The astronaut and the giant map: Iqaluit students get space lesson from soon-to-be spaceman

Between training to to fly a rocket and learning Russian, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques is touring some schools across the country teaching students about what he calls the "invisible infrastructure" up in the sky.

In two years, Saint-Jacques will co-pilot a Soyuz rocket on a mission to the International Space Station.

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Part of his preparationincluded Arctic survival training in Nunavut where he spent a couple of days camping in the tundra in the winter.But on Monday, he was in the territory's capital on a different exercise along with a gigantic teaching tool that rolls up to fit inside a hockey bag.

Saint-Jacques, along with representatives from theRoyal Canadian Geographical Society, were in Iqaluit teachingstudents at Inuksuk High School about satellites with the help of a giant map of Canada covering the floor of the gymnasium. It wasstitched together using 121 images shot from space by theRadarsat-2satellite, Canada's newest satellite.

"Satellite is just as important as an infrastructure for Canada as our harbours, ourtelephone system," Saint-Jacques said.

The North relies heavily on satellite technology and was reminded of that earlier this monthwhen a glitch in the Anik F2 satellite knocked out phone and Internet services in some communities across the country's three territories.

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"That just highlights how dependent we areon what we call the invisible infrastructure of space," he said.

Travelling map

The map, which measures10.7 metres by7.9 metres, is one of many travelling to classrooms across the country since 2014. It will stay in Nunavut for the next three years, travelling the territory as a teaching tool.

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Canadian Space Agency andInuit Tapiriit Kanatami worked together to develop northern-focusedcurriculum using the map, such asunderstanding ice monitoring and navigation.

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"It just gives students an opportunity to view Canada from a different lens," said Sarah Black, an education program co-ordinator with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

"And that's the power of the map. It turns everybody into a storyteller, it turns everybody into a teacher and a dreamer."

Students mapped out Nunavut's border and marked some of the territory`s hamlets, such asBaker Lake, known as the exact geographiccentre of Canada, and Grise Fiord, Canada's most northern community, where Grade 11 student Anna Lambe grew up.

"I think a lot of the students will see that we're all a really small piece of the world and the world is a really small piece of the universe, so really we've just got to take care of our planet because, as David has said, it is fragile," Lambe said.

Saint-Jacques addressed about 100 students about his journey from growing up in St. Lambertnear Montreal to serving as the co-chief of medicine at the Inuulitsivik Health CentreinPuvirnituq,Que., before being selected in May 2009 to become an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency.

He leaves for a mission at the International Space Station in November2018.

"There was one thing that I remember from my time with the Inuit, this phrase I heard. You know, the Earth doesn't belong to us, we belong to the Earth," Saint-Jacques said.

"And I think when I have a chance to see my master, see mother earth from above, I expect that to be quite a moving moment."

Two of the giant maps will tour schools inthe Northwest Territories and Yukon next year.