Kathrin Altwegg’s career has moved from solid state physics to physical chemistry and then to space science. For 20 years she has worked with the Rosetta mission as principal investigator of the Rosina project, gathering spectroscopic data from Comet P67 at a distance of 600 million kilometres. Kathrin is fascinated not only by the ‘how?’ of space research but also by the ‘why?’, and her research group in Bern, Switzerland brings together scientists and technicians with philosophers, theologians and scholars of science fiction literature.