Face of Nation : Saskatoon biomedical engineer Doug Campbell believes he will make it to space in his lifetime, most likely on a commercial flight, and has gone to great depths and heights to prepare himself.
Campbell, 33, will graduate in August from a two-year program that focuses on astronautics research, training, and simulation. The course is offered by Untethered Exploration, a private scientist-astronaut academy in the United States, .
As part of the curriculum, he lived in an above-ground bunker in the Utah desert for 14 days in a simulated mission to Mars. The “space” lab had a greenhouse and living quarters. To step outside, he had to wear a full space suit to mimic the protection needed in a Martian environment.
During the mission, Campbell built and tested a dishwasher that cleans dishes with ultraviolet rays, rather than soap and water, as a way to solve an everyday problem for a colony on Mars. The ultimate goal, he said, is to become an astronaut.
“It’s my passion. But, it’s a very hard career to get into, obviously,” Campbell said. “Still, with that eye on the prize… It’s getting more and more viable every day.”
As the world marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing this week, Campbell has never felt so hopeful that his day in space will come, although he believes it will be on a commercial space flight rather than a government-sponsored mission.
“I think there will be many, many opportunities coming over the next 20 years that I might be able to do some research, even for a short-duration flight,” Campbell said. The Canadian Space Agency has trained 14 astronauts since 1983.
British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has completed suborbital space flight tests and promises to send thousands of “non-professional astronauts” to space. Customers will pay as much as $250,000 for a seat.
Its competitor Blue Origin advertises 3 minutes in space. Even NASA has announced it will allow private citizens to spend up to 30 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station, ferried there by SpaceX or Boeing, for a whopping $58 million.
