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heard on campus
incoming international space station
commander makes contact
on feb. 15, students, faculty and staff gathered
in the Humanities Theatre for a rare opportunity —
a question-and-answer session with Canadian
astronaut Chris Hadfield. Waterloo was the first
university to enjoy such an opportunity with Hadfield
on this mission. The International Space Station
(ISS) carries two Waterloo experiments co-ordinated
by Prof. Richard Hughson to tell us more about the
human cardiovascular system. What is discovered
up there could change lives down here.
The session, through the Mission Control Centre
in Houston, Texas, lasted about 20 minutes. Here is
an edited sample:
lakshmi venkatesh: Can you describe your
feelings … as you left Earth’s protective horizon
on this mission?
chris hadfield: I was more concerned about
not going to space because there are so many
complexities in trying to safely leave Earth …
So, it was with a great sense of buoyant energy
and readiness that I left Earth’s protective sheath …
I visited space twice before, but this time to live
here — the ability and the time to absorb it and
wonder about it and internalize and think about
it — is magnificent.
andrew roBertson: Can you tell us about some
of the exercises used throughout your mission to
minimize (accelerated aging) and prepare your body
for return to gravity?
chris hadfield: “We have both a treadmill and an
exercise bicycle, and those get our heart lungs running
and the blood coursing … We have a resistive exercise
device where you’re pushing against big cylinders …
For two hours a day, we work hard to keep our bodies
in shape, to keep our muscles strong so that if we have
to go outside and walk we can operate the space suit.
And when we land back on Earth again we’ll be able
to walk and our bones will be strong.
amBer nicholson: With your unique vantage
point in space, are you able to see any evidence
of environmental degradation on our planet?”
chris hadfield: We sure are. Like the Aral
Sea (in central Asia) which, because of irrigation
changes … has basically dried up to nothing …
And we’ve been taking a lot of pictures (over)
Patagonia of the glaciers as they exist right now
to compare (them with) historic photographs.
roBert henderson: What is the most difficult
experiment being conducted during your mission?
chris hadfield: One from the University of
Waterloo has complexity to it. We take these leg
cuffs … put them on our upper thighs, then pump
them up, then release them. It’s almost the same as
coming from weightlessness and suddenly putting
gravity back so that the blood suddenly (rushes) into
the legs … We can study how the body regulates
blood pressure, how it regulates the blood flow, and
use that, of course, for astronaut health but also for
the health of everybody on Earth who has blood
pressure regulation problems.
aleX lee: How does the internet work on the ISS?
chris hadfield: We don’t really have internet,
or just barely have internet, on the space station.
But we have multiple links to the ground … When
I tap on my keyboard up here it goes through that
long trail … It’s slower than dial-up so I can’t watch
videos or anything, but it’s good enough for Twitter.
It’s been a wonderful boon for me to be able to help
communicate this experience to the ground.
4
For the record