Students inspired by visit from astronaut

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When Saskatoon-born astronaut Dave Williams met with a group of students at the First Nations University of Canada campus in Regina it didn't take long for him to prove he was capable of keeping calm during times of pressure.

Not long into his presentation, called Living Your Dreams, a computer malfunction interrupted his slide show.

"Houston, we have a problem," said Williams, leaning over his laptop to troubleshoot the situation.

It might have been Williams's humour that had the students from three Regina high schools laughing, but it was his experiences in space that captivated the audience.

Williams, in Regina on Nov. 17 to address several student groups, shared stories about what it was like to be in space and talked about what he's doing to prepare for his second visit to space in 2007. But he also came to prove that becoming an astronaut is a dream that's possible for any young Canadian.

" I called my speech Living Your Dreams intentionally because I dreamed of becoming an astronaut when I was six years old. But that was in the '60s and we didn't have astronauts in Canada. And I never thought that I'd be able to live my dreams," he said.

Williams, 51, dressed in the blue jumpsuit he wore when he trained for his 16-day, 1998 flight aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, talked to the students about his education and a career that saw him become a medical doctor and surgeon in Montreal before applying to NASA to join the space program. In 1995, he moved to Houston and reported to the Johnson Space Center where he learned how to become an astronaut and a crew medical officer responsible for a long, complicated list of health-related experiments. Following the mission, Williams took on a number of senior management jobs with NASA, including director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at Houston's Johnson Space Center. He also continued his astronaut training. In 2001, he became an aquanaut, living for seven days under the sea at Aquarius, the world's only underwater research laboratory. He is currently training for his 2007 visit to the International Space Station, when he is slated to perform three spacewalks.

In addition to sharing highlights of his career, Williams also attempted to sate the crowd's curiosity about life in space, stopping to show how and he other members of space shuttle crew ate in space, which included tossing candies into the air and eating them as they're suspended in weightlessness. Beverages can be consumed similarly, he said, with globs of water or orange juice floating in the zero gravity environment.

"Imagine taking a goldfish and putting it in a blob of water. And when it swims to the edge, will it know there's no glass there? Will it swim out of the water and into the air and flop in the air? We've never done an experiment like that, but it would be interesting to see," Williams told the crowd.

Astronauts eat more than Smarties and M&Ms. Specially dehydrated food, prepared in bags for crewmembers to add water to, are tastier than people assume, he said. At least, most of them are.

"If you ever have the chance to fly in space, don't try the spinach au gratin. It tastes as good as it looks," he said, his comment greeted with laughter.

The meal most popular among astronauts is shrimp cocktail, he said. Because the lack of gravity mysteriously steals some of the taste from food in space, the spicy, horseradish sauce has the strongest taste of all the space meals.

Like eating, sleeping in space is also uniquely different. Williams said he would crawl into a sleeping bag and let himself float around the cabin as he slept. "It's a pretty relaxing way to sleep. It's a lot of fun."

He explained how weightlessness alters the bodies of astronauts. "You're face gets really puffy and that's because, in the absence of gravity, the fluids in your body redistributes," he said, pointing to a picture of himself taken during the shuttle mission.

Williams demonstrated the awesome sped the shuttle can travel- up to 25 times the speed of sound.

"People always ask me, how fast is really fast? Well, if you snap your fingers, the space shuttle will have travelled 10 kilometres. So that's pretty fast."

He also explained how, when the space shuttle lands back on Earth, the pilot has just one shot at landing.

"When the shuttle comes in, it's basically a glider. It's not like an airplane that can take off and try to land a second time."

He took the students through a number of eye-popping slides, including pictures of Earth taken at varying times during his shuttle mission. Some photos showed evidence of the shrinking rain forests. Other pictures taken using telephoto lenses reveal cities and well-known landmarks, including the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and the pyramids in Egypt.

The presentation was entertaining for the students, but it also gave them an extra option to consider when it comes time to decide on a career.

Adam Paradis, 16, a Grade 11 student at Miller Comprehensive school, said a career with NASA wasn't something he'd considered before now.

"I would be really interested in being in space, and working for Earth," he said.

Paradis conceded there were risks involved in becoming an astronaut, but that those risks are outweighed by the importance of the work being done.

"I think that's one of the things that makes it worthwhile," said Paradis.

Miller Grade 12 student Tristan Soop, 16, said it was the ability of astronauts to create that was most interesting to him. He said he was impressed with the astronauts photography, a duty that he believes is as fun as it is important.

"The pictures of Earth and in space were great," said Soop. "To be an astronaut and take pictures like that would be amazing."