Unnamed and Supposed
So yesterday was indeed as amazing as I had hoped it would be. Dr. Mehran Anvari, who is a professor here at Mac and a world authority on minimal access surgery and THE world expert on remote teleminimal access surgery (operating by controlling robotic limbs while in an entirely different city. You know that story few years back about the doctor who performed surgery on a man in North Bay while he was in Hamilton? That was him.) and Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut (who has been on two space missions and was the first Canadian to take a space-walk and the first person to operate the Canadarm), were giving a lecture/presentation together. They were collaborating with NASA for the NEEMO 9 mission which is taking place on the world's only permanent underwater habitat and research laboratory, NASA’s Aquarius. Essentially performing remote telesurgery on mock patients in Aquarius using this technology developed at Mac.
Okay, so that's cool and interesting and all, but what was the crowning achievement of yesterday was the fact that Mac had a LIVE SATELLITE FEED to Aquarius hooked up to the video projection screen allowing us to communicate with and see the crew members of the NEEMO 9 mission, currently located under the sea off the coast of Florida, and ask them questions while they were setting up equipment for experiments, and preparing for dives and whatnot. Now, you may not be as fanatical as I am about space tech, and heck, even just science in general, but you have to admit, that's pretty drop-dead amazing right there. Plus, lunch was provided, always a plus.
That aside, their talks alone (Anvari and Hadfield) were immensely interesting. Astronauts always tell the best stories.
Okay, so that's cool and interesting and all, but what was the crowning achievement of yesterday was the fact that Mac had a LIVE SATELLITE FEED to Aquarius hooked up to the video projection screen allowing us to communicate with and see the crew members of the NEEMO 9 mission, currently located under the sea off the coast of Florida, and ask them questions while they were setting up equipment for experiments, and preparing for dives and whatnot. Now, you may not be as fanatical as I am about space tech, and heck, even just science in general, but you have to admit, that's pretty drop-dead amazing right there. Plus, lunch was provided, always a plus.
That aside, their talks alone (Anvari and Hadfield) were immensely interesting. Astronauts always tell the best stories.