Astronauts, Aquanauts, and Land-lovers

Brought to you by: Damien McCombs Pavillion Lake Research Project OFA Level III Attendant

The stars, the skies, and the deep waters mix at the Pavilion Lake Research Project. From a vantage point, I am able to watch the travelers of these spaces. Loons fly in and land on the lake, swim the surface, and can be seen dropping below the surface. You can literally see them swimming through the clear water. Rainbow trout are visible too, swimming the shallows and breaking the calm surface when jumping with all their might into the open air. In a similar way, the PLRP team is following suit. Dave Williams, of Canadian Space Agency fame, and NASA’s Mike Gernhardt are bringing their astral experiences down to the lakeside and below. The Deepworkers dive to the bottom depths of the lake. Dive teams disappear below the sun-spattered lake top to swim the depths. The deeper they go, the further the thoughts appear to go into outer space. The melding of inner space aquanauts and outer space astronauts makes an interesting combination of minds on Mars and heads deep in the lake. Really, I suppose, that combining multiple disciplines is what this project is all about –the pursuit of understanding microbialites, and in turn Earth, our experiences here, what we could do on Mars and beyond.