Bjarni Tryggvason,Visiting Professor of University of Western Ontario

ABSTRACT

Achieving human space flight is still a tremendous technical challenge that depends on the efforts of a very large team of engineers and scientists. Since the first human space flight in 1961 about 500 people have had flown in space, 12 men have walked on the Moon and only three countries have achieved human space flight: Russia, the USA and China. We are still at the embryonic stages of human space flight.

In August of 1997 the author flew on a 12 day mission on the US Space Shuttle Discovery travelling at 7800m/s at an altitude of 300km, circling the Earth 189 times. This flight has been one of the highlights of the author’s career. This talk will share the experience of flight in space, the experience of extended free fall, and of being able to view the Earth from space.

At the other end of aerospace spectrum, on the Feb 22 2009 the author piloted a replica of the Silver Dart airplane, the first aircraft to achieve powered flight in Canada, to mark the 100th anniversary of power flight in Canada, flying at a speed of less than 20m/s at an altitude of a few meters. The Silver Dart was quite similar to the Wright Flyer that achieved the first powered flight in 1903. The talk will include excerpts from this experience to contrast the old with the new.

Date:14:00,May 18rd,2012

Venue:1512#,YiFu Technology and Science Building