First and foremost, this is not space travel, this is space politics. You are taking your first step on the ISS.
When I say the first step, I don't mean that how will Gezeravcı float in ISS: you are carrying your scientists working in Antarctica, in Salt Lake in the field of microbiology, or your scientists working in the field of human genetics, cancer research, your scientists working on wearable technologies and zero-gravity environment, or your scientists working in other fields to the ISS.
Dr. Cihan Taştan made a very good statement about this in the national media, that every breath Gezeravcı takes is planned, every moment he is there, everything he does will go down to the ground stations as data, and almost all of these projects will continue to be on the ISS after Gezeravcı leaves the ISS.
Apart from this first step, there is also a motivational significance. The Turkish state has future goals that include access to space with its own national rockets and a hard landing on the moon. I think a Turkish person on the ISS, with examples from Turkish scientists, will create a serious public interest in this sense. It may be analogically problematic, but let's remember the period when the concept of Blue Homeland was first popularized and adopted by the public. Sometimes you need a flare.
And as a foot note: I respect every opinion, someone can of course come out and say that we will not see any effect over ISS and even Turkiye will give up these works completely. I have no objection to these, what I cannot accept is not about this. But, I would like all we to look very carefully at the social media sources of the accounts that campaigned against Gezeravcı with saying that 55-million-dollar space tourist and a series of slanders against him. When the RTE stooge slander lost ground in Gezeravci's first speech, I am referring to those who focused on this issue and those who actually did technical work with their network. I mean who started the terminology used (55 million dollar tourist, womanizing ex-pilot, etc.).In my opinion, the most regrettable aspect of Turkish social media is the effect created by these perception agents and the fact that people can still repeat these fabricated arguments without even think over it.
