Did you use a car, browse the net, pick up a telephone, listen to the radio, check the weather, or drink water today? Each day we unknowingly use products and services designed or advanced by space technology, often Canadian.
Though not well-advertised, Canada is a world leader in space. Headed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), whose mission is “the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity,” Canadian scientists are making huge advances in space technology.
Our vast size, climate, and rugged terrain have enabled Canada to become a major player in communication, remote sensing, and Earth Observation Systems (EOS). As the third country to have a spacecraft in orbit, and the first nation to have its own commercial satellite communication system, Canada now leads the world with the RADARSAT satellites.
RADARSAT-1 monitors global water quality, resource management, atmospheric pollution; and ozone effects, and here at home studies our fragile Arctic and ensures sustainable forest development. The satellite is powerful enough to localize individual pollution sources and identify violations of the UN Kyoto Protocol.
RADARSAT-2, to be launched this year, will have such powerful image resolution that it will be able to identify crops, study urban vegetation, and monitor and map disaster areas. As current lead agency of the global charter on the coordinated use of space satellites, the CSA is heading international projects to map the Asian tsunami disaster area and provide well-planned relief efforts.
EOS, critically important for Canadian defence and sovereignty, is also highly lucrative, garnering over $350 million a year in products and services, including image sales to 500 commercial and government users in nearly 60 nations; Canada often supplies images in exchange for satellite launches or to improve international relations. This revenue more than compensates for government investment in the CSA, which amounts to about $300 million a year.
Canadian space technology is also helping to advance medical science. American heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey, who developed a heart assist device for coronary patients based on the Space Shuttle fuel pump, is now pioneering the field of telemedicine, the performance of surgery robotically over long distance. This project, developed by the CSA’s Advanced Satellite Communications Program, will allow surgical procedures to be performed in hard-to-reach places, both in our country’s far north, and perhaps in the far reaches of interplanetary space.
However, it is in space robotics, more than in any other field, that Canada is a world leader. Canadian fame began in the early 1980s with the development of the Canadarm, a 15-metre long robotic arm capable of performing delicate operations in space with the precision and control of a human arm. But Canadarm is just the beginning. Brampton-based MD Robotics recently constructed for NASA the Mobile Servicing System (MSS), which helps assemble and maintain the International Space Station (ISS). The MSS includes the 17-metre Canadarm2, installed by CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield, and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (Dextre).
Canadarm2, which moves along the entire ISS, flipping end-over-end, is strong enough to move objects as large as the space shuttle, and reliable enough to guide astronauts during space walks. It will also receive equipment from an old friend, the original Canadarm, for what has been dubbed a Canadian “handshake” in space.
The two-armed robot Dextre is precise enough to perform delicate operations like installing small payloads, operating tools and wrenches, and responding to contact with highly advanced artificial intelligence.
Should there be any doubt about Canadian expertise in space robotics, consider that this summer NASA, needing a robotic servicing mission to fix and upgrade the dying Hubble Space Telescope, issued a request to only one company to handle the most challenging robotics mission in the history of space: MD Robotics. The contract will pay MD Robotics $154 million, half the total annual budget of the CSA, and, if successful, will make Canada responsible for increasing the quality and life expectancy of the Hubble.
Canada is also proving a valuable partner in planetary exploration. We will utilize our expertise in atmospheric studies to provide a weather station for sensing atmospheric temperature and pressure for NASA’s 2007 Phoenix Scout mission to Mars. The station involves a revolutionary imaging technology called LIDAR (laser radar) built by Toronto-based Optech Inc. LIDAR, whose Earthly applications include resource mapping and underwater topographical analysis, can be used for landings and surface navigation.
Renowned Canadian mining and drilling technologies, developed at the Northern Ontario Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), could be used for digging on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars to hunt for fossils, analyze sub-surface soil, and prospect and extract resources.
Closer to home, at the U of T Institute for Aerospace Studies’ MarsDome, a fleet of rovers is being tested in the largest simulated Martian landscape on Earth, hopefully preparing for a Canadian-led mission to Mars in the next decade.
The CSA’s annual budget has not increased past $300 million in five years, despite missed international science and exploration opportunities and a wealth of export potential. With space activities currently responsible for 5,000 jobs in Canada and generating $1 billion in annual revenues, unique among all nations in that nearly half come from exports, some think the CSA’s budget should be increased. Students at the National Space Awareness Workshop, held at the CSA, were asked to discuss the optimistic question: “What should Canada’s space-related priorities be with an increased budget to $500M/year?” This amount would bring our investment as a percent of GDP to just under the average of G7 nations.
Controversial decisions included working towards a Canadian-led robotic mission to Mars, allowing our scientists to choose what studies to perform, and ensuring Canada have a voice in forming future space policy. Realizing that research and development drive the Canadian economy, emphasis was also placed on returning funds to general research and innovation, a theme found in early speeches of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Canada’s space history and contributions were honoured this year as Vancouver hosted the 55th International Astronautical Congress. Under the auspices of the prime minister of Canada, the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) hosted over one thousand delegates to the world’s premier aerospace conference.
“Not since the Apollo era have there been such specific directions at NASA,” said Sean O’Keefe, former administrator of NASA, who joined CSA President Marc Garneau and the heads of the European, Japanese, and Russian space agencies to discuss the future of human space exploration. They outlined new plans for solar system exploration, with targets including Mars, Neptune, Pluto, and the icy moons of Jupiter, and pledged to continue to cooperate for peaceful uses of space.
NASA and the European Space Agency have worked together on the joint Cassini/Huygens mission to study Saturn and its surroundings, which includes at least 33 moons. Our knowledge of the system increases as the Cassini spacecraft continues its four-year mission.
Just after 5am EST on Friday, January 14, the Huygens probe will drop below the clouds of Saturn’s moon Titan to explore the surface of the second largest moon in the solar system and one containing an atmosphere similar to that of the primeval Earth. No one knows if Huygens will land on a dry surface or float on an ocean of methane, as dense clouds have made observation of Titan’s surface extremely difficult.
