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Bob Thirsk Expedition 20/21 - Official Flight Kit

As part of his mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Bob Thirsk will take eleven mementos with him into space, recognizing select organizations and the ideals they represent. After coming back to Earth, Bob Thirsk will return these items to the host organisations in a public ceremony before they will be placed on display. The items Bob takes aloft during Expedition 20/21 will be part of what is known as his Official Flight Kit (OFK). These items were selected and are each symbolic of one or more of three categories: Innovation, Education, and Exploration.

1. National Research Council

Item: 3-D replica of NRC badge

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Space Agency and to underscore the creation of the Canadian Astronaut Program under the National Research Council (NRC) in 1983; a 15.24 centimetre wide, 3-D aluminium replica of the NRC badge was created to be included in Bob's Official Flight Kit. As Canada's premier governmental body for research and development, the NRC has Canadian innovation at its heart, pushing Canada forward in all areas of science, applied sciences, and technology. Innovation involves the application of both old and new ideas in unprecedented ways, whether on Earth or in space. The NRC badge symbolizes the innovative processes and techniques Bob will have mastered and demonstrated while in training and conducting his mission.

2. Montreal Neurological Institute

Item: No. 4 Penfield dissector

The no. 4 Penfield dissector is one of five neurosurgical instruments widely used by neurosurgeons around the world. While studying with renowned neurosurgeon Otfriend Foerster in Germany in 1928, Dr. Wilder Penfield worked closely with a metal artisan to develop the tools still used in the field today. After moving from New York to Montreal, Penfield founded the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University in 1934, which has become a world-class centre for epilepsy surgery and brain sciences. A physician himself, Bob Thirsk will be taking the no. 4 Penfield dissector into space as a symbol of medical innovation and progress.

3. Prime Minister's Award

Item: Teaching Excellence Award Pin

"If there's one thing that's going to characterize Expedition 20/21, it's going to be the scientific output," said Bob Thirsk during a March news conference. In honour of the significant educational value of his mission, Bob will be taking a Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence pin into spaceflight. While scientists and researchers achieve scientific breakthroughs and discoveries, one mustn't forget the work involved in translating complex concepts and inspiring the minds of students and Canadians young and old alike. Excellent teachers create natural bridges for their students between scientific discovery, theory, application, and day-to-day relevance, and Bob Thirsk will contribute to furthering this learning process with the experiments he will conduct on the ISS.

4. Canadian Space Agency

Item: Interferometer Instrument

Dave Kendall, Director General of the Canadian Space Agency, has kindly contributed an interferometer to Bob's OFK as a 25th anniversary tribute to Canada's human spaceflight program. It was flown and used in 1984 by Marc Garneau during his historic first mission to space. As part of an experiment called OGLOW, the interferometer is an instrument that was used to cause interference between two waves in order to study the pattern made by their superposition; interferometry is a technique often used in astronomy, metrology, oceanography, seismology, and remote sensing, among other fields. Bob Thirsk trained with Marc Garneau as his back-up for this mission.

5. Universities represented by experiments onboard ISS

Item: Six University Patches

Bob will be performing several Canadian research experiments onboard the ISS, on behalf of university investigators across Canada. To honour their contributions to Expedition 20/21, Bob will bring with him a patch for each experiment he will be conducting. Among the life and physical science studies are experiments investigating the effects of microgravity on the cardiovascular system, and perception of up and down; a study investigating tension in wood growth in microgravity; a materials science experiment, and several fluids physics experiments.

6. Canada

Item: Canadian flag to remain onboard ISS

Given that this mission involves a record-breaking number of "firsts" for Canada and the Canadian Space Program, it is only fitting that Bob is bringing a large Canadian flag up with him, to be left onboard the ISS. From Canada's major robotics contributions, Canadarm2 and Dextre, to its currently mission-assigned astronauts: Bob Thirsk and Julie Payette, to the contributions from Canada's scientific community, Canada's achievements in space and contribution to the international space program will be commemorated by this flag that will be displayed on the Station.

7. Glenbow Museum

Item: Artefact - Cap badge of Captain "Wop" May

The Glenbow Museum in Alberta has loaned to the CSA a historical artefact to include in Bob's OFK: the cap badge of legendary Canadian World War I flying ace and pioneer bush pilot Captain Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May. May has become renowned as an aviator for his triumphs as a fighter pilot in World War I, as well as, for being the first "bush pilot", flying in remote regions for a variety of purposes (such as an emergency police arrest or transporting medical aid). May's actions and postwar achievements embody both exploration and innovation, and it will be an honour for Bob to have the captain's badge with him on the ISS.

8. Manitoba Museum - Hudson Bay Company

Item: Arctic Discoveries Medal

In the late 1850s, the British Government awarded several officers and men of the Hudson's Bay Company with the Arctic Discovery Medals for two land expeditions. The first lasted three years and took place in the late 1830s, with the second lasting just over one year, in the mid 1840s. The first voyage explored the coast west of the Mackenzie River and the continental coastline east of the Coppermine River, while the second surveyed the west coast of Melville Peninsula in the Arctic. The men who were awarded this medal earned it with their intrepid spirits and feats of exploration, not dissimilar to what Bob and his crewmates will demonstrate during spaceflight.

9. University of Calgary

Item: Iron ring

In Bob's words: "A former classmate of mine from the University of Calgary died a few years ago. He was an incredible person and engineer. The Dan Mercier Scholarship that our class and Dan's family have established is something of which I am proud. With the agreement of Dan's family I would like to fly Dan Mercier's iron ring in space with me for six months aboard the International Space Station and then present it to the Schulich School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering after I return. This iron ring presented and displayed by the Engineering Departments will remind students of the hallmarks of a fine engineer that we all revere."

10. Canada Council for the Arts

Items: Airborn (Kenneth Opel); Deux pas vers les étoiles (Jean-Rock Gaudreault)

In recognition of Bob's ancestral ties to the Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir (John Buchan), who established the Governor General's Literary Awards (GGLA), the Canada Council for the Arts is contributing two winning GGLA books for Bob to bring onboard the ISS with him. Airborn by Kenneth Opel, is written in English and was the 2004 GGLA winner in Children's Literature - Text, and the second, Jean-Rock Gaudreault's Deux pas vers les étoiles, is written in French and was the 2003 GGLA winner in Théâtre. Flying these nationally distinguished books into space serves as an important symbol of the value of literacy, education, and exploration through knowledge and imagination.