And the winners are...

It's the 150th anniversary of Confederation*, and although it's not officially part of the celebration, Prime Minister Trudeau chose Canada Day to announce the names of the two successful candidates in the recruiting process for Canada's next astronauts, chosen from 3,772 applicants over the course of a twelve-month selection process.

This process was designed to find the people with "the right skills and character to become Canada's next astronauts", to quote the Canadian Space Agency web site.

Candidates were subjected to an exhaustive array of tests:  medical, logic, intelligence, physical fitness, strategic thinking, critical reasoning, dexterity, resourcefulness, motivation, leadership and, in the final stages of the process, robotics, health and communications, followed by a final interview with a special committee of CSA executives, industry experts, and astronauts, both former and active.

And the winners are?  Joshua Kutryk and Jennifer "Jenni" Sidey, both originally from Alberta - Kutryk from Saskatchewan and Sidey from Calgary.

Sidey has worked as a combustion scientist and a mechanical engineer.  She has two degrees in engineering, including a Ph.D. from Cambridge. Kutryk, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces, has been both a test pilot and a fighter pilot, and has degrees in mechanical engineering, space studies**, flight test engineering, and defense studies.

It's interesting to look at the stats from the start of the process.  It's not too surprising that the majority of the candidates were from Ontario and Quebec, but it's intriguing that Alberta had the third highest percentage of applications - British Columbia's population is 13% larger, but submitted almost 5% less applicants. Is there something about life on the prairies that makes people dream of space? Or something about life on the coast that makes them less eager for adventure?

The saddest statistic on this infographic is the total number of applications started versus the number completed.  I'd like to express my sympathy to the 4,021 people who started on the challenging path to space travel, but then discovered that it was a path that they could not follow. Dreamers, optimists, or just people who had one too many drinks - I feel for you during that moment that you decided that you weren't the right stuff.

My congratulations to Jennifer and Joshua for having the determination to follow their dream to success. Please remember that you're there for all of us - especially those 4,021 others.

- Sid

* Why do we not call ourselves the Confederation of Canada?  It has a nice "United Federation of Planets" sound to it.

** You can get a degree in Space Studies?   Apparently - although according to their website, it appears to be a minor.  http://catalog.erau.edu/daytona-beach/minors/space-studies/

Counting down II.

With one week to go until Canada's 150th birthday, here's a video about the distinctive nature of our country from one of our great national icons: Dave Hadfield.

And his brother Chris.

- Sid

(My favourite part of this video is at 3:11, where we watch Canada's best known astronaut solemnly launching a thirty-five dollar model rocket.)

Y meddyg sy'n profi.

(Contributed by Chris Sumner)

When I was exploring Cardiff during my recent trip to England and Wales, I texted Sid with a couple of pictures of landmarks from Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff - the front entrance of the secret headquarters and also its side entrance.  (This headquarters got blown up in the Children of Earth series.)  He suggested I write a posting on his blog regarding this and the Doctor Who Experience I had yet to visit.  Sid had been bothering me a while about doing a blog posting, and a few people he knows, including my sister, have written a guest posting.  Here is mine.

Getting back to Torchwood Cardiff, I wasn’t able to jump on the ‘lift’ at the front entrance as there was some outdoor footie screen thing going on and it was in the process of being fenced off.  There were armed guards patrolling nearby as this was a few days after the Manchester bombing at the Ariana Grande concert, so I didn’t want to pull some guerilla culture move, especially since I was wearing a backpack. I then proceeded to the side entrance.  This has become a shrine to Ianto Jones, a main character of the show who died in the aforementioned Children of Earth series of Torchwood.

The next day, I decided to go to the Dr. Who Experience near the docks.  Sid had visited the London version when it was in England in 2011 so I was interested to see what was different about this version.

I arrived several minutes before the 10 AM opening time, keen to get underway.  The show started a few minutes after ten when the first group of visitors assembled.  We had a guide that was dressed in Gallifreyan garb* – minus the head (and shoulder) dress.  He explained to us the rules of engagement of the experience. This was semi-interactive as the audience was tasked to do several things throughout.

Peter Capaldi, the present Doctor, appeared on various video screens throughout the ‘show’ and he was his cantankerous self as he cajoled and insulted the audience (and our guide) into saving the universe from various threats including the Daleks. The audience had to find three crystals in the sets we passed through.  Children were the keenest to perform this task. There was a shaking floor and other special effects to make the experience more real.  We needed to fly the TARDIS as the Doctor was unable to be there himself.  It was fun to watch Mr. Capaldi in this role and it felt like I was in a mini-episode.

Once the initial show was over, in which we were not allowed to take any photographs or videos, we went into the exhibit part of the Experience.  

 

There were pieces from different points in the Doctor’s past such as the various models of the Daleks and the Cybermen as they went through their evolution.  

 

Also present were the ice warriors, the Silence and the weeping angels, the outfits of the Doctors and some of his companions, and a small section dedicated to Torchwood.  

 

If you aren’t a Doctor Who fan this experience will probably not hold your interest, but it is certainly worth the visit if you are.  

Unfortunately, the gift shop was out of medium and large T-shirt sizes for pretty much every shirt they had for sale, so I didn’t get the T-shirt, just a mug with Gallifreyan designs.

 

The most unexpected moment was when I went to the loo before I went into the ‘live action’ portion of the Experience at the beginning.  With nothing more in mind than ridding myself of hotel breakfast coffee, I rounded a corner and came face to face with an adversary of both the Doctor and humanity.  It made me jump a little and then smile. I am sure the Daleks would be the masters of earth if they only took over all the lavatories on the planet.

- Chris

Thanks very much for a great post, Chris - and some great pictures!  It looks like they've upgraded the Doctor Who Experience since my visit - sadly, my next visit to the UK won't be until next fall, and there's been talk of retiring the Experience before then.  Ah, well, as the Doctor often reminds us, nothing last forever...

- Sid

* For the uninitiated, here's a shot of ex-Doctor David Tennant modelling a vintage Gallifreyan Time Lord costume -WITH the head (and shoulder) dress.

 - Sid