I have translated a Danish article in the newspaper Politiken. You may overlook grammatical errors in the translation / Mikael Bostrom.

Countdown to a life in weightlessness
September 1 will Andreas Mogensen sit crouched at the head of a Russian rocket with his knees up under his chin and begin a six hours long journey to the International Space Station (ISS) and become the first Dane in space.
When the taxi stops outside the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, a man walks with slow steps towards the main entrance. He has a banana in his hand and is wearing short black pants and a red polo with Danish flag on the right sleeve. He lights up a big smile when he sees us.
"I've just been over to get X-rayed my leg. To learn more about whether my mission in weightlessness can lead to bone loss because my legs will be quite superfluous in the ten days, he says, while we pass a statue of the legendary Russian cosmonaut Gagarin . The first human in history who in 1961 ventured into the infinite space surrounding our planet.
54 years later it has become Denmark's turn, and the man who is coming in through the glass door, is he who must make it real, 38-year-old Andreas Mogensen. If all goes to plan, he will on September 1 go aboard the Russian rocket 'Soyuz 44' in the company of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and be sent in space on the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission is dubbed 'Iris's'.
As the door opens to the building, we are not greeted by flying binders, coffee cups and pens, and the receptionist sits heavily and quietly on his chair. And jumps a little on the spot, falling to surprisingly quickly back down. Gravity has good grip in one, and it is only in the large swimming pool in the training center's center that astronauts wearing a waterproof spacesuit can get a partial sense of what it's like to be weightless, and how difficult it can be to repair a copy of a space station under water.
Today, there is scheduled a full training program for Andreas Mogensen in the great hall, where there is exhibited replicas of the modules of the International Space Station is composed. There is also a model of the space capsule of the Russian rocket 'Sojus'Uden to transport the Danish astronauts safely back to Earth. You do not suffer from claustrophobia. Landing module is the size of a small caravan, and the three black leather occupies most of the space.

Photo: Lasse Kofod.

Astronaut gets electric shock
In one of the classrooms in the main hall Andreas Mogensen already taken place in anything that could resemble an advanced dental chair. A Belgian TV crew filming the relaxed  Dane in the company of the Belgian electrical engineer Olivier Lamborelle during their training session in which the expert tester astronaut muscle activity.
Andreas Mogensen muscular load, which is shaved for the occasion, are plastered with electrodes that can activate his muscles by sending a current of 140 milliamperes through the tissue. He is told to provide his greatest feat with a leg press and then relax. Suddenly it makes a violent set of the astronaut's body, and he utters a 'av damn'.
Electrical Engineer who without warning have sent current through Andreas Mogensen place, looking at the laptop and smiles happy. The experimental setup works perfectly, and Olivier Lamborelle is particularly pleased that we have managed to activate the calf muscle, without Andreas Mogensen was aware of it.
Andreas Mogensen has quickly regained composure and throw themselves in the role of video journalist. He lights a small camera on a selfiestang and says that he has got electric shocks as part of astronaut training. He interviewed Olivier Lamborelle explaining the viewers what the meaning of torture is. The recording is in honor of Andreas Mogensen's many followers on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
"We will examine what are the primary reasons that muscle activity in the legs fall into a state of weightlessness. Is it only because muscle tissue degenerates and shrinks in size, as we know it from a cast, or is it also that the connection between Andreas' brain and muscles weaken because the legs are completely redundant in weightlessness. We can find out by activating the astronaut's muscles in two ways: either with power or with the astronaut own will, "said the Belgian.
Andreas must conduct the same experiment, while staying on the space station. He will even pick 'dentist's chair', as it was a piece of furniture from Ikea, and another astronaut must send a current through his legs during the trial.
During the stay, Andreas Mogensen also test a very tight 'skin suit' which resembles a thin wetsuit. The suit must to some extent try to mimic gravity and putting pressure on the astronaut's backbone. It may hopefully prevent Andreas Mogensen grow during his mission.
"Some astronauts grow up to seven centimeters below their mission because his back is not being held in a tight grip of gravity in weightless conditions and therefore expands. It provides back pain, and it can cause problems on the journey back to Earth, because the chair, which is specially designed for astronaut's body, now does not fit longer and will be less able to absorb the shock, you get during the violent descent into rumkapselen "says he said.

Photo: Lasse Kofod.

Danish flag in space
The Danish astronauts have made a tailor-made rocket chair that were made by, among other things to make a plaster cast of his body in something that looked like a bathtub.
In the next classroom takes the Italian astronaut instructor Manuela Aguzzi from ESA against. She is directing Andreas Mogensen of how he needs a teleprompter on an iPad when he filmed himself with a video camera on the space station and simultaneously send a greeting to Danish students on Earth. Andreas Mogensen feel that it is difficult to maintain eye contact with the camera, while he must read the manuscript, while scrolling down the screen.
"I'd rather write the script through, so it fits my style and my choice of words, and then memorize it. So I think it will be more credible and the present, "he said to the director.
The Danish astronaut asks how he is to bring the camcorder when he must serve it.
"Let an apple floating in the air where you have to stand and focus then on it while you set the camera, press 'Record' and tissues so in front of the camera," said Manuela Aguzzi.
The director says that Andreas Mogensen can find a press kit when he arrives at the space station. It contains among other things a Danish flag, which he can hang up in the background during filming, which preferably should be in the dome overlooking the Earth. Astronaut Among other things announce the winners of lego and robot competitions directly from the International Space Station.
"Remember now to get voltage to rise when you announce the winner, and remember that it is the biggest day in the lives of children," said Manuela Aguzzi and makes big eyes.
She also recommends Andreas holding an object in his hand when he communicates with the ground, so one can get a clear feeling that he is in a state of weightlessness.

No sleeper for Dane
In a break shows Andreas Mogensen us around in the environment, which will be his home for the 10 days he is in the room. 400 km from here and outside the Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere.
He shows us, among other things, the sleeping cabins where his astronaut colleagues to sleep. The booths are blue and looks like a fabric-covered shower with shower curtain. On the wall hangs a sleeping bag on a hook, the astronaut can take on as an oversized overcoat and then attach the body to the wall with straps. Should we sleep under these conditions, it is probably an advantage to have a good sleep heart. But Andreas Mogensen it? The answer surprises.
"When there are only six of these sleepers, and we are nine astronauts on the space station during my mission, I find another quiet place to sleep. That I have to. I have provided me somewhere at the bottom of the Japanese module where there is a shelf, which is not used for anything. There, I think I'll buckle me up when they get tired, "said Andreas Mogensen.
Andreas Mogensen is not only challenged in his sleep. Space Station flies at a speed of 27,500 km / h, which means that it will fly all 16 times around the Earth in a single day. This means that astronauts will experience 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets in the course of a day. So it is a somewhat different rhythm than on Earth, the astronauts will experience.
"I am looking forward to sitting in the glass dome - Cupolaen - when I have free and enjoy a lot of sunrises and sunsets overlooking the blue planet. The green light on the world's poles as the northern lights will surely steal my eyes attention, "he says.
It can even happen to the smell of a freshly brewed espresso in a new custom-designed cup, Zero-G cup that can keep on the coffee despite the weightless condition. The rumdesignede espresso machine coffee brewing at is an Italian invention, and it was installed in April by the Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, which thus became the first barista in orbit. Espresso has been dubbed ISSpresso! The invention will Andreas Mogensen could enjoy during his stay.

Small satellites and giant lightning
Back to school is Andreas Mogensen an introduction to the two Danish CubeSat satellites, which he will send into orbit from the space station. The two small satellites, which is shaped like a cube and weighs about a kilogram, developed respectively by students from Aalborg University and the Danish company GomSpace be used to monitor ship traffic around Greenland and air traffic in Africa, among other.
Andreas Mogensen will be instructed how satellites will be fired away with a robot hand at the space station's exterior. In a waving, l so that it does not hit the ISS, for example, the long solar panels, located on the spacecraft.
To the mission, Andreas Mogensen from a small porthole also photograph special lightning phenomena associated with thunderstorms. These are giant lightning with the exotic names red sprites, blue jets and elves sent upwards from thunder clouds to the electrically conductive ionosphere in the 90-100 km altitude.
"They are difficult to observe from the ground, and therefore the space station a good place to observe the phenomenon, for up here is not bothered by clouds or normal lightning. Huge lightning elves can confusingly like a UFO, so if you see one, do not shout and scream. It's just a flash, "laughs the Italian director Riccardo Bosca and Andreas Mogensen laugh with.

Grinene will be replaced by hands groping for a large Nikon camera, similar to that which Andreas Mogensen need on the mission to photograph the colorful giant lightning. Neither astronaut or experts to gain the camera to obey. An expert says reassuring:"There is no problem with the camera up on the space station."
For the last lesson is opened there is a box where the contents of confusion could be like a forgotten gym bag from a spinning class. The first thing that springs to mind is a pair of brand new cycling shoes in size 48, a pair of black pedals and a heart rate belt to be tightened around the astronaut's large chest. An equipment he needs, when he sits on the exercise bike out there. The exercise bike on the space station will be modernized and equipped with a new monitoring system provides in the form of bluetooth. It will probably both make it easier to measure astronauts' heart rate, registering how hard the pedaling in the weightless condition, and getting wireless data stored on one of the space station's computers.
When Andrew tester cleats position on the new cycling shoes, he complained a little about their position.
"If you want the pressure cleats forward a little, you'd do well to do it right now. For up to the space station would not take 2 minutes but maybe 20, because you have to hover around the European module Columbus and look for the toolbox and find the right tool, "said German ESA director Frank Salmen with a serious mine.
Andreas Mogensen nods and goes immediately started to adjust cleats position. He learns how he must mount the pedals when he reaches the space station. The pedals are also equipped with Bluetooth. It is the Danish company Danish Aerospace Company, which developed the technology. The company is represented by an IT engineer Soren Bendtsen, who witness the demonstration and answer Andreas Mogensen technical issues.

A risky mission
Late in the day put the well-trained Dane into the small space capsule, which is a replica of the one that he should sit in during launch and on the way back to Earth. On the return journey will knock through the atmosphere at a speed of 27,000 km / h, and a heat shield will prevent it from burning up. 10 km from the earth's surface, a parachute will be triggered and curb the wild hallway with a violent jerk. Andreas Mogensen know that there are things that can go wrong.
"The launch is indeed a controlled explosion. The worst thing that can happen is that the rocket explode or catch fire. Fortunately, we have a 'launch escape system', which is a smaller rocket, which is mounted on top of the capsule, we sit in. It can we use to pull us away from an explosion or a fire, if it should happen "said Andreas Mogensen, while he pressed some buttons with small signs with Russian writing.
"All radio communications with the control tower is done in Russian, and Kosmonauten to be sitting next to me on the right, is also Russian. For the Soyuz's a Russian rocket, and therefore I am glad that I have learned Russian as part of my astronaut training - among other things, to live with a Russian family in St. Petersburg. Petersburg as a part of teaching, "said Andreas Mogensen, leaning back hard in the seat with your knees on the way up towards the chin.
"I am looking to climb aboard the rocket will be strapped into the seat and so feel the power of the rocket shoot us into space, and for the first time we can feel weightlessness. I can hardly wait for the moment when I can knock on the door of the station, climb in and float around in 10 days with a view of the Earth '.
It has always been Andreas Mogensen's dream to become an astronaut and go into space.
"It is a dream I have had since I was a little boy. I can not quite remember when it started. The space speaks to our curiosity and the urge to explore our surroundings. The natural curiosity is something we have as children and continuing through life. It was also what prompted our ancestors to spread out all over the earth from Africa, cross oceans and cross the mountains. One can say that the room is the last place we need to explore. And now it's my turn soon, "said astronaut and writhing out of the seat.
The day ends with a firm handshake from the man who really should put Denmark on rumkortet. Andreas Mogensen will continue as astronaut at ESA after his first space mission. He hopes he will offer to go on a new mission, even though the competition is tough.
"Getting home, you two," said Andreas Mogensen.
'Good trip to space, "said Politiken photographer and tweaking on his bike cap.
On the way out of the astronaut training center we stop by the statue of Gagarin. About 80 days, if everything goes well, Andreas Mogensen be sent into space from the launch pad in Baikonur-Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Just as his predecessor did.


By:Lasse Foghsgaard.All photos:Lasse Kofod.
Original article website:
https://politiken.dk/magasinet/feature/ECE2709300/nedtaelling-til-et-liv-i-vaegtloes-tilstand/