NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced last week that London, Ont., native Jeremy Hansen would join three Americans on the Artemis II mission – an historic 10-day expedition in which his team will orbit the Moon.
Hopeful for a November 2024 launch, Hansen, who will serve as one of the flight’s two mission specialists, will become the first Canadian and first non-American to travel outside of low Earth orbit.
Familiar with recording some firsts of her own, the Sault’s Dr. Roberta Bondar says the significance of Hansen’s mission for Canada is enormous.
“Canada has always been very strong in space science, astronomy, and engineering,” she says. “As Canadians, we don’t want to think we’re going to be left out of developing technology that can benefit us. Trying to retrofit things that are developed elsewhere and trying to fit them into the Canadian environment and culture is really hard.”
“If we’re not at the table, we can’t talk really, and we don’t have any representation. To be able to have a Canadian involved speaks of the amount of negotiation that has probably gone on in the last four or five years.”
The first Canadian woman and the first neurologist ever to fly in space aboard the 1992 Discovery mission, Bondar says Hansen’s long-awaited selection is well deserved.
“The man has been in the program (CSA) for 14 years without a flight – that’s hard,” she says. “I was only eight years.”
“They didn’t just take someone off the street or have a lottery. Jeremy has a huge pedigree of the training and skills set and is proven in all of it.”
“He’s going to be so focused on this – he won’t be making an error.”
American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch will join Hansen as members of the Artemis II crew. They’ll be part of the first crewed spacecraft to travel to the Moon in over 50 years.
Bondar says Hansen, who will be flying to space for the first time ever, will be around the same age as she was when she went into space over 30 years ago.
A few weeks back, Bondar received a picture from Hansen which showed him wearing his orange Artemis flight suit standing next to a familiar woman.
“He said, ‘hey Roberta, I want you to know that you and I are sharing the same suit tech,’” Bondar recounts. “This woman was fresh onto NASA and was doing all the engineering checks on my space suit with me in it 30 years ago, and Jeremy had the same suit check person doing his.”
“It was such a touching thing for Jeremy to do – to take the time in his busy training to send me this wonderful photograph. I met his wife and she’s a doctor as well. We have a few things in common, and we do see each other on formal occasions.”
Now 77 years old, Bondar is one of just two Canadian women who have ever gone to space.
While the space industry has made incredible technological advances over the years, Bondar says representation among astronauts is still questionable.
“The woman who is on this Artemis mission, Christina, was part of the all-women space walk – it shouldn’t be such a big deal,” she says. “It is because it’s never been done before, but we should be in a place years down the road where it’s not a big deal for two women to go out on a space walk.”
“We’ve only got one woman in the (Canadian) space program, and I can guarantee you if we’re going to have a Canadian on the moon, she (Jennifer Sidey) will be one of them.”
Meanwhile, Bondar explains there are impressive new technologies that commercial industries such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have been able to develop because they have more wiggle room than the government on how they conduct research and spend their money.
“The creativity of the government is not necessarily as free mentally as a commercial enterprise,” she says. “The government has its rules and regulations that make it a little bit more in the box, whereas commercial stuff can be a bit more outside the box.”
In recent times, private space travel has allowed celebrities like William Shatner and billionaires like Jeff Bezos to blast off.
While space travel is projected to become trendier as the years go on, Bondar says the health risks and expenses cannot be ignored.
“People get a false sense of security if they think it’s not still risky – because it is,” she says. “One of the big things people are still unaware of is how much human physiology takes a hit going into space.”
“We need to sort some of that out before people start going to the moon for a recreational holiday. It would be kind of nice if you had a cabin there. You wouldn’t have to worry about putting your feet up because they’d float anyway.”
Although it’s been over three decades since she last orbited the planet, Bondar wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to go again if the logistics were there.
“I can’t hide my age,” she says. “If I was going back into space, and I was able to go on one of those dragon vehicles in a new kind of space suit and be able to go to the moon, or even just around the moon – that would be fantastic. Right now, I’m just as happy to let Jeremy go ahead.”
Bondar says she is thankful for the efforts that astronauts of the past and present have made to make future missions like Artemis II a reality.
“To be able to move to the next phase is a reassurance that what we’ve done in the past is not lost,” she says. “People understand that they couldn’t do what they’re doing now had it not been for the things my flight has done or any of the other astronaut flights. We are stepping stones.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
