Space time facetime: Nunavut students hear from Canadian astronaut

The man expected to be Canada’s first astronaut to go to the moon spoke about his mission directly to students from Nunavut and across the North on Tuesday.

Jeremy Hansen is a member of the U.S.-led Artemis II lunar mission crew scheduled to launch in September 2025, a 10-day trip that will take him and three other astronauts to the moon and back.

Via Zoom, Hansen sat for an hour-long presentation with students from eight Nunavut schools, including Qiqirtaq High School in Gjoa Haven and Nanook Elementary School in Iqaluit. In total, he spoke to students at 15 schools in Nunavut, Yukon and Ontario.

The session was hosted by Connected North, a learning resource for Indigenous students.

Christopher Doucet, 10, from Nanook school, told Nunatsiaq News afterward that he has been interested in space since he was four years old.

The presentation was “pretty good,” he said, adding he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up.

During the session, he asked Hansen: “How was the moon created in the first place?”

“Well, the first thing I would say is that we don’t know for sure,” Hansen told the students, adding that one theory is that a large collision between massive solar bodies led to the final formation of the earth and its companion satellite.

Next came a question from the Grade 6 class at Nuiyak Elementary School in Sanikiluaq.

“Are space suits comfortable?” teacher Esme McKenzie asked on behalf of the class.

“We are getting better at building them, but they are not super comfortable,” Hansen said, but they aren’t the sort of thing you put on during a relaxing day.

The Artemis II mission is set to launch in September 2025 and includes Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. (Photo courtesy of NASA; Photographer: Josh Valcarcel)

Canada’s role in developing robotics is one reason one of its astronauts will take part in the moon mission, he said.

He also noted the role the North plays in space exploration, particularly regarding the effects of isolation. He cited the joint greenhouse project between the Canadian Space Agency and Gjoa Haven, being used as a test project to grow food in space.

Communities in Canada’s North are well placed to provide the expertise needed to learn to solve problems that might arise during a lunar visit, he said, showing an image of a greenhouse on the moon.

“And so this is a very important project for us where we have citizens and Gjoa Haven teaching us how to grow food in these harsh environments,” Hansen said.

Hansen said the goal of his presentation was to get kids interested in space, whether it is on the ground or in the stars.

“I was inspired by simply learning about lunar exploration in the past,” he said in an interview with Nunatsiaq News.

Occasional failure in life is inevitable, he said while presenting images of multiple failed SpaceX rocket launches.

In the first video, “the rocket failed, and the second time and the third time and eventually they succeeded by being persistent, by working together as a team,” Hansen said.

“But the difference between achieving what you’re interested in and not is your willingness to push through the failure, your willingness to work together and ask for help.”