[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Neemo.jpg” caption=”Underwater footage from NEEMO 9″]Students can talk with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield next week as he hosts an interactive session via a live satellite feed with “aquanauts” in a NASA underwater habitat and research laboratory.

The event will offer students an opportunity to learn about advances in the fields of medicine, engineering and science that will impact the future of health care and space exploration.

McMaster University will be hooked up by satellite to the world's only permanent underwater habitat and research laboratory, NASA's Aquarius, where a simulated space mission is taking place. Aquarius is a school-bus size undersea habitat that sits 19 metres below the surface of the waters off of Key Largo, Fla.

The mission, NEEMO 9, is a joint project of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and McMaster's Centre for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS).

Students will be able to talk to the mission's crew led by Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave Williams, and including two American astronauts and a physician from Cincinnati, about the experiments they are conducting to demonstrate and evaluate innovative remote medical care technologies, and develop procedures and techniques for lunar exploration.

In addition to the live feed with Aquarius, the students will hear Hadfield and professor Dr. Mehran Anvari, head of CMAS, talk about their key roles in the operation of the mission.

Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut who has been on two space missions and who is a member of the back-up crew for NEEMO 9, will provide insight on how the conditions in space are simulated on Aquarius, and how the work conducted through the NEEMO missions can lead to more advanced exploration in space.

NEEMO 9 Crew.

Anvari will explain how, working from the CMAS at St. Joseph's Healthcare, he uses two-way, high-speed telecommunication links to direct crew members on Aquarius to perform complex medical procedures. He will also perform surgery on a mock patient inside Aquarius.

The event will be held on Tuesday, April 11 at 12 noon in Room 3020 of the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery (MDCL).

Registration is not required, but students or faculty wishing to attend are requested to RSVP by e-mail to intouch@mcmaster.ca or voicemail (ext. 27579).

Catch up on the latest news from the NEEMO 9 mission with the crew's daily journals.