Behind the scenes – Astronaut Instructors (Part 1 of 3)

A beautiful sight – a rocket rising into the sky. An astronaut spins MnM’s in weightless during some mission down time. The makings of scientific discoveries aboard the International Space Station with hundreds of experiments by the crew on board.

What the public doesn’t see is the incredible wealth of human knowledge and effort that fuels the start and finish of every mission.

I share with you an article by EADS Astrium this past 2011 spring with insight into the role of the Astronaut Instructor (http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/articles/astronaut-instructor-reaching-for-the-stars.html). Credit: Luise Weber-Steinhaus

Having had the opportunity to learn and work this role at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany as a small part of this incredible team, I wish to share with you its significant impact.

Imagine your classroom – desks, chairs, chalkboard (yes, dating myself here), students and a teacher. We are taught, we learn, we practice, we develop. Regardless if you are a highschool student figuring out where to go in life, or today’s astronauts aboard the ISS – the principle remains the same.

Astronauts too go to class. They learn, they practice, they test, they progress. The instructor is responsible to communicate an enormous wealth of information from various disciplines and departments into sizeable relevant manageable chunks to pass onto crew.

Presenting Columbus Thermal Control System lesson dry-run to European astronauts Frank de Winne and Tim Peake. Credit: Aki Rahikainen

2 years, 5 countries weeks at a time, several modes of training, multiple languages. PR, office, family…balance is an incredible feat for an astronaut even with as much planning as is required. So ensuring that essential information is communicated appropriately so that it is well retained and *useful* is a challenge for an instructor.

I am going to try and provide you perspective on just how much knowledge there is… in a 3 posts.

My training focused on the Thermal Control System of the Columbus Module – the European science sector of the ISS.

TO BE CONTINUED (Part 2)….post Space Shuttle launch of STS-135 and Atlantis. Follow me for posts!

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National Space Awareness Workshop 2010

Hosted by the Canadian Alumni of the International Space University, the NSAW 2010 workshop will take place next Friday, November 19th 2010 in Ottawa, Ontario. Register to secure your spot today. See poster below:

NSAW 2010 Poster

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ISS Expedition 25 (Increment 24) launches Thursday 1900hrs EDT

Expedition 25 crew (Alexander Kaleri, Scott Kelly, Oleg Skripochka) set to launch tonight (Oct 7) to the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz-TMA 01M @ 7:10 PM EDT!

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and his backup crewmate NASA Astronaut Ron Garan came through EAC for their respective training flows earlier this fall seen here with my colleague Michael:

Me, Scott, Ron, Michael in Cologne

It was a pleasure to have them both around and even more of an incredibly rewarding opportunity to have contributed to their training in even a small way.

God Speed to both of you on your adventures.

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Magnificent Time-Lapse Imagery from ISS

One of the most amazing sights a human can ever witness.

Don Pettit shot this during ISS Expedition 6. Can’t wait to talk to him about it!

Courtesy of spacevidcast.com.

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Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield to Command Space Station

Chris Hadfield (Source:CSA)

September 2nd 2010 – The Canadian Space Agency announced that 2-time astronaut Chris Hadfield has been assigned to the International Space Station Expedition Crew 34 & 35, and will hold the historic role of Space Station Commander during Expedition 35 – a first for a Canadian. He has already commenced his increment specific training and is slotted to fly to the ISS in a Soyuz in 2012 and stay aboard for 6-months. Hadfield acted as Bob Thirsk’s backup crewmate during Dr. Thirsk’s flight in 2009 (Expedition 20/21) and will proceed with his prime crew training in Houston USA (NASA), Moscow/Star City Russia (Roscosmos), Tsukuba Japan (JAXA), Cologne Germany (ESA) and Montreal Canada (CSA) – the International Partner Countries of the ISS.

Congratulations Chris!

Please see http://asc-csa.gc.ca for more information!

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Canadian Astronaut & Flight Surgeon visit Calgary

Hello readers!

Canadian Astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk & his flight surgeon Dr. Doug Hamilton returned to their alma mater (University of Calgary – U of C) on Feb 10th to deliver presentations and discussion about Dr. Thirsk’s recent 6-month stay on the International Space Station during Expedition 20/21 (which I’ve reported here at kulfispace.wordpress.com in the past – specifically on the IRIS educational experiment).

Dr. Thirsk graduated from U of C in 1976 in Mechanical Engineering & Dr. Hamilton as an MD in 1991.

The event was attended by approximately 250 current and former U of C students, faculty, general public & the media.

Dr. Hamilton presented his experiences first, in a unique inside look into the busy, cheerful, yet invigorating life of a flight surgeon through each phase of a mission working closely with their astronaut and crew. Very entertaining and captivating speaker he is!

Dr. Thirsk then presented his in-orbit experiences, the incredible Canadian scientific research conducted (including IRIS – Image Reversal In Space), and the everyday station life from station maintenance & construction to shuttle & station visitors and the daily joys of fun and exercise.

Thirsk Quotes:
*”[The Space Shuttle] is the most beautiful, most capable spacecraft of all time…we will never see anything like it in our lifetime” – on Shuttle
*”Landing feels like a car accident!” – on landing in a Soyuz capsule
*”Family is the best asset of an Astronaut” – on life
*”…although Constellation/Orion & Ares programs canceled will cause a delay, …other benefits include extension of the ISS to 2020 to get the most research bang for the buck” – on recent NASA budget cuts

I was fortunate to thank Dr. Thirsk on behalf of the entire IRIS team for his work, effort & time dedicated to making sure we were able to get some useful data and making IRIS a great success.

Here’s a couple snaps of myself with Dr. Thirsk & Dr. Hamilton!

Dr. Thirsk & I at U of C

Dr. Hamilton & I

Below are some clips and snaps from the event:

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Space Barley – Sapporo Beer

Some of my research lay in space marketing. Here is a great example.

One method of advertising a product -“used/flown in space” – is used to generate an affinity with the customer of trust, robust, cutting edge, unique etc. In this case, the “unique” is truly exploited.

April 2006 – the “first-generation” barley seeds were grown on the International Space Station. This collaboration, between the Okayama University and Russian Academy of Sciences, was initially a biological experiment.

Since then, those seeds have been harvested on Earth, and multiple generations of seeds sown from them. The result in 2009?

Sapporo Space Barley beer! (Sapporo Beer Company)

Launched today, Sapporo Beer is offering 250 cases of the speciality beer grown from seedlings of the original seeds grown in space for a mere price of 10,000 Yen or $130 CDN! The best part about it? Its for charity! The funds raised will go to Okayama University to support space sciences research.

Check out the website (in Japanese) or the ABC News source article here.

A lottery will kicked off Dec 3 to Dec 24 – so register to win the chance to buy this unique and tasty offer – only available for delivery in Japan!!

Cheers to space!

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Canadian Astronaut Robert Thirsk arrives back to Earth!

I apologize for the incorrect listing of time from the CSA’s media advisory, it was not very clear. Dr. Thirsk arrived in Kazakhstan early this morning in good spirits, already calling his wife to say he’s arrived safely!

And when the astronauts return to Star City, they will meet their families here – in front of the Yuri Gagarin statue – I had the fortune to visit Russia’s facilities earlier this year!

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Canadian Space Summit Nov 20-22; Nicole Stott Returns to Earth

Hello folks!

Sorry for the delay in posts, its been a busy time.

I hopped over to Kingston, Ontario @ the Royal Military College for the 2009 Canadian Space Summit. Many meetings ran that weekend – including one I organized called the Canadian Space Leaders Roundtable (CSLR 2009). This was a meeting of the leadership of Canadian space awareness groups. (Full list to be published soon).

I was also fortunate to present at the Canadian Space Summit during the Education session on the Iris – Image Reversal In Space experiment on behalf of 50 students from 14 nations.

After this I dashed off to Toronto to meet some family and friends I hadn’t seen for almost a year since my last visit. Back to Calgary, and I had a gift waiting for me – in addition to the first snowfall! Check this out – the actual patches from International Space Station Expeditions 20 & 21, along with a t-shirt from my space shirt collection 🙂

NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott returned today to Earth on the Space Shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA after 4 months on the ISS. Welcome Home, Nicole!

Dr. Robert Thirsk and his Increment 19 crewmates will be returning by Soyuz capsule December 1st, officially concluding Dr. Thirsk’s 6-month stay and the formal in-orbit activity of the Iris – Image Reversal In Space experiment.

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Iris 2nd ISS In-flight session and official operations complete!

Message sent to Dr. Thirsk part of the daily summary that POIC (Payload Operations Integration Center, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) sent to the ISS crew Thursday 24th 2009. (Courtesy: Gilles Clement)

“The PI and IRIS team appreciate your feedback which gives good insight into IRIS operations to ISU students. This payload has been a great experience in concept, design, implementation and operations. With good data for two successful sessions, IRIS is considered successful and complete with no expected need for troubleshooting or additional sessions. Again, many thanks!”

Congratulations to all ISU students, faculty, ground operations crews @ NASA, CSA and all those who had the fortunate to participate with the Iris experiment in one capacity or another.

Mission Success!

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