Space Matters to Us 

17 February 2019

In the past month, I had the privilege of representing Western University,Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) at the Queen's Space Conference as a graduate student along with two other PhD students, Gavin Tolometti and Alexis Pascual (see photos below). Throughout the conference, I interviewed student attendees from various Ontario universities interested in pursuing and studying space and asked them a few trivia questions, trying to drive home/test their knowledge of current generation with regards to Canada's role in space.

I asked them questions such us:

• In one word, describe what space means to you.

• What does the Canadarm do?

• Who is the first Canadian female astronaut? (it's Roberta Bondar FYI 😉)

• Would you invest in space?

• Do you think space science & education are important and why?

 I am also very thankful to have formally met and interviewed experts in the space industry for advice to future generations of space entrepreneurs and scientists. I was lucky enough to talk to Kate Howells from The Planetary Society, Dr. Keith Vanderlinde from the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto & Dr. Gary Blackwood from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 🚀

To my surprise, I got a wide range of answers from the students ranging from very knowledgeable answers to pure guesses. Fortunately, not everyone in this conference has a streamlined education on space itself - students come from different backgrounds such as business, biology, engineering, nuclear physics, geology, etc. and space is our common ground.

From my personal perspective, space is an integration of all sciences. Space paves the way for future innovation and truly forces us to be creative. I believe that WE create the opportunities that WE want to have in the future and it is time for us to rise to our own challenges, which is the main premise for my video blog - to show that we are constantly growing and shaping our future in space as a country, as Canadians, and as future generations of leaders/innovators in space. Former CSA astronaut Dave Williams, a keynote speaker from a past conference, once told us that "...the first Canadian astronaut to reach Mars could very well be in this room right now" and this really stuck with me. As an aspiring astronaut and current graduate student, I am always eager to learn new things, apply myself, and to never stop growing, because I truly believe that our perseverance is the key towards future generations of Canadian space research and exploration.