I just had the pleasure the other night to lecture just before the second to last man to walk on the moon, the 12th in all, Astronaut Harrison Schmitt at the Explorers Club´s Annual dinner in Stockholm.
I have to say it was fantastic to get such a perspective on life and my question to him afterwards was, since he was really way to full of praise about my Siberian lecture and how difficult life was for me after that trip, how did he manage life afterwards?
And he just said:
” I am a geologist and I started immediately working with the samples we brought back. I am a rational person like most astronauts.”
So, slightly surprised, I asked Christer Fuglesang, the only Swedish astronaut the same question and got the same answer and he added:
“This idea that most astronauts have problems after returning is just not true. Most of us a very rational.”
Maybe that is why Explorers don´t go for the space, we are not rational enough, or what do you think Tom Sjogren and Tina Sjogren?
The history of exploration is dominated by explorers, especially to pristine areas like both Poles, Siberia and Greenland, who had troubled lives afterwards.
