Astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni have arrived in Saudi Arabia, following the country’s successful and historic scientific mission to space aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts have finished their quarantine and conducted all the medical tests required to evaluate the effects of microgravity on the human body.
H.E. Al Swaha (Minister of Communications, Space & Technology) and H.E. Al Tamimi (Governor of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Communications, Space, & Technology Commission) have welcomed the Saudi Arabian astronauts back at a ceremony at King Khalid International Airport.
The astronauts have returned after completing 14 scientific pioneering experiments. Each of these was conducted at the ISS. The three core studies included seeking a better understanding of fluid dynamics by experimenting with liquid fireworks.
The other two experiments were designing and releasing Space kites as so to experiment aerodynamics’ alteration in microgravity compared to Earth. The third group, looked at heat transfer to see the changes of colour and time in heat transfer under the impact of microgravity in space in the aim of educating the students that radiation is the only way to transfer heat in space and that heat is transferred differently in space.
As Digital Journal reported last month, Barnawi and AlQarni conducted their educational awareness experiments live from ISS. These sessions had 12,000 Saudi students across 42 different locations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia tuning in.
The experiments were not only technologically important for they may help to conjure up a legacy. Three of the experiments were educational awareness experiments involving 12,000 Saudi students on the ground across 47 different locations in the Kingdom via a live feed.
A team of Saudi Scientists and researchers will next receive the 92 sample results of the 14 experiments. A comparison will be made with similar experiments conducted on Earth.
The Saudi Space Agency has a longer-term mission for creating better, secure environments for its citizens while actively enabling prospects of lucrative economic inventions.
Barnawi and AlQarni provide an example for younger people to follow, especially now they have set the pace for the growth and development of the space sector. Both should serve as a source of inspiration for the Kingdom’s future generation and the whole Arab world. In particular, Barnawi became the first ever Arab woman to fly into space.
As well as establishing Saudi Arabia as a space force, the actual experiments themselves are also expected to contribute to combat against genetic diseases and neurons. Other areas of science and technology branching out are as well as cloud seeding, planet conservation, seeking improved water condensation on Earth.
