Industry Committee on May 11th, 2010

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

The primary reason for building the space station in the first place was to do world-class medical science and material science. This is one of the medical experiments studying osteoporosis and involves six mice.

This is an experiment from York University in Toronto. It's an attempt to figure out how the brain adapts to weightlessness, and in particular how we perceive orientation in a weightless environment.

[Frank De Winne]

Here some experiments are being done in the microscience glove box. It's a box that we use so we can work inside with materials that are toxic or dangerous to us. Here we see some echo scan equipment.

Astronauts need to be versatile. I was trained as an engineer and a military pilot. Nevertheless, I was trained in my astronaut career to do echo scans, for example. I did scans on Bob, and that was quite interesting for me to do.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

This is a 3-D space experiment that we're conducting in the European Columbus module. We tried to find out how microgravity affects our ability to judge distance in zero gravity.

Here Nicole Stott is working on the phlebotomy for the medical science experiment. We collect the samples of blood and other things and store them in the refrigerator in the Japanese module and return them on the shuttle or Soyuz.

Here Bob is working on the exercise device. We have a variety of exercise devices, including a cycle ergometer.

This is an experiment in the U.S. laboratory module. It's called SPHERES. We checked the software and algorithm for the formation flight of satellites. We tried combinations of two satellites and three satellites for this experiment.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

We welcomed a new laboratory rack in our increment, the fluids integrated rack, for doing fluid physics in space. Space is an incredible place to do research because it is an environment where there's no sedimentation, no convection, no diffusion, and no buoyancy.

We also do quite a bit of plant biology from Russia, Japan, and Canada. One day we expect to incorporate plants into the life support systems for the vehicles that go to Mars. Through the process of photosynthesis, plants produce oxygen, scrub carbon dioxide out of the air, and clean up our wastewater, so learning how to grow plants in space--such as lettuce, as shown here by Roman--is very important.

We also had an experiment from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. These are willow trees from New Brunswick that we flew up, trying to understand why reaction wood forms. Reaction wood makes poor lumber, so we're trying to improve lumber production in New Brunswick.

Koichi mentioned stowage of urine and blood samples. This is where we stow it, in a -80 degrees Celsius freezer.

[Frank De Winne]

This is the new treadmill that we are installing in the U.S. segment. As you can see, we're working together. Teamwork, of course, is one of the primary things in space, but we also have fun, so after the installation we were demonstrating how we could all run together.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

Here I was working on the advanced resistance exercise device. We were scheduled for about two hours of aerobic activities as far as this muscle-strengthening exercise was concerned. It's very important to have this exercise so that we can maintain our health, including our bone density, by running on a treadmill or riding on the bicycle machine.

Nicole Stott is now in the Russian service module.

This is the previous treadmill machine. We exercised for about an hour on this machine and then did the same amount on the resistance exercise device.

As you know, we had to constrain our bodies so that we didn't float. It's easy to do push-ups in zero gravity, as you can see.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Frank De Winne]

This picture, of course, shows the result of all our exercising. We did two hours of sports every single day.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

I'll give you the quick tour of the station. It's a huge facility, 85 metres long now, about the same volume as a large passenger jet.

This is the Japanese lab. I have the Canadian flag up for doing an education downlink event. This is the Columbus module. It's an incredible laboratory facility for doing plant, animal, and human biology, and also for materials processing.

[Frank De Winne]

Here we are flying through node 1. As you can see, while we are flying on a tour, there are a lot of smiling faces. Bob was smiling as usual. You saw him smiling when he came into the space station when we opened up the hatch. Bob stopped smiling when we closed the hatch and came back to ground. Bob was really my hero on the station for the entire six months. It was a pleasure to work with him.

Here we are flying through the PMA. All of our pantry items are here.

Again, as you see, there are lots of smiling faces. We had a lot of hard work, and we worked very hard on the space station, but we also had a lot of fun doing it. We had an excellent team, and I think the key to the success of our team was that we were happy working together and really happy to be there.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

It's very easy to transport from one place to another. You just push, and then your body floats very easily, but once you start to spin, it's very difficult to stop, because you need to hold on to two places to stop the spin.

Transporting a big, heavy payload is very easy. Max is now going backwards inside the service module.

This is the window of the Japanese Kibo module. There are lot of windows in the space station. The Russian modules have windows and the Japanese module has two windows. It's always breathtaking to view this beautiful planet Earth.

[Frank De Winne]

We do Earth observations for two reasons: first of all, it's psychological support for the crew to be able to look at our beautiful planet and to see where our families are. They're not so far away.

On the other hand, we do a lot of Earth observations as scientific activities, photographing specific ground sites over the years that the space station has flown. Of course, we hope to see the changes in nature over the 10, 20, and 30 years that we will operate the space station.

Here we see a beautiful picture of Paris with the Champs-Elysées. Here's a very similar city, but in another part of the world. It's Medina, in Saudi Arabia.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

This is the astronaut training centre in Houston, the Johnson Space Center. If I had a laser pointer, I could show you where I live.

Here are the Grand Cayman Islands.

[Frank De Winne]

The coral reefs are some of the most beautiful things to watch from space. All of the shades of blue you see in the ocean are incredible.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

You see some sad things as well. This is an oil field fire. We saw other evidence of human destruction in the environment, which is sad, but also, as Frank mentioned, of scientific importance.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

We've seen Dubai, and a great deal of artificial construction all over the world.

We also captured a hurricane and observed some volcanic activities on the Kuril Islands north of Japan.

[Frank De Winne]

Here you see some other daily activities on board because, of course, we also lived there for six months. We worked, but we also lived there for six months.

Roman is not so happy here with Jeff doing his haircut, because he is from the air force and Jeff is from the army. They don't go together very well. Jeff prefers to cut the last hair himself to make sure he's completely tidy.

This is what your crewmates turn into after six months of working together.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Frank De Winne]

Food was very important. We took all of our meals together. We had morning, midday, and evening meals with six around the table. If the space shuttle was there as it is right now, you would see 13 people around the table.

Some have mastered eating in space better than others. Tim is demonstrating here how you should do it with a bubble of water.

We cannot underestimate all of these psychological aspects, such as food or good company, on board the station.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

Those of us from Canada and the United States explained what Halloween was to our Russian and European crewmates. If you can remember that, keep the mental image in your mind. I'll tell you a story about it later. It's quite funny.

[Frank De Winne]

The photo shows Tim demonstrating, to those who didn't believe it, that Spiderman does exist.

This was an important moment for Europe. It's the moment that I was given command of the international space station. It was important for Europe, but I think it was an even more important moment for the international partnership, because it showed this cooperation really works, even for smaller partners such as Europe, Canada, and Japan. We now had the capability to command this facility in orbit and take on all the responsibilities that the bigger partners have. It's really a very good example of international cooperation at the highest level.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

The only sad moments were when we had to say goodbye to crewmates. The photo shows a green tag on Nicole's back that says she was transfer item number 914. We're transferring over to the shuttle. Frank De Winne and I were preparing to go home.

We undocked from the station. As opposed to the launch, which takes two days to arrive at the station, after undocking from the station, we were on the ground within three and a half hours.

It was an incredible ride. It was better than any E ticket ride at Disney World.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

The photo shows the Japanese module from one of the Soyuz spacecraft. I believe the picture was taken by a shuttle after undocking.

After undocking, we usually go 360 degrees around the space station, and we then take a lot of pictures of the international space station.

[Frank De Winne]

Of course, it's always a sad moment to leave the space station. We worked there for six months. We really enjoyed it. We enjoyed our crew mates. It was really a great time.

On the other hand, of course, we were also very happy to go back to our families, whom we'd missed for six months. It was even harder for them than for us, because we were there and had our work. They supported us not only through the six-month mission but through the preparation as well, which required travel all over the world. I trained for four years for this mission. Afterwards, it was six months spent in space. A lot of thanks go to our families, because without them we would not have been able to do this.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

That's our family movie.