A nightmare for some, cat pee for others. After this first week of containment promulgated by the government, all French people are called upon to redouble their efforts to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus. If no one knows how long it will last, many people have used their creativity to occupy their day. For Thomas Pesquet, no boredom on the horizon. The young man of 42, chosen by the European Space Agency to integrate the space station Proxima three years ago, spent 200 days in space without moving an iota. So containment knows it. So much so that the astronaut posted a video on Facebook on March 16, 2020, in which he gives advice to keep busy … in his own way.
1. Sort photos from your computer
Far from the first degree videos of his fellow youtubers, Thomas Pesquet chose self-deprecation and irony to address his subscribers: "What does an astronaut do when it's stuck at home?" And so, the young man, under house arrest, entered his computer to give his first advice: "I have the chance to complete some of my tasks from home but it will also allow me to sort my photos of the mission and post them on social networks!", he explained, smirk. If we do not know who may be the person behind the camera, we can see precious pictures of Thomas Pesquet floating on board the Proxima on his computer screen.
2. Read literature classics
Sitting in his armchair, Thomas Pesquet is surrounded by a gigantic library where several hundreds of books sit enthroned. In his hands, the work A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, written by Andrew Chaikin, which details the journeys of Apollo astronauts. Without ever being condescending, the astronaut sways to his subscribers: "I'm going to spend a lot of time reading, and rereading the classics … I can even give you some reading tips if you want!", before leaving us on his hundreds of works.
3. Have fun around creative hobbies
If confinement does not seem to upset him, Thomas Pesquet still has a thought for parents forced to occupy their children from morning to night: "For those who have children at home, courage is not necessarily easy …" But then again, the astronaut has a quick fix: "I have suggestions for creative hobbies … I don't know where it's going, that!", he sways with a model piece in his hands. Indeed, Internet users have discovered one of the young man's passions: building small models of space shuttles or rockets. Ingenious!
4. At home, you eat as you please!
For the rest of the video, Thomas Pesquet will try to put his subscribers into perspective by comparing the living conditions of an astronaut trapped in Space 200 days and … confinement at home. To begin, the young man addresses the theme of food: "Canned food, I'm used to it … At least here it stays on the plate!" An ironic remark that Thomas Pesquet concludes by presenting an old NASA food ration to the camera.
5. At least … you sleep in a bed!
Finally, Thomas Pesquet will address his subscribers by showing them a little secret hidden in the closet of his house. Hanging on the back of a door, the astronaut shows us a green and yellow vertical down, which is none other than the one in which he slept for six months. Sleep conditions far from optimal but to which Thomas Pesquet had to adapt: "I slept in there for six months, it's not a few weeks of isolation that will scare me." And boom.
At the end of his two-minute video, Thomas Pesquet will take on a serious and serious air to advise his subscribers to wash their hands several times a day and to obligatorily apply all barrier gestures. The 42-year-old astronaut even brought a graph drawn on a sheet of paper to explain the importance of confinement.
Read also: “Daily”: Yann Barthès shocked by one of Angela's occupations during her confinement