The Russian orbital segment of the International Space Station (ISS) became one of the venues of the recent RGS Geographical Dictation. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina not only completed the tasks of the Dictation, but also answered several questions specifically for readers of the website of the Russian Geographical Society.
We would like to remind that the Geodictant was held on the ISS for the fifth time and has become a kind of tradition. The cosmonauts of Roscosmos sent greetings to the participants of the RGS international educational campaign. By the time the Geographical Dictation was completed, the spacecraft was flying over the territory of South America.
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"Every day we admire our planet and understand how beautiful and at the same time fragile our common and only home is. They often talk about the need to protect the nature of the Earth, to respect the natural environment in which humanity has the happiness to live and develop. To truly appreciate something, firstly you need get to know it," Anna Kikina said.
In turn, Dmitry Petelin reminded that the Geographical Dictation is written not for the sake of prizes or confirmation of knowledge, but to touch the unknown again, to know the world around us and solve the riddles of the centuries-old history of Russia.
Taking the opportunity, we asked the cosmonauts a few questions.
— Please name the most unusual geographical objects, the view of which from space struck you the most.
Sergey Prokopyev: Of course, there are certain places on our planet that evoke special feelings. For me, for example, this is our Russian Kamchatka. Its surface is covered with volcanoes, it looks unrealistically beautiful from above. As well as various atolls in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.
— We all studied geography at school. At the same time, many do not fully understand how this knowledge can be useful in life. What do you think studying geography gives us?
Anna Kikina: Studying geography gives us an understanding of the structure of the world and the processes of interaction in nature, which look the way we see it for ourselves. A person studying geography gets an understanding of how the world around him/her works, and thus can interact with.
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— Out-of-the-way lands, like the universe, have always attracted people. And what attracts you in space?
Dmitry Petelin: First of all, its unknown. The great explorers of the past went beyond the horizon, to where no one had ever been before. Cosmonauts do the same — every new flight brings something new, takes another step towards the spread of humanity into space, further and further away from their native cradle, from Earth.
— A lot of things in this world depend on geography and natural features. And what does the existence of nature itself depend on?
Anna Kikina: People do not fully understand all the laws by which nature lives and evolves. But, in my opinion, there are some global factors that can affect the rapid and premature end of the existence of nature in the form in which we know it and see it. For example, this is a large-scale collision with a large space object, which can lead to great destruction. Or widespread explosions — for example, on the Great Ring of Fire volcanoes — which can also cause irreparable damage to our planet. Or it is humanity itself, which now has such large and powerful resources that can negatively affect our planet. But let's not forget that the human mission is still creation. Therefore, let's keep and protect our planet and its unique nature together.
We would like to remind that the Geographical Dictation of the RGS has been held annually since 2015. Over eight years, more than 2.8 million people have participated in the project. Now we are looking for excellent perfomers — those who have correctly answered the dictation tasks for all the years of its implementation. By the way, "LitRes" makes an interesting offer to all participants of the RGS international educational campaign in 2022. Follow our news and participate in our contests and win!