The so-called Dreamer spacesuit, painted by cancer patients from all over the world, will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard the Soyuz rocket in a little over a weekend as a separate crew member, Russia's Unity Foundation, which co-developed the Spacesuit Art Project, told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st April, 2021) The so-called Dreamer spacesuit, painted by cancer patients from all over the world, will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard the Soyuz rocket in a little over a weekend as a separate crew member, Russia's Unity Foundation, which co-developed the Spacesuit Art Project, told Sputnik.
"This unusual 'crew member' will be a part of the 65th long duration expedition to the ISS, scheduled to begin on April 9, with the departure of Soyuz MS-18," Unity Foundation President Alena Kuzmenko told Sputnik. "It is the Dreamer - a special cover for the Russian Orlan spacesuit that was made of oncology patients' artworks."
Kuzmenko explained what differentiates the Dreamer from its predecessors is that it will be delivered to the ISS onboard the manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-18 together with the crew of the next ISS expedition "as an actual crew member."
Cancer patients from 20 cities in ten countries have decorated the spacesuit as a part of the Space Suit Art Project, an endeavor supported by Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other space agencies.
Kuzmenko pointed out that all previous space suits were delivered to the ISS by cargo ships, while the latest Dreamer has become a member of the crew of cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky.
The unusual crew member will be met at the ISS by cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Ryzhikov.
"It is interesting, that on the Dreamer there are much more drawings devoted to space themes," Kuzmenko said. "It's very symbolic given that the� Dreamer's launch date marks the 60th anniversary of Gagarin's flight in space."
The Dreamer spacesuit combines children's work from numerous pediatric oncology centers in Russia, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Zambia, Serbia, Armenia, the United States and the United Kingdom, Kuzmenko noted.
"The Dreamer spacesuit has managed to travel all over our Russia - from Kaliningrad (on the European boarder) to Blagoveshchensk (on Chinese boarder) - and has even visited the homeland of the Father Frost, Russia's Santa Claus, in Veliky Ustyug," Kuzmenko said. "Russian Santa not only talked with the courageous, strong-minded children who shared their dreams, but he himself drew a snowflake on the spacesuit, which became a personification of all the desires that come to him in children's letters."
Kuzmenko underscored that, undoubtedly, the most cherished dream of the little artists, their parents and doctors all over world is a full and complete recovery, and they express this hope through their paintings in different ways.
"Children who have to stay at the hospital often paint the house or school. Many of them people want to get a pet," she said. "Thanks to their wishes, dogs, cats, fish and birds appeared on the Dreamer Spacesuit. Someone is looking for to go on a journey and draws the sea."
Kuzmenko also said during the two years since the start of the project in Geneva, Switzerland in August 2018, the Dreamer initiative collected more than 200 drawings.
"They are often made by the whole family because for parents of small children this art therapy quite often is even more important than for the children themselves," she said. "Therefore, the actual number of the Dreamer contributors is much bigger than 200. Each of the drawings is empowered with energy of not only a little artist, but also with all the passion and feelings of his or her entire family, friends, doctors, our volunteers - with a piece of soul of everyone who cares about our little patient and artist. Sometimes, if the child is very small and cannot yet draw, his mother could simply put his palm on a piece of the fabric and fabric and circle it around."
The Dreamer spacesuit will follow three other spacesuits from the Spacesuit Art family - Courage, Unity and Victory, all of which already flew to the ISS and were returned back.
Spacesuit Art Project started in the United States by artist Ian Cion and US astronaut and artist Nicole Stott, and grew to become a global project developed by the US Space for Art Foundation and the Russian Unity Foundation. The project is supported by dozens of international hospitals, cosmonauts, astronauts, artists, scientists, doctors and many other supporters and volunteers.
Kuzmenko said the Unity spacesuit team normally follows the fate of the children who took part in creation of space suits.
"Indeed, there have been cases when children with cancer who participated in the project andrecovered," she said. "For instance, out little artist Sasha from Moscow painted his dream on the Victory spacesuit and now he has already fully recovered and attends school with the other children. Here is another example: Mia from the United States seriously improved her health condition and is now in the remission phase. Mia and her mother even managed to fly over to Russia and visited Russian children suffering from cancer to support them."
Many well-known� Russian cosmonauts and heroes of Russia have joined the project and attended the drawing sessions with children at different clinics around the world, including Yuri Gidzenko, Fedor Yurchikhin, Alexander Misurkin, Alexander Lazutkin, Mikhail Kornienko, Andrey Babkin and Nikolay Tikhonov.
Cosmonauts Sergey Ryazansky, Oleg Artemiev and Sergey Prokopyev have run a number of video sessions for the little artists from onboard of the ISS.
"Our art space suits magnetized with children's drawings have become true peacemakers uniting people of different countries on all the continents round the globe and reminding us what really matters in our lives and what brings sense and in the way humanity moves forward its mission," Kuzmenko said.
"Space, creativity and children health are those themes that continue to unite people in all the countries even in times of political turmoil. We summon not fight with each other, but to join together global efforts in the fight against child cancer," she added.
