Bringing Water to Space and Back

There's precious little extra space when you're traveling on the Space Shuttle. And since the good folks at NASA have already planned for the crew's necessities — adequate water supply chief among them — it might not make sense to take up most of your allotment of the 10 personal items you can bring into space with ampules of even more water.

This water however is not for drinking, but for thinking.

Canadian mission specialist Julie Payette explains to CollectSpace.com her choice of cargo:

"We managed to convince NASA to bring little ampules — they are really small, about half an inch — and in there, there is a drop [of water] from all the five Great Lakes and the three oceans that surround Canada: the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific and Atlantic. It is afterwards going to be used in an exhibit in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto about water awareness and the importance it will play very soon in our lives."

The samples were gathered by American and Canadian participants, and were used by Payette to transform her passion for environmental matters into something symbolic, designed to be shared with and to inspire others following her return.

Payette goes on to describe the experience of seeing the planet as a whole from space as powerful  to the point of fueling her earth-bound mission to raise awareness:

"[T]he Earth ... is so impressive from space and I wish so many people could see it because it has a very big impression on how important a planet is to us, to our survival."

Photo courtesy of NASA.