Opportunities in aeronautics: Canadian astronaut presents session on emerging technologies.

The new Canadarm 2 can move around the International Space Station (ISS) like an inchworm and is controlled by a device that is comparable to a game controller.

The Canadarm 2 is not tied down like its predecessor.

Each end of the arm has a mechanical hand that can grasp and anchor onto various regions of the space station.

By flipping end-over-end between anchor points, Canadarm 2 can move around the ISS freely.

There are four large pieces to the arm that were brought up by shuttles to the station on different trips.

The arm weighs 1,640 kilograms and is 17.6 metres long when its body and seven joints are fully extended.

It can handle large payloads and will aid the shuttle in docking to the station.

"The arm is strong enough to pick up the 100,000-kilogram space station and flail it around," Col. Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut. said. Hadfield talked about emerging technologies in aeronautics to students at Cambrian College during a recent visit to Sudbury.

Cameras are installed on the arm and hands to enable the astronauts to see what they are doing. The cameras are placed throughout the arm, on the shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingertips.

The hands and arm are controlled inside the space station by devices that could be compared to a large-scale game controller, Hadfield explained. The astronauts control the arm and hand movement with joysticks to move up and down, side to side and front to back.

The Canada Hand is a special purpose dexterous manipulator (SPDM).

"The hand can wield very specialized tools, do delicate servicing tasks and could substantially reduce the amount of time astronauts spend working outdoors in the dangerous environment of space," Hadfield said.

The environment outside of the ISS is extreme.

Temperatures vary from 100 degrees C in the sun to-100 degrees C in the shade.

The ISS moves five miles per second and travels around the world every 90 minutes, which is equivalent to 16 rotations around the world each day.

"Outside we're always being pelted by little meteors flying around in the atmosphere at about 30 kilometres an hour," Hadfield explained.

The Canada Hand and the Canadarm 2 had to be made to withstand the constant pelting of meteorites.

The men and women who designed the Canadarm 2 were the same engineers that built Dino the Dinosaurat Universal Studios.

Hadfield also touched briefly on the possibility of National Aeronautics and Space Administration sending a team to Mars.

"There is really nothing technically stopping the trip, although it is very costly and the government is spending their money elsewhere right now," he explained. "It's also very dangerous. Sure we could send a team now and risk killing a whole lot of people, but then where would we be."

Although the ISS was built by 17 different countries most of the Canadarm 2 and the Canada Hand were built solely by Canadian science and engineering experts in Canadian laboratories.