Space centre planned for Cochrane, Ont., aims to train future astronauts
CBC
An aerospace and technology company in Cochrane, Ont., is working to create a space centre that will help train future astronauts.
Stardust Technologies recently launched plans for the research facility, with the help of more than 20 partners and collaborators.
Various areas of the centre will be on the company's 46-hectare property about 20 kilometres north of the town of Cochrane, said chief executive officer Jason Michaud.
He calls Cochrane a "hidden gem in the middle of the north" that is a "wonderful, unexpected place." Stardust Technologies has been based in the town since the company's formation in 2014.
Michaud said the idea for a space centre came about after he and his staff were looking at analog research stations around the world where astronauts are trained.
"We could do something that is so much more in reach for Canadian youth," he said.
Once they realized they could create a space centre, Michaud said, the next step was to figure out how they could improve the property in Cochrane.
Inflatable domes will be used to allow astronauts to mentally train for the isolation they would experience in space. The company had already been conducting some research on mental health and isolation.
"There's going to be people living in these domes for minimum two weeks at a time, not going outside," he said, adding that some could live there for as long as three months.
"No one going outside and just eating freeze-dried food, and having bare minimum like there is in space, to be able to be innovative and creative, and find new solutions to help on Earth and space."
Along with isolation studies, Michaud said, researchers could also conduct rocketry and astronomy on the Stardust property. The goal is to make space training and research more accessible.
Institutions like Western University in London, Ont., and the University of Technology in Sidney, Australia, have come on board as partners that will send students and researchers to the space centre.
Michaud explained normally any institution that wants to train an astronaut sends the person to the U.S., which can be expensive.
"So we're making it a lot easier for them to be able to collaborate with us and do these missions right on our property," he said.
If it weren't for a stem cell transplant — less than half a cup of blood from a stranger's umbilical cord — four-year-old Tristan Ford would almost certainly have died as an infant, his parents say.
A Métis saddle from the early 1800s is at the centre of an exhibit that opened last month at a Swiss museum, along with contemporary beadwork created by other Red River Métis artists.
A dome-shaped device floating in Halifax's Northwest Arm could easily be confused with a buoy, but it is actually a contraption meant to turn ocean water into fresh water.
As of Tuesday, there are limits on the number of bottles of spirits a person can buy at the B.C. Liquor store in Tofino, a move that leaders of the Ahousaht First Nation were pushing for.
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
Mohawk code talkers and their missions were so vital during the Second World War, that some believe without them, there was no way of winning of the war.
Two feisty ferret babies in Virginia are being hailed as a symbol of hope for the future of their species.
On day one of Donald Trump's presidency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he'll be advising Trump to take fluoride out of public water. The former independent presidential hopeful — and prominent proponent of debunked public health claims — has been told he'll be put in charge of health initiatives in the new Trump administration. He's described fluoride as "industrial waste."
An RCMP national security unit monitored First Nations-led anti-pipeline activism for "potential threats" to the energy, transportation and banking sectors between 2021 and 2022, internal police documents show.
WARNING: this story contains details of cultural items being forcibly removed
Rachelle and Kelly Swan live in a relatively cramped space now. But the upside to their rented low-income government house is that it's away from the haunting site their family occupied for two years, filled with screeches, high-pitched chirps and squeaks from constantly flapping bats.