Not only that, but it's in Canadian dollars.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) recently launched its fourth astronaut recruitment campaign.

At the end of this recruitment campaign, two new Canadian astronauts will begin their training in the 2017 NASA astronaut class in Houston, Texas.

Do you have a university degree in science, engineering or medicine? Do you have at least three years of relevant professional experience, or are you licenced to practise medicine in Canada? Are you resourceful, determined, and cool, calm and collected? If so, you may be what the CSA is looking for!

- Canadian Space Agency astronaut recruitment site

Given that today is the anniversary of Neil Armstrong's first step onto the surface of the Moon, it seems appropriate to announce that Canada is looking to hire a couple of astronauts.

Be an Astronaut! Apply by 15 Aug or miss your chance to boldly go! https://t.co/0r43aIxv2n@WilliamShatner @csa_aschttps://t.co/spgOYxTn1D

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) July 20, 2016

(My apologies, apparently they've been looking for applicants since June, and I missed Commander Hadfield's first Tweet on the subject.)

The Canadian Space Agency web site contains all the basic information that you might want before deciding to apply: qualifications, duties of an astronaut, selection process (it takes about a year to complete all the stages of recruitment) and, of course, the online application form.

Surprisingly, it's not the highest paying job in the world.  Novice cosmonauts start at $91K, with a potential  boost to $178K* after successfully completing a mission in space.  Considering the list of prerequisites and qualifications - and the fact that there's a certain amount of risk involved -  this doesn't seem like a lot of money.  On the other hand, there are some perks that come with the job:  just look at the view from your office...

I have to give the CSA full points for putting together a clever and well-thought-out promotional campaign.  This is just another reason that I think Canada is such a great country - it's difficult to imagine the United States government doing anything quite as casually smart and funny.

It's also a bit surprising to me that it's such an open invitation.  Admittedly, most people wouldn't match the list of qualifications, but that list isn't ridiculous or undoable. As pointed out in the introductory quotation, this is only the fourth time that the CSA has gone looking for astronauts, but it won't be the last.  If you're reading this in the same year it was posted, you've probably got about ten years to get ready for the next time - good luck!

- Sid

* To be completely accurate, $178,400.  I suspect this is a governmental pay grade thing - if it was up to me I would round it up to at least the nearest six figure digit.

Or maybe Tim Horton's.

For this year's Canada Day, let's take a moment to acknowledge the best known and longest serving Canadian member of the space program. Sorry, it’s not Chris Hadfield, I refer of course to the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System: more popularly known as the Canadarm.

Commissioned from Spar Aerospace by the Canadian government as part of an agreement with NASA to support the shuttle program, the Canadarm was first deployed from the space shuttle Columbia on November 13, 1981. The 15.2 meter long robotic arm featured a unique cable-based "end effector" (hand, if you're not an engineer) that allowed the Canadarm to effectively and easily grip objects in zero gravity.

The Canadarm proved to be an incredibly useful and versatile addition to the shuttle, and NASA requested a matching system for each of their new space shuttles. The various models served with distinction for 30 years, finally retiring* in 2011 after 90 missions.

The Canadarm2 was already in place on the International Space Station at that point** - the improved version of the remote manipulator, designed and built by Brampton's MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, had entered service in 2001 after being installed on the ISS with the help of Chris Hadfield and the station’s first generation Canadarm.

The new version of the arm was larger, longer and stronger, with the ability to handle larger payloads, and was constructed so that it could be maintained and updated in orbit - unlike its predecessors, the Canadarm2 would remain in space for its entire service life.

 

The next addition to Canada’s catalogue of robotic remotes was Dextre, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator***. Also built by MDA, Dextre is 3.70 meters tall, is equipped with two 3.5 meter long arms, each with seven joints for extreme flexibility, and can be mounted on the end of the Canadarm2. Dextre first saw duty in February of 2011, allowing the crew of the ISS to perform a wide variety of maintenance tasks on the exterior of the station without the need to go into space.

The Canadarm, Canadarm2 and Dextre are the tools of the future: extensions of humanity that enhance and expand the ability of astronauts to interact with their environment, extensions that will undoubtedly become more and more autonomous over time.

I’d like to think that they're also the precursors to a long legacy of independent Canadian-created robotic space explorers. Imagine: centuries from now, on a distant planet, a mobile human-form AI stands surrounded by curious lifeforms. The scarlet light of an alien sun illuminates a chipped and scratched maple leaf etched into the android's carbon fibre shoulder.

One of the aliens raises a secondary pedipalp and gestures at the flag.

>>>INQUIRY: WHAT IS SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS ICON?<<<

A metallic face creases into a nostalgic smile.

“That is the symbol of Canada, my home and native land. Hmmm…how to explain Canada...okay, let’s start with hockey...”

- Sid

* Because there were multiple models, the retiring Canadarms found a variety of homes for their golden years: one at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, another at the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia, one remained in orbit, and one is on display as part of the Atlantis shuttle display at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida - the traditional destination of retiring Canadians. (Florida, that is, not the Kennedy Space Centre.) The fifth Canadarm was lost in the 1986 Challenger accident.

** The process of transferring cargo from one Canadarm to the other became known as the "Canadian Handshake".

*** I have always thought that Dextre should have been named Waldo, after the character in the Robert A. Heinlein story of the same name, who lived on a space station and had developed a wide range of remote manipulators to compensate for his myasthenia gravis, but apparently someone has the name under copyright.

A Geek's Walking Tour of Downtown Victoria

 

Rather than just charging over to Vancouver Island to see Chris Hadfield perform and then heading back again on the same day, Karli and I decided that it would be fun to have some time to wander around Victoria on the Saturday - neither one of us had the opportunity to do any sightseeing there for several years.

 The man himself.  You know, sooner or later people are going to have to start using a different picture of Chris Hadfield, although, to be fair, it is the first image that pops up if you Google™ him.  Maybe a wider selection of media shots on your web site, Commander?

 

I'm constantly amazed by the degree to which geek culture has insinuated itself into everyday life.  In addition to the usual offerings of brightly coloured cooking utensils and semi-inspirational wall plaques, home decor store Paboom surprisingly features Minion Green Lantern and Totoro pillows, along with Star Wars tourist posters for local attractions. I feel that Minion tchotchkes have become fairly common, but isn't Totoro a bit obscure for the general public?

We also paid a visit to Munro's Books, the excellent independent bookstore which is centrally located in Victoria's downtown core.  As always, their selection did not disappoint, and I walked away with about eighty bucks worth of reading material: a paperback collection of short fiction by Terry Pratchett - A Blink of the Screen, a long overdue copy of Pulitzer-prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (based mainly on the title, to be honest) and an extravagant hardcover copy of collected Ursula K. Le Guin non-fiction, Words Are My Matter, which is nominated for a Hugo Award this year.

"Essential" gear - this is actually from the Friday night, and I'm a bit sorry that we didn't get back to Dragon Impact when they were open in order to find out if you could actually buy some kind of standardized package for dealing with the walking dead.  Based on the quantity of sharpened metal on display in the shop windows, I doubt that the package would include anything really practical, like a good pair of running shoes.

Speaking of which, isn't it a bit ironic to use a famous hobbit surname for a shoe store?  (Because, after all, hobbits never wear shoes.) *

However, the star of the day has to be the Little Shop of Strange, located near the entrance to Market Square at 566 Johnson Street.  If you're looking for a weird but wonderful (not to say strange) selection of music, local art, and taxidermy, this is your spot - where else could you buy a reasonably priced and beautifully made actual Plague Rat?

 

- Sid

* Purists will cite the Stoors, one of the three breeds of hobbits, who wore boots in muddy weather.

New York VII: "The whole universe was in a hot dense state..."

 

We visited the Museum of Natural History today, and I have a bone to pick* with their retail people. Why in the world have you neglected to stock any of Chris Hadfield's books?  My god, the man has been a New York Times bestselling author not once but twice, his Space Oddity video has been viewed 37.7 million times, he has 2.28 million Twitter™ followers - 2.5 million people have watched the man brush his teeth on YouTube™, for heaven's sake! Does that not sound like someone whose books might be a popular sales item? Step up, people!

- Sid

 

P.S.  Just for the record, I have nothing against Mike Massimino - nice guy, also a New York Times bestselling author, been on The Big Bang Theory six times...hey!  Why hasn't Chris Hadfield been on The Big Bang Theory??**  My god, the man has been a New York Times bestselling author not once but twice...

* Given their display of fossils, this seems apt.

**  But seriously, why hasn't he? 

Where we're going next.

Canada's most renowned astronaut, Colonel Chris Hadfield, will be hitting the road to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon-landing* in his "Exploration: Where We're Going Next" tour. The tour will see the heavily decorated astronaut, engineer and pilot discussing the history and future of space exploration.

Regular visitors to The Infinite Revolution will already be aware that I'm a bit of a Chris Hadfield fan:  as such, probably not a surprise that I've just purchased two tickets to his next speaking tour - which, surprisingly, appears to be restricted to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.  Hmmm...visiting friends in Western Canada at the end of April and decided to do a few talks for beer money, Commander? 

- Sid

* Which is actually not until July 20th**, so he's jumping the gun a little.

** And Neil Armstrong didn't step onto the surface until the 21st.

"Meet your new instructor."

I'm pleased and gratified to see that award-winning science fiction author N. K. Jemisin has been tapped to present a Masterclass course in writing science fiction.  Everything I know about Jemisin suggests that she is an excellent choice as an instructor, with a writing technique that combines superb creativity with rigorous research and consistency.

Sadly, though, I don't think I'll sign up.  It would be interesting, but ultimately I feel that the ship has sailed for me in terms of a possible writing career.  On the other hand, I did take that Chris Hadfield course in being an astronaut, so obviously practicality isn't the only consideration for things like this.

- Sid

Dumb and dumber.

One wrong note eventually ruins the entire symphony.

Walter, Alien: Covenant

I had the day to myself on Saturday, so after taking some pictures for upcoming blog postings, I decided to go to a movie.  Having been specifically forbidden to see Wonder Woman without Karli, I checked to see if Alien: Covenant was still in circulation, and headed off to the Scotiabank Cineplex Theatre to take a look.

I didn't purchase an advance ticket because I expected there to be lots of room:  the movie's been out for over a month, reviews haven't been that brilliant, and it was a warm sunny afternoon.  To my surprise, I had some difficulty finding a seat in the almost full theatre - perhaps I wasn't the only person there who was not allowed to see Wonder Woman yet.

The Alien franchise has certainly had its ups and downs over time, and although the latest offering has been accused of franchise fatigue, I was hopeful that it would be an improvement on its predecessor, Prometheus.  Prometheus had incredible promise, but ultimately disappointed due to the lack of logic and consistency in the script.

How does the latest entry in the lineup fare by comparison?  Well, let me introduce you to the crew of the Covenant.  With no ill will toward anyone, my god, these people deserve to die.  It is difficult to think of another group in the history of cinema who have been so willing to put themselves in danger's way over and over and over again - these idiots make the teenage victims from the Friday the 13th movies look like the acme of caution and prudence.  

Covenant is a beautifully shot film, 79-year-old director Ridley Scott hasn't lost any of his deft touch with lighting and composition, and Michael Fassbender does a brilliant job as the villainous David, but the script is an endless litany of poor judgement on the part of the crew.

"Mysterious alien planet?  Do we need to worry about alien organisms or viruses?  Should we wear isolation suits?  Nope!  Jackets and earflap hats it is!"

Good plan.

"Let's not land too close to the distress signal!  Eight kilometers away will let us have have a good long hike!" 

Gosh, yes, sixteen kilometer round trip - why would you want to stay close to your sole means of return to the mother ship? 

"Look, it's some kind of puffball!  I'm going to get as close as possible and poke it with my bare finger!  Hey, little black spores!!"

My god, man, I wouldn't want to do that on Earth, let alone in an alien biosphere!

 "Ledward's spitting up blood - let's not quarantine him! No, wait, I'll quarantine him with another crew member after I've aspirated his blood!"

Because really, why would you wear anything other than rubber gloves to examine someone who is mysteriously sick on an alien planet?  Oh, and three words: non slip flooring.  Look into it.

"I'm going to call the mothership and scream incoherently at my husband!  Then get a gun and shoot randomly at the alien until the lander explodes!"

And...done.

"The rest of the crew has created a defensive circle to watch for an alien thing that's roaming the darkness - I'll just stand outside of it and try to contact the ship."

What are the odds of anything bad happening because of that?

"I'm just going to go off all on my own to get cleaned up.  I'll go as far as possible, take off my sidearm, and wash my wounds with my back to the door."

Absolutely do that.  Smart move.

"Hey, I wonder what's moving around in this big organic egg thing?  I'll just take a closer look."

Sure, lean right in there.  Stick your head in. After all, the weird marooned android says that it's safe, what could possibly go wrong?

"Let's split up and look for the captain!"

Sign me up.

In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, ex-astronaut Chris Hadfield describes the rigourous training process that NASA employs to ensure that its astronauts are prepared to intelligently deal with any eventuality without panicking: equipment failure, a fire on the ISS, the death of one of the team members, or any contingency that could imperil the mission.  Apparently this sort of training does not survive into the next century - nor, apparently, do many of the astronauts.

- Sid

P.S. And one more thing: damn it, it's Aurigae, not Origae - look it up. Please try to at least get the names of the constellations right. 

Small steps.

Today at 8:40 AM, Virgin Galactic finally conducted its first fully crewed suborbital space mission.  Sir Richard Branson, three other passengers, and two flight crew successfully ascended to 86 kilometers above the Earth's surface, and safely returned to the Virgin Galactic spaceport.

Whether or not this was prompted by the possibility of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos beating him to the punch with his own flight on July 20th, Branson has undeniably accomplished his goal of launching the first passenger spaceship, and plans to restart ticket sales, which have been on hold since 2014's fatal test flight incident, which took the life of co-pilot Michael Alsbury.

How do we feel about Virgin Galactic's long-awaited first flight?

Logic says that there is no such thing as bad space travel – everything that broadens the boundaries of our ability to leave the planet is good.  Emotion says that Sir Richard is a dilettante, who has essentially created an expensive amusement park ride for his own entertainment and that of fellow billionaires. 

But, to be fair, the nature of exploration is such that for every Charlies Lindburgh who flies across the Atlantic solo, there will be countless people who desire to make the trip on less challenging terms.

Perhaps more appropriately, for every Commander Hadfield who endures a 5-G takeoff on their way to the International Space Station, there will be hundreds or perhaps thousands of people who want a more accessible opportunity to see Earth from orbit, to live their dream, to take one of the small steps that makes up the giant leap. 

To call those thousands of dreamers space tourists seems unfair, it somehow diminishes the experience, but that approach may well be the method through which commercial space travel actually becomes a practical prospect.  For all the talk about how exploitation of natural resources on other planets will be controlled, we’re a long way from mining the Moon or shipping minerals from Mars, whereas Virgin Galactic has actually demonstrated proof of concept for repeatable passenger travel to space.  

As of today, Sir Richard Branson has made space travel accessible to everyone - admittedly, right now to a very small definition of everyone, that being the number of people who can afford a $450,000 USD ticket, but that's how it starts, with a limited expensive service that eventually becomes affordable to the general public. It may be one small step, but it's a small step that everyone will eventually be able to take.

- Sid

Virtual Dreams V: Inner Space

I find it oddly relaxing to spend time in the Mission: ISS virtual reality program, just floating around the International Space Station - I wonder if Chris Hadfield ever does this just for old time's sake?

- Sid

T minus 48 hours.

When you've booked off a half day from work for travel time, made round trip ferry reservations, and rented an Airbnb condo for two nights, it's very comforting to discover that the person you're going to see perform has actually arrived at the venue location*.  Thanks very much for posting that, Commander Hadfield - see you Saturday night.

- Sid

* And is apparently staying at the Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria, based on the view and the angle of the photo.

UPDATE:  Aha!  https://www.instagram.com/p/BSBpyf7hAxj/?hl=en

"Stand back, I'm going to try science!"

I have just started dating a fabulous woman named Karli.  This post could easily be just about that, she is an extraordinary person* and I'm very happy and a little bit in shock, but I'll try to stay on topic.

We had our First Official Date** on Friday, and the venue was a surprise for me.  Karli had mysteriously asked if I liked science, and my reply was "Yes, of course."  And then I said, "But don't tell me anything else, I'd like to be surprised."

In the fullness of time, Friday arrived, and after dinner I found myself happily standing in line at Science World, located at the east end of False Creek.  In the ten years I've been living in Vancouver, I've never made my way to Science World - I'd seen hordes of small children surrounding the building when I've walked by, and that had left me with the impression that it was pretty much a kid's attraction.

Little did I know that, as with many similar attractions around the world, Science World presents an After Dark evening event on a regular basis, for which the age limit is 19+, and alcohol is served.

So, in we went, and spent the next three hours, drinks in hand, exploring the various interactive exhibits - hampered only slightly by the knee-level child-friendly setup for most of them.

Given that science fiction is at least half science***, I think it's common that a lot of SF fans keep in touch with scientific developments.  After all, things like the exploration of Mars by robots or landing probes on comets were science fiction topics twenty years ago, and it's gratifying to see how we are slowly moving toward the realization of that science fiction future, the one in which we begin to explore more and more of our solar system and perhaps even start living on other planets. 

But in some ways this is also a challenging time for the scientific community.  The cover story on this month's National Geographic sums it up:

 

How strange and unexpected is it that we can be standing here on the edge of the universe, just starting to reach out and touch it, explore it, learn about it, and there are people who are presumably educated and otherwise intelligent who are unable to accept the basic physical truths of that universe? 

But there's hope.  After all, when NASA first posted a live video feed from Mars, the volume of interest was so high that it repeatedly crashed their servers.  Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has 1.28 million followers on Twitter™.  And on Friday night, I shared Science World with a genial, happy group of people who thought it would be a fun thing to spend Friday night playing science games.

Thanks again, Karli, I had a wonderful time.

- Sid

* She is smart, clever, perceptive, and gorgeous - based on votes to date, at least, six people have voted gorgeous, one beautiful.  Okay, seven people, I'm going to vote gorgeous as well.

** Previous to Friday we were in beta testing.  User comments were favourable.

*** Well, by letter count, exactly half, but that's not really how it works.

NYNY 2019: Virtual Space

In addition to the Enterprise shuttle, the Intrepid Space Shuttle Pavilion provides a wide range of exhibits dealing with the space program in general as well as the shuttle missions:  display panels detailing the history of Enterprise, a Soyuz TMA-6 capsule, dismounted shuttle control panels (which, sadly, don't come close to the real thing), and, for Canadian content, Chris Hadfield's guitar pick and mission patch, along with a video of the commander performing "Is Someone Singing" from the ISS in a video duet with Barenaked Ladies member Ed Robertson on Earth.

 

It also features a couple of VR experiences:  Defying Gravity: Women in Space and and the International Space Station VR Experience.  With no offense to Women in Space (or women in space) I'm a bit more fascinated by the option of a virtual reality tour of the ISS - although it is intriguing to watch headmount-wearing participants walk accurately from location to location in the Defying Gravity area.

The ISS VR program was created by Oculus for their headsets in 2017, working in co-operation with NASA.  The program combines NASA 3-D models and input from astronauts to make the experience as accurate as possible, allowing users to explore the station, check on experiments, dock a capsule, and perform an EVA tour of the station's exterior.

Over half the units are out of order, so Karli and I patiently wait in line for about 25 minutes.  Karli takes a seat first, and then a few minutes later I'm supplied with a sanitary mask, ushered to my module by an attendant, and equipped with the VR headmount and hand controls, after which the VR program starts.

I am instantly spellbound - the illusion of floating in low Earth orbit is compelling and believable.

Space is probably the ideal environment for VR exploration - there's no issues involving movement or walking, it just feels like you're flying.

I spend most of my allotted seven minutes zooming around the station, going out past it into a higher orbit for a panoramic view, and then doing close-up fly-bys of the structure, punctuated by looking down at Earth's distant surface.  Near the end of my session I briefly go inside the ISS, bounce amateurishly along the corridors in zero-G, visit the cupola, and look at some controls, but it doesn't have the same impact for me that the spacewalk did.

 

Higher resolution would have been nice, it didn't have the razor sharpness that I'm used to from my 5120 x 2880 iMac Retina screen at home, but it didn't really matter - I found the experience was so immersive that it was more than a little jarring when the time ran out and unseen hands took the controllers from me.  I could easily imagine spending hours rather than minutes exploring the simulation - maybe it's a good thing that I don't have any kind of VR technology at home.

Although, hmmm...a compatible Oculus Rift S headset comes in at $550 CAD on Amazon™, which is a bit expensive but not ridiculous, but it would also require a substantial upgrade to my PC video card - perhaps more of an investment than strictly practical, regardless of how much I enjoyed it.

 

We make out way out through the inevitable gift shop - yes, even aircraft carriers have gift shops - and Karli buys me a NASA mug and pin as part of her birthday gift to me.  I've had a great birthday morning at the museum with Karli, much thanks, love - next stop, the New York branch of Forbidden Planet.

- Sid