Colonel Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian astronaut to ever leave a spacecraft and float free in space, made a visit to the Island last week (January 25-27, 2002). Hadfield gave french presentations to immersion students at the Carrefour theatre in Charlottetown and the Jubilee theatre in Summerside.                 

The presentations were about Hadfield’s experience on the International Space Station Assembly Flight 6A in 2001. Hadfield showed video clips of the spacecraft take off, a tour of the inside of the spacecraft, earth images from space, the installation of the Canadarm2 (the primary purpose of flight 6A) and amusing pictures of Hadfield and his collegues having fun in an atmosphere of zero gravity.                 

Pictues of these presentations can be viewed below.    

The entire audience at both presentations were in awe over Hadfield's amazing experience and the concept of space travel. Needless to say the fortunate grade 9 students studying Space exploration and the elementary students studying space had tonnes of questions for Hadfield. There were so many questions that Hadfield could not answer them all in such a short amount of time. Luckily Cosmic Questions and Answers provides an e-mail forum where kids can ask Chris Hadfield and other NASA experts all the space questions they can think of!                 

If you would like to learn more about Chris Hadfield visit the Canadian Space Agency on-line for a look at his biography:                 

http://www.space.gc.ca/csa_sectors/hum_pre/english/flights/sts_100/chris/bio/default.html                 

NASA also features an article about Chris Hadfield:  Flying a Stepping Stone Into Space                

and The Guardian posted an item written by Natalie King on Chris Hadfield's talk to the PEI Boys and Girls Club: Space Walker Tells of Voyage Aboard Shuttle                 

Chris Hadfield at the Carrefour Theatre, January 25th, 2002.              

Grade 9 students speaking with Colonel Chris Hadfield (Canadian astronaut) and Jeff Lantz (Minister of Education)  at the Carrefour Theatre Charlottetown, January 25 2002.               

(Left photo) Jeff Lantz introduces and welcomes Chris Hadfield.     

(Right photo) Hadfield gives space talk to PEI students.          

(Left photo) Hadfield responds to student 's question "How do you use the bathroom in space?".          

(Right photo) Student presents Hadfield with a gift of appreciation for his interesting presentation and memorable visit to PEI, Thank-you Chris!          

Inspired students requesting autographs from Hadfield.          

Chris Hadfield at the Jubilee Theatre, Summerside, January 25th, 2002.          

Hadfield speaks to a full audience at the Jubilee theatre.      

(Left photo) PEI elementary students line up for questions after Hadfield's space talk.  

(Right photo) Hadfield amusingly responds to a students question about Space Sickness.   

(Left photo), Student thanks Hadfield, on bahalf of all of the elementary students present at the Jubilee theatre, for his wonderful space talk.    

(Right photo), Wanda Whitlock, Director of Student Services, accepts a gift from Hadfield to PEI elementary schools. The poster includes a Canadian flag that accompanied him on his voyage to the space station, a collage of photos including the space station, PEI from space and the Flight 6A crew members.   

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Space Walker Tells of Voyage Aboard Shuttle      

The Guardian, January 28th 2002                  

By Natalie King
Special to The Guardian                  

The moon is not made of cheese, a Canadian astronaut confirmed to Charlottetown children on Saturday.                  

Col. Chris Hadfield was in the city to visit with children at the local boys and girls club.                  

Hadfield, 43, showed a video of highlights from his mission to the International Space Station last April and answered questions about space travel.                  

An exclamation of "sweet" came from many children when the video showed the astronauts seemingly flying in the zero gravity aboard the space station. "Oh, it's really sweet," said Hadfield. "(In zero gravity) I could go to the other side of this room with just a little push."
But he said there are also dangers with space travel. There are stresses an astronaut's body has to withstand, like the speed of blasting off into space and the strange effects zero gravity can have, he said.                  

"It's weird being weightless," said Hadfield. "It changes all the rules." He said it is disorienting to not have any sense of up or down, and even back on Earth it takes a few days to understand gravity again, so the astronauts have no balance after they get home.                  

"You have to work out really hard to keep your bone density," he said, explaining that the body senses that in zero gravity it no longer needs to have a heavy skeleton to support itself and starts to shed bone.                  

However, after people return to the gravity of Earth the bone density returns. He said research on the bone loss astronauts suffer could some day provide a cure for people with other bone diseases.                  

Hadfield said space food is mostly freeze-dried rations because they can be packed in a small space and a refrigerator is too heavy to put in the shuttle. "It's like being on a camping trip. You can't have any food that will make crumbs. Everything has to be soft." Food is cooked by adding a little hot water to the package, mixing it and sucking it through a straw. Hadfield explained the other difficulties of living in space, including the toilets that work with fans and the bedroom that is only a folding room the size of a telephone booth. He said even garbage in space is dangerous, because in zero gravity any object becomes a fast projectile that can fly back and do damage to the shuttle or the station.                  

"What we do in space is we put (garbage) in a garbage can and then we put it in this big container in a shuttle and send it back to Earth."                  

A space walk is an even greater challenge. When Hadfield became the first Canadian astronaut to float free in space he needed a lot of equipment. The spacesuit had to protect him from the heat and the cold because he would be rotating around the sun, alternately freezing and cooking, and it also needed to protect him from the pressure of space and give him air to breathe.                  

Hadfield said that on a 10-hour space walk, an astronaut might also need a bathroom break and they couldn't go back inside. "You're just wearing a diaper, just like a baby," he said. To the giggles of the audience, he added: "But I didn't use my diaper."                  

He said any aspiring astronauts should expect a lot of hard work. "The number one thing is to get an advanced education, not just to learn about lots of things, but more to prove you can learn at a high level," said Hadfield.                  

He received a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering and a degree in aviation systems before spending years in the Canadian military. Hadfield added that astronauts have to be physically fit and prove themselves to be good workers who will help a mission.
He said building the International Space Station will take another three years on top of the three years it has been in space and the 14 years before that spent building the parts on Earth. But he said it will be all worthwhile.                  

Hadfield said the purpose of the International Space Station is to see how people can live in space for extended periods so eventually people can go to Mars or other planets.                  

Before leaving to catch his long flight back to Russia, where he is working as NASA's lead representative, Hadfield left a poster with photos of his space missions, a crest from a spacesuit and a Canadian flag that flew in space. During his trip to Prince Edward Island he also spoke to elementary and high school students and made presentations to the Slemon Park Chamber of Commerce and provincial sea, army and air cadets.                  

Source: The Guardian, Prince Edward Island's Provincial Paper, to view this article and more Island news check out The Guardian on-line at http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/