It's been 25 years since Dr. Roberta Bondar made history for being Canada's first female astronaut and the world's first neurologist in space.
Now, Bondar is making guest appearances throughout Northern Ontario speaking to students about her love for our planet, in a speaking tour called 'Earth Matters'.
She made a stop at Science North to speak with students in Sudbury on June 1.
"It was exciting," Walden Public School grade 5 student Paige Kultalahti said. "I learned a lot more about space, planets and stars."
The presentations are part of the Ontario150 Bondar Challenge where people are invited to take photographs of an aspect of nature in their own community that they admire and hope will still exist 150 years from now.
"My view from the spacecraft Discovery 25 years ago forever changed my view of Earth," Bondar said. "It was on that flight that I committed to protect this magnificent planet."
It's no secret, Sudbury's landscape has changed over the years.
In 1971, NASA sent astronauts to Sudbury to study meteorite impact formations left by the meteorite that struck Earth at the site of Sudbury some 1.85 billion years ago.
"Sudbury's re-greening efforts have been wonderful," Bondar said. "I think Sudbury is quite remarkable and is an example for the rest of our country and the rest of the world."
Participants can submit their photographs for the Ontario150 Bondar Challenge at therobertabondarfoundation.org.
