Lennox Island students win virtual visit with Canadian astronaut

A class of Grade 5 and 6 students on Lennox Island got to meet a Canadian astronaut virtually.

The 11 students from John J. Sark Memorial School were the P.E.I. winners of a contest through the Junior Astronauts campaign, organized by the Canadian Space Agency.

"We did a flight and space program through Digital Mi'kmaq, and we had to follow a bunch of lessons to learn about the different aspects of flight and aerodynamics," said teacher Christy Rossiter.

"Then they had to put together a little interview, a little movie, about why they would want to meet an astronaut and it went from there."

The students connected with astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who has been with the Canadian Space Agency since May 2009.

Hansen told the students he first started thinking about becoming an astronaut when he saw photos of humans walking on the moon, which he said lit a spark for him. 

"I was roughly your age. I thought, 'Wow, we can do incredible things when we set goals, when we know [what] we want to do.' And that's what I did, is I started to think about being a space explorer myself," Hansen said.

"Maybe you have things that you would like to do in your life. You don't have to be an astronaut. You can be anything, but maybe you have some ideas of things you'd like to try."

Preparing for space

Hansen told the students about his training as an astronaut, including preparing for microgravity.

"While the airplane is diving toward the ground for about 25 seconds, you get to experience weightlessness, just like it would feel in space," Hansen said.

"Can you imagine how fun that is? Pretty cool. Imagine if we could turn off gravity in your classroom right now. You think we'd be having a good time? Microgravity is really, really fun to get to experience." 

Hansen also talked to the students about the International Space Station.

"We send experiments to the International Space Station because it's a weird place," Hansen said.

"There's no gravity there and so we can basically test things and learn things in space that we can't learn in other places."

Hansen said the International Space Station also gives astronauts a unique perspective of the planet. 

"It goes around the planet once every 90 minutes, so in the time that you and I would watch a movie or a documentary, you could float to the window and watch one time around the entire planet," Hansen said. 

"That is something I'm really excited to see with my own eyes."

Hansen told the students he doesn't know exactly when he will be heading to space, but said the next Canadian is expected to go to the International Space Station in four years.

Caring for the planet

Hansen also talked about how space is important to help address some of the challenges the planet is facing, such as climate change.

"It's maybe hard for you to think about how an astronaut floating in space could help us with climate change," Hansen said.

"But the reality is the technologies that we're working on and developing are allowing us to put satellites in space, or on the space station, to look back at our planet, and allow us to take the heartbeat of the planet, to understand climate change and to make better decisions."

Hansen also talked about the importance of taking care of the planet. 

"It's one of the things that I really, really appreciate about Indigenous culture," Hansen said. 

"One of the things I really appreciate about the elders is their understanding of nature, and how this planet works and how this planet takes care of us."

Grade 5 student Anabella Lewis asked Hansen if he was ever scared, or worried that the spaceship would explode.

"He said he's not scared," Lewis said. 

"He said he was prepared, he has been practising it and he's not worried at all." 

Grade 6 student Bruce Reeves said his favourite part of the presentation was when the astronaut talked about the different kinds of space vehicles.

"He told us how big the spaceships were, like nine storeys tall, and the different types of spaceships," Reeves said.

Rossiter said Hansen's presentation had an impact.

"It was really cool that he kept telling them, the students, that anybody can be an astronaut, and that it just takes having a dream and talking to your family and friends and teachers," Rossiter said.

"So it was inspiring for them."

Rossiter said she and the class would be continuing the space theme for the rest of the school year.

"Oh, I think we have no choice," Rossiter said.

"I think we have some pretty hooked kids. They're pretty excited for anything in space now."

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