Turkey’s second astronaut Tuva Cihangir Atasever: Turkey’s space studies await a bright future

Turkey’s second astronaut, Tuva Cihangir Atasever, stated that a very bright future awaits Turkey in space and said, “Successfully achieving our National Space Program goals will usher in a new era in Turkey’s space studies.”

Atasever attended the “Vocational Training Program” organized at METU, hosted by the Turkish Space Agency (TUA), with the contributions of the Presidency Human Resources Office.

Atasever, who provided information about the International Space Station (ISS) and the training they received before the scientific studies they will conduct there and answered students’ questions, said that their purpose at the ISS is to conduct scientific studies. Atasever said, “Experiments conducted to develop new generation alloys for space are very important. Manufacturing in a gravity-free environment at the ISS can allow the product to remain in shape, to be mixed homogeneously and to produce the product in question with higher quality than on Earth. Turkey’s future is space. Successfully achieving our National Space Program goals will bring Turkey’s space studies to a new age. A very bright future awaits Turkey.”

Atasever also shared with the students the details of the 7 experiments he conducted in space as part of the suborbital science mission.

“We will see serious breakthroughs in space in 5-10 years”

Astrophysicist Dr. Umut Yıldız, who continued his research at the Plan-S company after returning to Turkey, said that space studies are carried out for military, scientific and commercial purposes.

Yıldız pointed out that the latest technologies that direct innovation and investment in the space industry emerged as scientific questions began to be asked, and explained that costs were reduced with the involvement of the private sector.

Yıldız stated that young engineers in Turkey can successfully take part in important projects and noted the following:

“We want science to be investigated more in Turkey. Elon Musk aims to provide faster access to any point in the world than planes thanks to the spaceports to be established in the world with the Starship rocket he is currently building. Axiom Space plans to build its own hotel. When the ISS is brought back to Earth in the 2030s, it is anticipated that hotel concepts in space will remain in orbit. We will see serious breakthroughs in space in 5-10 years. Starship will be able to carry 100-150 tons or 100 people into space, and this will happen in less than 10 years at most.”

Space-enthusiastic young people attending the “Vocational Education Program” at METU had the opportunity to ask questions to Atasever and Yıldız as well as the participants during the 2-day event, and also listen to the experiences of experts in the field.