posted 12-09-2003 03:39 PM
O Canada: The journey of Dave Williams
By Hartriono B. SastrowardoyoDr. Dafydd (Dave) Williams was at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City on December 4 to deliver two lectures. One, “ISS: Our Future in Space,” was aimed for the public in general, and specifically for the Mt. Sinai doctors who sponsored the adult neural plasticity and vestibular experiments on board his first spaceflight, Columbia/STS-90, which carried the Neurolab spacelab.
His second, “An Astronaut’s Life: Becoming, Being, and Beyond,” was meant for the 600 students middle and high school students and was sponsored by “Defying Gravity: Embracing Life in Space,” an education and public research project sponsored by NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and hosted by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, which helps to bring spaceflight medicine to the schoolroom, and to help students understand math and science.
Williams spoke highly of the International Space Station, saying that he was “very proud of our asset,” and noted that ISS had brought nations together for the benefit of life on Earth.
“If you forgive my merging of words, there’s an ‘internationalisation’ of astronauts on board the ISS. We explore as a team. The culture of space exploration supersedes the culture of individual nations.” Williams noted that 100 people had visited ISS, 17 of them for the second time.
“I look out the window when I’m exercising. I’ll have John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ or Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World It Is’ playing and I’ll think, ‘Why is it we can’t get along?’”
One benefit of ISS that Williams noted was the use of medical robots based on ISS technology. “They’ve been doing complicated surgery like laproscopy surgery using robots, and they’re starting to do telerobotic surgery. Doctors in one part of Canada have done laproscopy surgery on patients in another part. Twenty-seven patients have been operated on in this fashion.”
By the end of 2002, 65 experiments using the seven research racks in the U.S.’ Destiny module have been done, including biomedical research, astroculture plant growth, biotechnology research, Earth observations, and others, including expanding on the research done on STS-90.
Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Williams wanted to be an astronaut since he was 7, but said that with his average marks in school, he thought he was never going to be one. As well, at that time, Canada did not participate in any space programme, Russian or American. “If I couldn’t explore outer space, maybe I could explore inner space.” Williams said that growing up, he liked exploring, and found it exciting.
And so, at age 13, he learned to scuba dive, not realizing that twenty-five years later he would utilize those skills to help practice space walks. Indeed, Williams served as a crewmember on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO)-1, an underwater habitat mission run by both NASA and NOAA; Williams spent 7 days living there. Such underwater habitat training is now used for crews expected to serve long durations on ISS.
When the Canadian astronaut corps was formed in 1983, he realized, “Maybe I’ll be able to accomplish my dreams.” Then under the management of the National Research Council of Canada, this came about when the United States invited Canada to fly an astronaut on the Space Shuttle. This invitation led to the creation of a permanent corps of Canadian astronauts to coordinate and conduct Canadian experiments in space. Six years later, the Canadian Space Agency became an independent government agency, dealing with all Canadian space matters, not just her astronauts.
In 1992 an ad was placed in Canadian newspapers asking for a second group of candidates. 5,300 applied, included 600 from children under the age of 10. Of that number, 20 people were selected as semi-finalists, and 4, including Williams, were chosen. (The others included Chris Hadfield, Michael McKay, and Julie Payette. Of the other three, Hadfield flew as Mission Specialist 1 on Atlantis/STS-74, the second Shuttle-Mir docking, and on Endeavour/STS-100, an ISS assembly fight. On the latter, Hadfield became the first Canadian space walker. Payette also flew as Mission Specialist 1, on the Discovery/STS-96 flight, which was the first flight to dock and resupply ISS. Currently, Payette is Chief Astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency
McKay resigned in 1995 due to medical reasons without making a flight, but remained active as an engineer in the astronaut programme until 1997, when he returned to active military service with the Directorate of Space Development within the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.)
“It’s a really cool job,” Williams said of being an astronaut. He also said that he was “very proud” to be a part of the Canadian astronaut team.
“Don’t give up on your dreams,” Williams said, “no matter where your dreams may take you. With a lot of luck, hard work, and believing in yourself, those dreams will come true.
“I was really stubborn, and never gave up on my dream since I was 7. Keep persisting and it’ll work out in the end.”
Williams’ next flight is STS-118, originally scheduled for a November 2003 launch on board Columbia. Delays in the Return to Flight mission have pushed this back to mid-to Fall 2005, he said.
His task on STS-118 is, with fellow EVAer Scott Parazynski, to install the third starboard truss segment (the S5 segment.) Williams’ visit to Mt. Sinai Hospital was also to do some preflight testing on experiments that will be carried on STS-118.
“I lost seven close friends on STS-107, and I knew them personally. I know that they would want us to continue exploring.”
Another dream of Williams is one that he gets “all fired up” on: The exploration of the universe. “Now that I’ve had a chance to fly in space, what dreams do I have left?” he asked rhetorically.
“It’s something I call ‘By Fiftieth.’ That is, by the 50th anniversary of Apollo, by 2019, I’d like to see humans working and living on Mars. I believe it’s achievable.”
Why Mars? “That’s where life may have once existed,” Williams said, citing the find of an Antarctic meteorite which some scientists believe to contain Martian bacteria. “If bacteria once lived there - who knows what else could have lived there?
“For those who say that a trip to Mars by 2019 is impossible, I submit that I no longer use the word ‘impossible.’ Let me remind you of the little kid growing up in Canada who wanted to be an astronaut.”
As he ended his lecture to the students, he closed with a quote by Henry David Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life that you have imagined.”