SPACE ODYSSEY
Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian female astronaut, speaks to a capacity crowd in the University of Windsor’s Alumni Auditorium on Thursday.
Never think you’ve reached your potential and never eat yellow Jell-O if you get into space, Canada’s first female astronaut Dr. Roberta Bondar said Thursday. “People always tell you to reach for the stars. I’ve heard that once or twice,” she said to a crowd of a few hundred people at the University of Windsor. “They also say you should try to reach your potential, and I think that is not the right thing to say because once you reach your potential, what then?” Bondar showed a picture of herself at age three with binoculars and said she looked at the stars and wanted to know what’s out there. But if that was her only dream, she would have been “dead in the water at age 48 and not really thinking about accomplishing anything else.”
Bondar, the first Canadian woman and neurologist to fly in space, spoke on Infinite Possibilities as part of the University of Windsor’s Science Society Speaker Series. Be alert and engaged, read books, keep learning all your life and take a course in ethics, she advised. Bondar began her astronaut training in 1984 and flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery on an eight-day mission in 1992.
It was an extraordinary, life-changing experience, she said. “When you float in space it’s a very free feeling but you have to keep track of everything.”
The never-eat-yellow-snow rule on earth turns into never-eat-yellow-Jell-O in space, she said in a question period following her talk. “In space, all fluids, even from the bathroom, they float up and form a ball.”
Bondar, who joked and was relaxed on stage in her running shoes, stood between two large screens and showed videos, including one where you could hear the astronauts scrambling to get film for the famous earth-rise picture in 1968. She is a photographer and co-founded the Roberta Bondar Foundation which encourages people to connect with nature through photography.
Delaney Sloan, 12, was part of a
I think that is not the right thing to say because once you reach your potential, what then?
Lego Robotics Space Cadets team from Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School in LaSalle who dressed up in white space suits and lab coats for Bondar’s presentation. The team had studied sleep deprivation in space.
“I’m sure that Roberta Bondar is a really good role model for a lot of girls so I’m really stoked to be able to hear from her,” said Sloan, who wants to be a meteorologist.