Anyone who has followed astronaut André Kuipers even a little since his last trip to the International Space Station knows: as soon as he appears on television, you are warned about the vulnerability of the earth. He already did that in 2012, with the Schooltv program Andrew on Earth, in which he traveled to Greenland to show that the ice caps are melting. He did that in sold-out theaters, in the series Discover space (also Schooltv), which he does as a guest in talk shows, in College Tour (KRO-NCRV), in NTR children’s program The coremaybe he just held back when he read Woezel and Pip out André the astronaut.
So as Kuipers in the first episode of Spaceship Earth (KRO-NCRV) starts, then you secretly already know what he is going to say. From space you can see the Earth at a glance. It shows how insignificant we are, we are all in the same boat, we have limited supplies, we will have to make do with that. Kuipers: “Knowing that you are part of something bigger is a penetrating feeling.”
Cooper’s message
Mild panic at home. In the meantime, we haven’t really taken Kuipers’ message to heart, so programs that start like this sometimes tend to end grimly. Maybe that’s why it’s a good thing Spaceship Earth is much more than just a warning about how we treat our planet. For example, in the first episode, on television on Wednesday evening, there is a lot to say about ‘light’. So much that it sometimes makes you dizzy, but then there are those images from the ISS again to drag you along, and that happens.
The six-part documentary series looks at the Earth through the eyes of astronaut Kuipers, through those of satellites and through the eyes of scientists on the ground. Kuipers talks contagiously. Lightning bolts from space? “Fantastic!” Cities with their intricate networks of lights? “Magisterial!” But all that artificial light also has a downside. Research shows that 80 percent of Western children born today will never see the Milky Way.
Read also: André Kuipers donates the Dutch flag from the International Space Station to the Rijksmuseum
The series, voiced by Kim van Kooten, alternates stories from Kuipers with those from experts. For example, the telescope was invented four hundred years ago when an optician from Middelburg did not place his glasses next to each other, but in front of each other. Handy to see the Spaniards arrive earlier, they thought at the time, until one Galileo Galilei looked up at the sky out of pure curiosity. And why do moths actually fly towards the light? Because they navigate the moon, it turns out. If the moon is always on the right side of the sky, you’re flying straight ahead. Unless that moon is suddenly a big street lamp nearby. If you keep to the right, you will only fly circles around the pole. I didn’t know all.
Kuipers could already see the brightly lit greenhouses when he looked at Madrid from space
What I did know: The Netherlands is one of the most enlightened places on earth. This is mainly due to the greenhouses in Westland, Kuipers could already see them from space when he looked at Madrid. All that light not only disrupts our own day and night rhythm, but also that of animals. Birds chirp without the sun rising, fireflies can’t find each other during their mating dance, and dung beetles, orienting themselves to the Milky Way, have no idea where they are. “All those lights are beautiful,” says Kuipers, “but people live with every light. And when you oversee that, you realize the burden we place on the earth and on the nature around us.”
It is a pity that the reports do not exceed the level of amazement. There is no conclusion. Actually does Spaceship Earth exactly what André Kuipers has been doing for ten years: showing how incredibly beautiful the earth is, and how well we should therefore take care of it. And that does it nicely.
replaces Rinskje Koelewijn this week.