When I was a kid, I would spend endless nights in a Western Canada prairie field looking up to the galaxy with all wonder. As a budding geek, I found nothing more humbling than to watch the night sky pass over me and begin to understand how small we are as humans on this blue water marble. Part of my astronomy interest was fuelled by my mentor Cecile "Ceece" Person, a family friend but also a well known local physicist and astronomer. Ceece kindled my interests of the stars, planets, and all the possibilities beyond. Although my science journey ventured into the micro world rather than macro, Ceece was a big part of my inbred curiosity to "question everything". To this day, whenever I'm out in some farmer's field looking up to the night sky (which happens at least once a month), I often think of Ceece and how he would smile at me still being awestruck with the celestial heavens and proud that I ventured into a science career.
Regina, SK from the International Space Station.
Photo credit: Chris Hadfield
Mentorship is an essential spark for the next generation of science - no matter if it's within the laboratory under a microscope or on the International Space Station (ISS). For the past 5 months, the world has been treated with an intimate and informative look at life of being on the ISS thanks to Col. Chris Hadfield. It's safe to say that the Canadian Space Agency hasn't been on the minds of many Canadians (or the world for that matter) until Chris popped up on twitter and facebook to document his tour on the ISS. Thanks to the invention of social media, Chris managed to do what no one has done before: share his own personal daily wonder of being in space with those grounded on Earth. In the midst of all his normal astronaut duties and science experiments, Chris would take photos of cities (including my home town!), natural structures, and sunrises/sunsets as the ISS passed overhead, diligently answer endless streams of questions from adults and children all over the world about science and space, and would share his humanity in a song or comical skit. Chris became the human face of the ISS and the space program - probably when this science program needed it the most. Chris' humbled efforts have fuelled the imaginations of people (both young and old) to encourage them to look up, ask questions, and be curious about ourselves. There's no doubt that Chris became a mentor to the next generation of the space program and science, but also he inspired people in thearts to create. "One giant leap...." indeed.
Just like Ceece inspired me, thanks to Chris' influence, somewhere, some clear night, there will be an extra kid in a field (most likely more than one), looking up to the night sky with the same sense of wonder that I still have. Who knows what good ripples of Chris' efforts will have on science and art in the coming decades.
Thanks Chris.
Watch Chris' last recorded song on the ISS; such a fitting farewell to his remarkable tour on his "tin can far above the World".
