Shaun Stander's Blog: Astronauts & Microbialites

Some days are a little unexpected, you wake up at 4 AM to take you brother to a bus stop so he can catch a bus to catch a flight to Dallas, Texas. You drive home & fall asleep again. You're then woken up by your girlfriend who wants to know if you could drive and accompany her out to the Center for Aquaculture and Environmental Research in West Vancouver. You oblige (of course). When you arrive you're met by two Astronauts. The first is a Canadian Astronaut, Chris A Hadfield, who happens to be the Chief Astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the first Canadian ever to walk in space, who's attained countless awards and accolades for his contributions in the field of aeronautical design, testing and innovation. Seriously over achieved, the guy has an airport named after him. The second is an American Scientist & NASA Astronaut by the name of Stan G. Love who served as CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control for Station Expeditions 1 through 7 and for Shuttle missions STS-104, STS-108, and STS-112. As well as being a crew member on various other missions. Another notoriously well studied and experienced astronaut.

- Colonel Chris A. Hadfield (Left) & Stanley G. Love (Right) Images: NASA & CSA

- Colonel Chris A. Hadfield, Photographed by Astronaut Scott E. Parazynski.

The two men are out in West Vancouver training on the Nuytco Research DeepWorker 2000 submersible which will be used Pavilion Lake Research Project. A project which is researching the occurrence and nature of Microbialites in the extreme depths Pavilion lake near Kamloops B.C. The astronauts and the earth based Microbialite scientists and biologists are in a mutually beneficial relationship being that astronauts get hands practice on working in hostile and unforgiving environments while the scientists get the best pilots on earth to gather samples and make scientific observations of the untouched microorganisms at the bottom of Pavilion lake. I managed to take a few Photographs and do a field recordings of the preparation & first training run of the one manned submersible which took place just off the North Shore in West Vancouver.

- Radio transmissions of training exercise, recorded on location (06:28 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010