‘Ultimate space ambassador’ gives kids out-of-this-world experience
Astronaut Chris Hadfield mesmerized more than 500 Edmonton students during a live question-and-answer session from space Tuesday.
Travelling at 28,000 kilometres per hour aboard the International Space Station, Hadfield appeared by video to share the details of life in orbit to an agog crowd of junior high and high school students at the Telus World of Science.
Hadfield showed off a fancy astronaut barf bag with a builtin wipe cloth — in response to a student’s question about if crew members ever get sick in space — and spoke about how his experiences as an engineer and military pilot led him to his current position, as Canada’s first commander of the International Space Station.
Tayen Bezaire, a Grade 9 student at Highlands School in north Edmonton, was one of 19 students from 11 Edmonton area schools chosen to pose a question to Hadfield.
Bezaire asked Hadfield what games and activities were common on the space station during down time. Hadfield spoke about an ongoing Scrabble game played on the ceiling, as well as a guitar, ukulele and keyboard the six crew members play.
Time is also spent simply looking out the window, because “the world is more beautiful than you can imagine,” Hadfield said.
Prior to Hadfield’s appearance, Mathieu Landry, senior operations engineer for the Canadian Space Agency, gave the engrossed audience an overview of Hadfield’s mission.
Hadfield blasted off from Kazakhstan in December and is expected to return to Earth on May 13.
Landry said Hadfield spends most of his time working on more than 100 ongoing science experiments.
The mustachioed Hadfield answered questions for 20 minutes. He let go of his microphone often, leaving it floating as he demonstrated various aspects of astronaut living.
Hadfield climbed into a sleeping bag tethered to a wall to demonstrate how sleeping in weightlessness works.
While he said he misses close human contact and hot showers, Hadfield told the audience life in outer space is “magic.”
“I can just do this if I want,” he said, grinning as he stood on the wall.
Frank Florian, vice-president of programs at the Telus World of Science, called Hadfield’s live chat one of the most memorable events the science centre has hosted.
“It’s a great inspiration for students,” he said.
Science and math teacher Phillip Hambly said his Grade 7 to 9 students were very enthused about attending Tuesday’s talk.
“Their curiosity was piqued,” said Hambly, who brought 41 students from Bluffton School, located in the hamlet of Bluffton about 150 kilometres southwest of Edmonton. “It was awesome and amazing to see Hadfield speak to students.”
“It was really exciting to talk to him in space,” said Cherry Chen, a Grade 9 student at J.H. Picard School in south Edmonton, who asked Hadfield about the biggest goal he is hoping to achieve on his mission.
“It’s to increase human understanding and also human opportunity,” Hadfield said.
In addition to more than 500 students, Twitter followers were invited to attend the event, making it the first Canadian Space Agency tweet-up in Western Canada.
Hadfield’s prolific use of Twitter, including frequently tweeting pictures from orbit, has given him more than 630,000 followers.
They include Laura Mazzino, a PhD student at the University of Alberta studying space physics who attended Tuesday’s event.
“It’s fantastic that he takes time out of his busy day to tweet and send such amazing pictures and videos. He’s the ultimate space ambassador,” she said.