by mimicking a chimpanzee’s greeting in honour of the late primatologist.

But there was another Jane Goodall Earth Medal that had not been announced in advance, as a surprise for the recipient: the astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May, who has been involved in projects to «give a voice to wild animals», as well as giving rescued animals a second chance at shelters in Britain.

Starmus, now in its eighth edition under the theme ‚The Search for Truth‘, had previously awarded prizes to filmmaker Ridley Scott and physicist Brian Cox, whilst its ‚junior‘ edition recognised the young science communicators Valeria Corrales and Aneeshwar Kunchala.

Festival opener brings together science and music in Santa Cruz

With Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield as master of ceremonies, Starmus brought together its two passions, science and music, this evening in a concert featuring former Yes member Rick Wakeman, tenor Andrea Bocelli, soprano Sarah Brightman and Brian May, accompanied by the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Symphony Orchestra.

A festival is now getting underway in which, over six days in Tenerife and La Palma, Nobel Prize winners, astronauts and world-renowned artists will celebrate science, space exploration, music and human creativity.