Tim Peake: Astronaut says humans will be a multi-planetary species as he launches his first childrens book – iNews

When Boris Johnson had to choose a gift to present to the US President at the White House last week, he opted for a book by Britains first official, Government-supported astronaut.

Joe Biden received a signed copy of Tim Peakes Hello, Is This Planet Earth? with an inscription expressing hopes that it provides a reminder of what were fighting to save as our countries tackle climate change together.

As Peake launches his next book his first for children this week, he is relying on the stamp of approval of two people much more important than either the President or PM his young sons Thomas and Oliver.

They loved it, he says of the environmental message at the heart of the novel, Swarm Rising.

Peake bounced his sci-fi plotlines around with the boys on European camping holidays, and theyve also read every chapter as its been developed and given feedback.

In the action-adventure story, co-written with childrens author Steve Cole, schoolboy protagonist Danny Munday is kidnapped by agirl named Adi (short for Alien Digital Intelligence).

In fact, she is part of the Swarm, a super-advanced hive mind, which intends to protect the Earth from the environmental catastrophe caused by the human race.

It may sound far fetched, but Peakes real-life predictions are barely less fantastical.

He agrees with Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, that humanity will soon become amulti-planetary species.

Yes, I think its going to happen relatively quickly. As a self-sustaining civilisation on another planet? I think were probably 50 to 100 years away from that, he tells i from his home study in Hampshire, surrounded by space memorabilia including a model of the Soyuz TMA-19M rocket that took him into space.

In terms of landing your first humans on Mars, I think were 15 to 20 years away. But when I was writing Swarm Rising, what was interesting was thinking beyond that. Are we going to really travel beyond the solar system in a biological form, flesh and blood? Another solution of course is to upload, go digital and then travel at the speed of light as a signal, as a digital intelligence through the universe.

These are ideas he has been mulling over for years, including while listening to the BBC podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage when I was exercising on the space station.

He was absorbed by the prospect of uploading a human brain to a quantum computer.

Thats a potential for the future of humanity and a civilisation might have done that before us millions of years ago and already be out there.

Peake is also concerned about the hazards for todays space travellers. Space junk is a huge threat, he warns.

There are estimated to be 100m pieces of debris bigger than 1mm across floating around the Earth, and a collision could shatter a satellite or spacecraft.

The chief of the Air Staff for the RAF suggested this year that Britain may soon follow the United States in creating its own Space Force to engage in what then-President Donald Trump said in 2019 was the worlds new war-fighting domain.

Space exploration up until now has been very much an international peaceful collaboration, says Peake.

Independent nations are now starting to have strategic assets in space that are vulnerable and those assets need protecting from other states. Its an inevitable progression, unfortunately.

In 2015, when Peake was preparing to blast off for his 186-day expedition to the International Space Station, atabloid headline claimed he was the first ginger inspace. One thing he is happy to be is an interplanetary role model for a new kind of masculinity; a softly spoken foil to the stereotype of the macho spaceman of old.

When people think of astronauts, they might think back to the Apollo era, the Mercury Seven, all fast-jet test pilots, and Ithink that now its very different, were a very diverse group. its good to be able to portray the reality of what the agencies are looking for.

Within the next four years, he also hopes to make one final, giant leap as the first Brit to walk on theMoon.

When I mention that, in his fifties, his dream mission would also make him the oldest person to step foot on the dusty surface of the Earths only natural satellite, hechuckles.

Im not sure where you got that from. But yeah Im certainly hoping for a second mission to space, he says, adding that astronauts can put off retirement to 60 (though much will depend on the British governments financial commitment to the European Space Agency).

For a long-duration mission, we are looking at less than 60. If you are launching before that, then thats fine. Beyond 60, its probably not advisable to be involved in the longer duration missions, not to say that it cant happen but obviously space flight is physically and mentally demanding and it has a punishing effect on the body and the bodys ability to regenerate and recover reduces as we get older.

So, I press, does he want to become the oldest Moonwalker? Well, theres plenty of older astronauts out there, Peake says with another laugh. So Im sure some of them might get there before me.

But, yeah, at the grand old age of 49, Id like to still think Ive got at least one more mission left in me.

Swarm Rising by Tim Peake and Steve Cole is published by Hodder Childrens Books (12.99)on Thursday, 30 September

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Tim Peake: Astronaut says humans will be a multi-planetary species as he launches his first childrens book - iNews