As a kid I used to spend a week most summers at a rented cottage at Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay. While mostly known for its beach life, it is also a crossroads for history.

In the Nottawasaga River is the remains of the Nancy, sunk during the War of 1812. To the north is Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons, a recreation of a 17th century French mission, and on nearby Penetanguishene Bay is a the remnants of an English naval base that was built in the 1820s.

But one thrill for me was imagining explorer Samuel de Champlain and his native guides canoeing across Georgian Bay on their way to meet the Petun people on Blue Mountain, a part of the Bruce Peninsula – a trip that may or may not have happened, according to recent historic discourse.

Aiding Champlain as he travelled through the Canadian wilderness would have been his astrolabe, an early GPS of sorts. The brass device measured the positions of the sun, moon and stars in order to give travelers some sense of latitude in unexplored parts of the world.


The statue of Samuel de Champlain holding the astrolabe at Ottawa's Neapean Point

Today, we learn that the spirit of Champlain will be riding with Julie Payette – in the form of a copy of the astrolabe – as she blasts off on the shuttle Endeavour tomorrow for a journey to the International Space Station (ISS).

Payette will be taking a smaller replica of the device into space but it is fully functioning and perfectly calibrated. Hopefully she will not need it to find her way back to earth.

Payette will join fellow Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk on the space station, marking the first time two Canadians have been in space at the same time. Together they will test the roominess of the space station as the 13 members of the ISS and shuttle crews meet in orbit.

Champlain's astrolabe was almost forgotten by history. The father of Quebec lost his precious navigation tool while travelling along the Ottawa River in 1613.

(Note to Julie Payette, keep a firm grip on the astrolabe.)

In the propitious year of 1867, the artifact was found by a farm boy, Edward Lee, who was later swindled out of it by a riverboat captain. Through a series of owners, this essential piece of Canadiana was eventually restored to the Canadian government. Now it's on permanent display at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

The choice of the astrolabe to symbolize Canada's spirit of adventure and exploration is a great one. Like Champlain, Canada's astronauts are taking considerable risks in a hostile environment.

It's an overlooked fact that Canada was the third country in space, after the U.S. and the old U.S.S.R., when we launched our own communications satellite, the Alouette, in 1962. Two Canadians also played major engineering roles in NASA's development of the spacecraft which would eventually put Neil Armstrong on the moon.

Today, shuttle trips seem commonplace. Our astronauts' achievements as they unload another module for the ISS like so many Ikea boxes may seem insignificant in a world plagued with war, disease and inequality.



Julie Payette (AP/John Raoux)

Yet, it may well be several lifetimes before we see the benefits the International Space Station.

Did the old explorer, while on his deathbed in 1635, wonder what he achieved with all his exertions and voyages?

Check out his astrolabe in its hallowed venue and you decide what he accomplished.