Benjamin A Turner

Mission AstroAccess is an organization dedicated to promoting disability inclusion in space exploration. In October 2021, the pilot cohort of Disabled Ambassadors were launched into orbit on a Zero Gravity Corporation parabolic flight to experience weightlessness and investigate microgravity accessibility solutions. The second AstroAccess Flight will take place on November 19, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This book serves to outline the stories and perspectives of those who participated in this historical initiative. Several of the authors have shadowed, interviewed, and studied the members of the Mission AstroAccess crew and have been involved in extensive research surrounding the mission, the team, and their backgrounds. Over the course of this book, we will be introduced to several characters that have played critical roles in the shaping of Mission AstroAccess.

The Franklin Expedition of 1845 is an enduring mystery that has captured public imagination for nearly two centuries. Recent research and Inuit testimony have provided long-awaited insights into the final days of the crew and the struggles they faced. This book takes a close look at the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, provides a review of previous Royal Navy Expeditions that set the stage for the Franklin tragedy, and explores the methodology and technologies employed by the Netsilik Inuit who have survived and thrived in the region where the Franklin Expedition met its gruesome end. This book provides a look at the historic elements, biographical information on key players, technological adjustments made to the vessels, and the traditional lifestyle of the Indigenous population to give insight into what it takes to survive in the region. This context offers readers a reasonable understanding of what is believed to have happened on the expedition, including what was done right, what went wrong, and what elements of the expedition were hopeless in the first place. Personal and professional pressures, combined with the previous misadventures of Sir John Franklin when faced with freezing temperatures and the prospect of starvation provide a glimpse into the motivations of the legendary explorer. The critical decision made by Captain Francis Crozier to abandon the ships in April of 1848 and attempt to walk across Kikertak (King William Island) culminated in a torturous effort by the sick and weakened crew; they interacted with the Netsilik, hunted wild game, and journeyed hundreds of kilometers pulling heavy sledges loaded with supplies and their critically ill comrades. Their desperate march south ended with the ultimate act of desperation: the survivors were forced to eat the corpses of their fallen crewmates.

The SESHAT Volume 9 is an anthology assembled under the supervision of Drs. Austin and Catherine Mardon. This work will be published by the Golden Meteorite Press and promoted to different platforms such as Lulu, Google Scholar, and PubMed under the Antarctic Institute of Canada (AIC) Charity. The SESHAT Volume 9 is not a double-blind peer-reviewed journal as most journals; however, all articles are peer-reviewed thoroughly by experienced pre-medical and graduate students, and Dr. Mardon. The articles accepted in this paper are authored by skilled Article Writers of the Antarctic Institute of Canada. This anthology serves to appreciate and showcase youth scholarly research in the fields of history, politics, and COVID-19 to name a few.