You won’t believe what these female astronauts were asked by journalists
An all-female group of top scientists began a space experiment this week – but were asked awful questions.
Yes, because they are all women, they were not asked questions based on scientific ability but on their ability to survive without men.
What’s even worse, the six women were compared to housewives, with the suggestion that they would be unable to live together with only one kitchen between them.
The female scientists, aged between 22 and 34, began the 8-day experiment at Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems.
The intention of the experiment was to see how well an all-female crew would operate on the International Space Station.
The ISS so far has had very few female astronauts on board, and has never had an all female crew. Russia has only ever sent four women to space.
The ‘Moon 2015’ mission sees the women undergo 30 experiments inside the mock ISS environment with six cabins, a kitchen, bathroom and gym.
Phys.org reports that experiment supervisor Sergei Ponomaryov said: “Such a crew is taking part for the first time in a simulation experiment. It’s interesting for us to see what is special about the way a female crew communicates.”
He continued: “There’s never been an all-female crew on the ISS. We consider the future of space belongs equally to men and women and unfortunately we need to catch up a bit after a period when unfortunately there haven’t been too many women in space.”
The comments went downhill from there – Institute director Igor Ushakov said: “It will be particularly interesting in terms of psychology… they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together.”
The women were also subjected to irrelevant questions at a press conference prior to the experiment, including questions like ‘How will you deal with being without makeup for eight days?’ and ‘How will you cope with not being around men?’
Despite the ignorance of the questions, and even though they shouldn’t have to, the women responded excellently.
Anna Kussmaul said: “We are doing work. When you’re doing your work, you don’t think about men and women.”
Darya Komissarova added: “We are very beautiful without makeup.”
