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Deserts and Void | Luca Parmitano | TEDxBari


[Music]
desert is difficult to define because
surely it is not a place for me, perhaps
a non- demonstration the fact
that you can be in a desert too
in a hall full of people you can
be the desert even in the center of
New York
so it’s not a place for my the
my vision the desert is an experience
with three experiences it depends
exclusively from how you live it in
negative positive I prefer
live all in positive then tonight
I would like to accompany you on another journey
a journey through my desert
journey that starts from the bottom up
in a continuous and we start immediately here
we are very low in the caves
under the sardinia
sometimes deserts are invisible to us
we are used to seeing them outside
dishes or with mountains but sometimes i
deserts are interior and not only in
sense in the moral sense desert as it can
to have inside but also in the proper sense
physical here we are in a desert
inside a mountain several meters below
the mountains in particular in this
moment in this picture I’m in a
gut that crushes me completely
under tens and tens of meters of land
and rocks and tons of rock while
I was in this gut I thought of
turn off the light I had on the helmet I was
completely alone inside this gut
that I wanted to hear I wanted to hear the
desert of this mountain that me
he crushed completely and I was
blocked the only way to move me in
that dark then pushing forward
very slowly with
with my feet and hands because I wanted to
try the feeling of being
completely only then rekindled the light
I saw my colleagues again
on the other side almost like a
prize there was an underground river
wonderful then a desert
invisible always in the dark transformed by
thousands of years of underground work
see this in the picture
same desert always always under the
mountains of Sardinia but as you see
it has completely changed completely
the opposite we went from a gut
very close to a huge desert but
from the dimensions
Look at this man who is pointing
here this is a man this is one
wall about 80 meters high
inside a mountain
so a world completely
unknown rock that tells one
history this is the story of one
infinite patience of movements
imperceptible but ineluctable of water
that drop after drop transforms it
rock up to dominate it because that
wall has completely collapsed creating
this desert of stones where I am
with my crew the crew of the
free games of 2014
underground with a group of astronauts e
the scientists because why we go
under the ground because we send the
astronauts underground well desert not
it means lack of life does not mean
absence of life means many things but
not necessarily that fact us
we think there are gods on mars
very very large caves that protect
the underground habitat
radiation so we think it’s a
great environment to keep still
organic nature
maybe life or anyway the remains of
that life could be one of the
first places we will visit when
we will go to Mars because we will be protected
protected from radiation in this
desert behind me
you see an astronaut who is about to
descend into a cave
using the same tools that then
one day the astronauts of the future
they will have to use to explore the
will explore the caves
Martian
or maybe in a lunar lava tube
we know that we know that
they exist but this is not only
training for astronauts and also
science know that in deserts and as in
all extreme environments exist
procedures in progress is
perfectly visible in particular the
underground deserts are completely
without light
if we turned off that light would be
absolutely dark a dark different from
what I tried in space a
dark more dense and full of those
tons of earth above us
well these tiny little animals have
abandoned the normal evolution of the
their similar above the surface for
adapt to those conditions as well
extreme very little energy
no light here is these animals
they become almost transparent because
also the color also generate of the
color and a useless effort
abandoned eyes are animals without
eyes do not have no more
this organ has developed others
that are more useful underground for
feel the vibrations to feel a
temperature and small variations
to find a way to support
from our life here we go
to look under the ground
with scientists and we also learn
how to do sampling like
collect them so that one day
we will be able to do it even on one
another planet
a very famous group of the 70s that
I really like it in a song
written the ocean is a desert with the
its underground built underground life
it’s the perfect disguise above and me
I saw it here we are about 20 meters
under the sea off the coast of the
florida during an expedition that is
call nimo nasa extreme environment
mission operations the photo alle
features a picture on bach then
it does not have bright colors but you can
see the desert around me is a
true desert
even if it is full of life but the desert
with all the same difficulties as a
extreme environment
we lived for about two weeks
completely in saturation then not
we could go back in the event of an emergency a
less than having a special support all
our everything was necessary with
we must bring along
well under water we did the
same experimentation that we would do sun
on another body on another body
heavenly for example to work in
microgravity because it is underwater
You can change your attitude
to pretend to simulate being
completely without weight or weight
martial without thinking as if we were up
an asteroid on deimos on phobos around
to mars or partial gravity like
on the moon or on mars well to learn
to move in these environments like this
different from ours
we use the submarine environment for
also understand what tools we must
develop and create experience first
to use them on mars
that’s why in this fake lander that
you will see behind me
hooked a robotic arm
on which to move to avoid contamination
only lunar and Martian so on
but we are not just experimenting
even here we do science you see
together with florida international
university
we studied a very little phenomenon
known the migration of corals i
corals are very very sensitive to
temperature
we have studied how they move
towards deeper waters because of the
global warming
here global warming is a fact
and science is no longer an argument
Political is no longer a discussion
politics and to make this happen
living desert does not become a valley
of death we must do something
now we are trying with the
science
let’s get back to the surface
we started from underground we go more
top through the sea back in
surface and here we are in Lanzarote for
another exploration project that yes
calls pang and how the macro
continent which then gave rise to everyone
the continents
here we are up on a crater of which
we can tell the story only if
we know the language of the earth
geologists speak the language of the
rocks are able to listen to it
history of hearing the harvest are in
able to interpret it for us
I’m not a geologist I can not
interpret the conformations of the
when when when I look at myself
around
but using their information in
their education can I describe
as if they were their eyes had
look at it so they can
instead to tell that story and
make science of it
why understand how one evolves
land in millions and millions of years e
re respect to the human life year
in incomprehensible times
understand how the terrain is
wanted also allows us to understand how
it will evolve in the future and to understand
the history of the universe
I ask myself to find a place on the
earth that looks like mars you
I wish I could be that
at that moment I thought I could
to be on mars but they are not
on earth
and who knows what history tells these
red pebbles this this valley
completely different from any other
environment an environment that could be
on mars we tried with with i
our instructors are geologists
professional explorers to try to
telling this story is a story
really complex would be nice one
day to be able to tell it
let’s go even higher
this is the most extreme desert for
excellence and the only desert to be
really empty I know it ‘s empty
because seen to exit the station
international space a room
we have depressurized
completely and the ringing
messy of the tools I have
in front of a certain point it disappeared
became silent no longer there
so I’m even though I’m inside the
station are already in the desert and the
desert of empty space vacuum
I tried two sensations that I am
typical of the desert know in deserts
for those who have had the experience of being able to
live the shows of nature are
of a different rare beauty
see the stars from a desert ha
a higher intensity a sunset
a good dawn I saw a dawn from
space while I hooked hug
space to the robotic arm and the dawn
the tree in space and with an experience
different is an extremely experience
quick in a few moments from the
mere that completely absorbs you that there
removes any color sensations from
this black that also absorbs you in the
thought
we move on to the explosion of colors in a
moment
I wanted over the Atlantic Ocean to a
Certainly the blue of the ocean is
turned into blue then into white
of the waves then in the terracotta of the
African coast in the green and then the blue
the heavens everything in a moment I have the
feeling that takes your breath away
and while it is so like the sunset is
extremely tragic of the desert
I have also experienced a sunset
different from all others experienced
a sunset while I was isolated outside
from the emergency station when the
In my case I began to fill up
of water to remind me that nature has
always the way to take the
win over the individual and them
in the most extreme environment that exists at
world is out of the world without atmosphere
without air with temperatures ranging from
minus 150 degrees and more 150 degrees
my diving suit that the only instrument
technology that keeps me alive is
went into trouble by filling my helmet
of water is a different kind of desert
that they are approving and when it is
the sun set
I have also lost the only tool that with
ease would bring me home
the eyes
finally this photo that now sees the
my shoulders
this photo is dedicated to those in the room and
more than koman and the next
generation is an invitation but also one
challenge in this photo the most beautiful thing
that you can see is a reflection of the
earth is my challenge is to improve
this photo to overcome it because man
to a gene that that of exploration
it is a true genus of the gene
ulisse when we serve a horizon
we have the instinct to overcome it not
we can not help wondering what
it is beyond that horizon
then I work today to allow the
younger ones to overcome that horizon
it’s my challenge to take this picture
in the future one day with a desert at
shoulders I would like to see this
planet become all red of the
sand of Mars
thanks to the attention good evening
[Music]
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