INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER An inspirational, uplifting, and life-affirming memoir about passion, resilience, and living life to the fullest, from Dr. Dave Williams, one of Canada’s most accomplished astronauts. I had dreamt about becoming an astronaut from the time I watched Alan Shepard launch on the first American sub-orbital flight on May 5, 1961. Eleven days before my seventh birthday, I committed to a new goal: one day, I would fly in outer space. Dr. Dave has led the sort of life that most people only dream of. He has set records for spacewalking. He has lived undersea for weeks at a time. He has saved lives as an emergency doctor, launched into the stratosphere twice, and performed surgery in zero gravity. But if you ask him how he became so accomplished, he’ll say: “I’m just a curious kid from Saskatchewan.” Curious indeed. Dr. Dave never lost his desire to explore nor his fascination with the world. Whether he was exploring the woods behind his childhood home or floating in space at the end of the Canadarm, Dave tried to see every moment of his life as filled with beauty and meaning. He learned to scuba dive at only twelve years old, became a doctor despite academic struggles as an undergraduate, and overcame stiff odds and fierce competition to join the ranks of the astronauts he had idolized as a child. There were setbacks and challenges along the way—the loss of friends in the Columbia disaster, a cancer diagnosis that nearly prevented him from returning to space—but through it all, Dave never lost sight of his goal. And when he finally had the chance to fly among the stars, he came to realize that although the destination can be spectacular, it’s the journey that truly matters. In Defying Limits, Dave shares the events that have defined his life, showing us that whether we’re gravity-defying astronauts or earth-bound terrestrials, we can all live an infinite, fulfilled life by relishing the value and importance of each moment. The greatest fear that we all face is not the fear of dying, but the fear of never having lived. Each of us is greater than we believe. And, together, we can exceed our limits to soar farther and higher than we ever imagined.

Will humans ever be able to live on other planets? Former NASA astronaut Dr. Dave Williams is the person to ask. It turns out that Earth is a pretty good place to live. Finding other habitable environments in space is no easy task: temperatures on Mercury are ten times hotter than on Earth; winter on Neptune lasts about forty years, and Uranus is ten billion miles (sixteen billion kilometers) away. But there is one planet that looks promising: Mars. Even though it takes six months to get there, Mars most closely resembles Earth. So what would it take to make it habitable--and what would life look like there? As in the other three titles in the Dr. Dave: Astronaut series, this book demystifies space travel. The science is explained in simple terms while the sense of adventure is ever-present. This book belongs in the hands of every child interested in space, and in every classroom where STEM is taught.

Who could imagine an idea born on a space station would help sustain our planet? Astronauts, living on the International Space Station, have to protect their resources because their lives depend on it. They learn to conserve water, air, food, energy, and waste. These efforts have in turn lead to amazing and innovative ideas for air quality, food production, and water purification here on Earth.

Really "high" tech to inspire us for sustainable solutions on Earth. Who could imagine an idea born on a space station would help sustain our planet? Astronauts, living on the International Space Station, have to protect their resources because their lives depend on it. They learn to conserve water, air, food, energy, and waste. These efforts have in turn lead to amazing and innovative ideas for air quality, food production, and water purification here on Earth. With vivid, energetic illustrations, photographs, and Dr. Dave's experiments on key topics, readers learn about technological innovations such as waterless toilets and the world's tallest air purification tower.