[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/astronauts.jpg” caption=”Top photo, astronaut Chris Hadfield answers a question by one of the students in McMaster’s Venture Engineering Camp.”]Chris Hadfield, Dave Williams and Bill Todd today were among a group of Canadian astronauts to encourage children in McMaster's Venture Engineering Camp to reach for the stars.

At an interactive educational event in the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery, the astronauts explored the educational aspects of the NEEMO 9 mission scheduled for this fall.

Members of the crew presented their research objectives and answered questions about their roles in the underwater mission, which aims to test and evaluate new medical diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to enhance the delivery of state-of-the-art medical care in remote and harsh environments.

The astronauts fielded questions about how to eat in space, what the moon is made of and future explorations in space travel.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield, from Milton, Ontario, demonstrated with one camper how to go to sleep in the weightless environment of space, by holding her and floating her in the air. Hadfield also signed a CD that his brother Dave Hadfield recorded, which includes Chris on guitar playing the tongue-in-cheek Canadian Tire Song. CD's are available at Adventure Attic, Canadian Warplanes Heritage Museum, and possibly Titles Bookstore in the near future.