Painting unity: Montreal children in hospital help design colourful space suit

They may be in hospital for now, but a group of sick children in Montreal are making a kaleidoscopic mark on space travel.

A handful of children at the Montreal Children’s Hospital were given the chance Wednesday to paint colourful panels for a one-of-a-kind space suit to be worn by an astronaut in a future mission to outer space.

The artwork is part of the Space Suit Project, a NASA-approved initiative that has already completed two suits, Hope and Courage. The new suit, named Unity, is a joint effort by children from cities in counties that helped build the International Space Station -- Cologne, Moscow, Tokyo and Montreal.

“They need some sort of inspiration, something to get their minds off of what’s going on all day,” John Beales, whose son Benjamin is in hospital, told CTV Montreal. “The idea that he can make something that goes to space is pretty fun.”

The children met with American astronaut Nicole Stott and Ian Cion, the art director of the Children’s Cancer Hospital at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Cion has made it his personal mission to find ways to integrate art into medical treatment for children diagnosed with cancer.

“People want to support kids in difficult situations,” Cion explained. “I think the community is very inspired by the idea that kids can create something that’s going to help them get beyond their experiences in the hospital.”

Between 1,500 and 2,000 small triangles will be hand-painted by children and patched together to form the space suit’s unique design.

Stott, who has travelled to space on two missions, said that project is not only a union of efforts from cities across the globe, but also a union of ideas.

“It ties together the inspiration of space, it ties together art, and it ties together healing,” she said.

Last month, NASA engineer Kate Rubins wore the Courage space suit for the very first time inside the International Space Station. Before heading to space, Rubins herself met with the pediatric patients in Houston who hand-painted the suit.

With a report from CTV Montreal