Astronaut encourages youths to reach for the stars By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 3 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Saturday, April 25, 2009 T he children of Chisholm Public School recently received an out of this world experience as astronaut Chris Hadfield took a moment to talk with them about what it's like to boldly go where very few have gone before. Hadfield, who attended Montclair Senior School and White Oaks High School in Oakville, has been in space on two separate occasions. In 1995, he was the Mission Specialist on the space shuttle Atlantis where he operated the Canadarm during NASA's second space shuttle mission to rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir. During this mission, Hadfield earned the distinction of being the first Canadian Mission Specialist, the first Canadian to board Mir and the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in space. In 2001, during his second space mission, Hadfield became the first Canadian to complete a space walk, which he did while installing the Canadarm 2 on the International Space Station. Eight years later, Hadfield's career is still going strong. During a recent school assembly, Chisholm's Principal Rob Eatough, reached Hadfield via teleconference near the Russian capital of Moscow where Hadfield has been training for more than two months to go on another space flight. As around 100 children watched from the floor of the school's gymnasium, 10 children approached the teleconference device to each ask Hadfield a question. "We want to overall inspire them to fulfill their dreams and know that just because you were born in Oakville or Milton or wherever, if you set your goals high and work really hard you can be on the world stage just like Chris Hadfield," said Eatough. "He's a corn farmer from Milton who has now been involved in a number of space missions." Ryan Hammond, Grade 4, was the first student to speak with Hadfield, asking him if he got tired in space because it is dark all the time. Hadfield noted that because the shuttle orbits around the earth it is actually not always dark. "We go around the world really fast, unbelievably fast. We go around the world every hour and a half," said Hadfield. "We go around 16 times a day, so we get 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets a day. So, we do "It's like magic and the whole world is outside your window. Being in space is so much fun, you wouldn't believe it" Astronaut Chris Hadfield nothing but float during their time in space, their muscles would become so weak they would not be able to walk once they returned to Earth. Exercising in space, however, can be a little tricky. "We have no gravity to keep us in place with so all of our machines have to have resistance built into them like big elastics or big strings," said Hadfield. "We have a bicycle that we peddle, but it has no seat because without gravity you don't need a seat so it's sort of like riding a unicycle." Hadfield also noted he had a treadmill to run on, but he had to be anchored to it with elastics so he wouldn't float away." A question by Sarah De Sousa, Grade 5, about how old Hadfield was when he decided to become an astronaut brought home the importance of having goals for many in the room. "The very first two people walked on the moon when I was just about to turn your age and I thought, `What an amazing adventure, what a cool thing to do with your life,'" said Hadfield. "Sarah, when you grow up you are going to become something and it's up to you to decide what you are going to be. Even though I was nine years old and it looked impossible, I decided to try for it anyway and get myself ready and go to university and study things and learn to fly airplanes and learn to scuba dive and maybe someday Canadians will fly through space. I've been lucky because I was chosen to be an astronaut, and I've been in space twice, and it all started with me seeing two people walking on the moon." Other questions asked by the children revolved around the training involved in becoming an astronaut, as well as how you eat in space and if there's life on other planets. Time ran out before anyone could ask the all-important question of how do you go to the bathroom in space, but fortunately a youtube video of Hadfield discussing the subject can be found by typing `2004 Space Toilets (Hadfield)' into a search engine. DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER STUMP THE ASTRONAUT: Chisholm students Maleena Dell, Sarah De Souza, Timi Robert, Jennifer Surtees, Noah Westwater, Sebastian D'Amico, Brooke Westwater, Jessie Cuthbert, Iain Headrick and Ryan Hammond used a teleconference device to ask Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield a question about space. The astronaut, who grew up in Oakville, was in Russia during the teleconference. get tired because you're working hard and because your body doesn't know what time it is, but not because it's dark. It's because it's light then it's dark again, then it's light and then it's dark again." Hadfield said he got around this by covering his eyes and going to a dark part of the shuttle when it was time for sleep. When Ryan asked if it was fun up in space, Hadfield responded with an unqualified `yes.' Hadfield asked Ryan to imagine what it would be like if all the children in the gym could suddenly lift off the ground and float around the room and fly like Superman. The idea seemed to appeal to a number of students in the gym, who could be seen moving their arms through the air like they were swimming. "It's like magic and the whole world is outside your window," said Hadfield. "Being in space is so much fun, you wouldn't believe it." Hadfield said weightlessness also means that when you close your eyes, you have no idea which way up is and as such you have to do things very differently during the weeks and even months you might be experiencing it. Brooke Westwater, Grade 1, explored one these altered areas, asking Hadfield how he exercises in space. Hadfield started off by noting that astronauts have to exercise because if they did