January 2011 Archives

According to Philomena Bonis, the real reason why she hosted the Astronomy & Space Exploration Society (ASX) 8th Annual Expanding Canada's Frontier Symposium, on Friday, January 28th, at the University of Toronto Convocation Hall was to show that "the passions, the dreams and the interests of ordinary people can turn a series of seemingly small steps into something extraordinary."

The CBC "mothercorp" reports (incorrectly) that "NASA has a long-term obligation with other partners to provide (the CSA) with transportation to the ISS" and others wonder what ever happened to the Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) annual report on the "State of the Canadian Space Sector" which was due for release in December 2010? All that plus the 2011 Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) Presidents Tour, this week in space for Canada.

In this video map, trace the path that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has taken in her seven years on Mars.

An autonomous Japanese resupply ship, the "Kounotori"2 H-2B Transfer Vehicle (HTV2 ), was captured and berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station Jan. 27, 2011.

Tonight the Astronomy & Space Exploration Society at the University of Toronto is hosting the 8th annual "Expanding Canada's Frontiers" symposium. It is billed as the largest astronomy symposium in the country. The event starts 7 p.m. at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall and doors open at 6 p.m. This years theme is "Unraveling the Universe" and features several prominent Canadian researchers.

Each January NASA holds a day of remembrance to honor the crews of Apollo 1, space shuttles Challenger and Columbia who lost their lives in pursuit of not only their personal passions but the goals of a planet, for we are a species that is curious and are compelled to explore and space exploration is compelling. This year as we remember the fallen astronauts it also marks the 25th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger tragedy. Of the three tragedy's, it is the loss of of Challenger that many remember vividly. Why is that?

The recent announcement by Microsat Systems Canada (MSCI) CEO David Cooper that his company is "launching a new initiative" to build a constellation of 78 small, relatively low-flying satellites designed to relieve internet and smart phone congestion and provide broadband access in rural locations, highlights the differences between small space focused Canadian firms and their larger commercial satellite and internet service provider cousins.

Engineers test the first-of-its-kind landing system on NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity.

Mississauga-based Microsat Systems Canada (MSCI) announces it's building a massive (perhaps too good to be true) constellation of 78 small, relatively low-flying satellites designed to relieve network smart phone congestion. Macdonald Dettwiler (MDA) will be "exercising an option" for additional work on the Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) developed Cygnus cargo spacecraft and even ComDev International gets a new military contract from the US government. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) is taking advantage of their expertise in robotics as they recently signed a multi-million dollar contract amendement with Orbital Sciences Corporation to provide capture and mating solutions for Orbital's autonomous Cygnus commercial resupply service spacecraft.

SpaceX's proposal to accelerate evolution of the Dragon spacecraft to a crew transportation system.

Animation of the Orbital Cygnus spacecraft commercial cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The Canadian Space Agency released one of the images captured by Radarsat-2 which were delivered to the International Charter Space and Major Disasters on behalf of Emergency Management Australia and the State of Queensland, Australia. The featured image shows Australia's northeastern state of Queensland.

Every now and then a video comes along that goes viral with an unexpected impact. In this case the video titled "NASA - The Frontier is Everywhere" by Canadian Reid Gower of Victoria has done just that. Gower created the video because he was frustrated with NASA.

Launched less than two years ago the Planck Space Telescope has released a new catalogue of data that includes thousands of never before seen dusty cocoons where stars are forming and some of the most massive clusters of galaxies ever observed. Planck's mission is to detect light from just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, an explosive event at the dawn of the universe approximately 13.7 billion years ago. Planck is a European Space Agency led mission with contributions from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

NASA "sole sources" a $31.2 million contract to a US firm to "execute demonstrations" on the Canadian built Dextre robot as the James Webb Space Telescope goes so far over budget as to endanger other NASA programs. This seems only to encourage the beleaguered US space agency to obsess painfully about whether it should be listening to "Homer Simpson" or "Elon Musk." All that and more (mmm donuts...) this week in space for Canada.

Canada has no indigenously satellite launch capability and until the last decade it wasn't even an issue people within the industry contemplated too seriously. However global security events such as 9/11, arctic sovereignty, earth observation needs have all increased Canada's need and reliance on satellites. So does Canada need an indigenous satellite launch capability? It's a question worth exploring as we consider whether Canadian sovereignty is at risk by not having our own launch capability.