Day 2 - 272 -- Just a Little Spaced Out

The end of next week will see the release of the first music album recorded in space. While on the International Space Station, Col. Chris Hadfield, who was Commander of ISS mission 35, recorded and wrote a number of songs. He has chosen to release them on a CD with profits going to music education programs. This sounds ideal for space and music fans -- separately or combined. The songs deal with living in space and the feelings that come from viewing our little blue planet from orbit. Hadfield has had many firsts in his career -- first Canadian to walk in space, assisted with installation of Canadarm2, chronicled his mission through social media -- so the album seems less of a surprise than one might think for this man who has seen the world through a different lens and enthusiastically shares his insights with us all.

I love most things musical and would consider myself a space geek. I've sat at mission control in Houston and watched the ISS complete over half of an orbit flying into darkness somewhere over western Asia -- it was surreal. We also visited the research area at Johnson Space Centre to speak with the nutritional scientists and food scientists. I've read books about space, fiction and non-fiction. Research projects that went up with the shuttle, Space Lab and ISS missions helped us to better understand disease processes and the biochemical and physiological impacts of micro-gravity environments, short and long term. In turn, these studies have helped to clarify how the body works on earth. Since the earliest Mercury missions, technological changes have moved food preservation practices leading to amazing changes in foods supplied to short and longer term missions. Food has moved from pureed foods in toothpaste-style tubes, to dehydrated foods (the origin of dehydrated ice cream and strawberries <smile>), to personalized menus matching likes, dislikes, and cultural foods to each astronaut. On longer missions lasting months, holiday meals have been provided that were prepared by famed chefs and even a birthday cake prepared by an astronaut's mother <smile>. Needless to say, these facts seep into some of the courses I've taught <grin>; so much so that at one year end banquet, the students voted me most likely to be the first dietitian in space <giggle>. Obviously, that won't really happen -- though I often wondered if perhaps they'd meant that I was just a little 'spacey'.Hmmm . . .

For today's selection, I chose one of the songs that took social media by storm a couple years back. It is one that will be on the new album. Enjoy!

Space Oddity -- Chris Hadfield