Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 04/99) - An 11-year-old Yellowknifer is off to the Cosmodome in Laval, Que., thanks to some creative thinking and communication skills.

Sandra Bokovay was the territorial winner in a national essay contest that saw one winner from each province or territory.

Bokovay answered the question: What do you think space research brings to everyday life?

"For kids who are allergic to the sun who have had to wear black, space research will mean better material," she said.

"(Space research) will mean maybe they can improve fashions because all their bodies have to be covered up."

Another way space research could benefit people is to find cures for diseases such as osteoporosis, which affects bone mass, Bokovay said.

Though the disease normally affects women, she said former astronauts could be tested to see if they are more or less susceptible to that or other diseases.

"If they go into space that's how some people find cures for things. They do lots of research in order to do it."

A third way space research has helped people is with communications.

Bokovay said global positioning systems and some news organizations bounce signals off satellites in space.

For winning the contest, Bokovay received an all expenses paid trip to the space camp at the Cosmodome for herself, 11 friends and a chaperon.

The total of 12 girls from J.H. Sissons school will divide into two teams and alternate learning how to take off and land a space ship and compete with each other.

Winners get caps or T-shirts said teacher Marie Le Doze.

The real point of the trip is to have fun and learn about space travel.

When older Bokovay said she might want to go into space for real but she wasn't sure whether she would be able to.

"I might, but it sort of depends on how well you do in school, I guess," she said.

Bokovay said she does not think of the dangers or bad things that happen in space but rather focuses on the positive ways research can help.