Lowered Expectations at the NEW Canadian Space Agency

          by Chuck Black

Eighteen months after the David Emerson led review of aerospace "and space" activities (the Aerospace Review) recommended a complete housekeeping at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and two months after Industry Minister James Moore announced the formation of two committees for public input and fiscal supervision of CSA activities, the new management under CSA president Walt Natynczyk, has defaulted to the comfy, low overhead strategy of funding small, preliminary projects to "run up the flagpole" of other government departments and international organizations where more substantive funding (and political support) might just possibly be found.

Astronauts David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen, with Industry Minister James Moore and CSA president Walt Natynczyk in Ottawa during the February 7th, 2014 announcement of Canada's Space Policy Framework, which incorporated many of the recommendations of the Aerospace Review. The government overview of this new policy approach is described in the "Canadian Space Agency Implementing Canada’s Space Policy Framework" which was made by Natynczyk during a February 25th, 2014 CSA meeting in Longueuil, PQ. Photo c/o Industry Canada.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Here are a few of the more recent awards:

• The largest batch of preliminary awards are outlined in the April 29th, 2014 CSA press release "The Canadian Space Agency supports five studies on microsatellites," which focused on a series "of proposed missions to meet Canadian priorities on security, health and environmental monitoring." According to the press release, CSA will be collaborating on these "feasibility studies" with Environment Canada, National Resources Canada, Parks Canada, the Department of National Defence (DND), the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CESC), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada plus the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The contracts were awarded following a request for proposal (RFP) issued in November 2013 and the total value of the five contracts is expected to be $2.3Mln CDN over two years.

ASTRO-H project manager Tadayuki Takahashi. Graphic c/o JAXA.

• As outlined in the April 24th, Marketwire press release "Government of Canada Awards Contract for Canada's Contribution to Japan's Next Generation Space Observatory," the CSA has also awarded a $1.35Mln CDN contract to the Neptec Design Group for ongoing work to develop the Canadian Astro-H Metrology System (CAMS) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). CAMS, a laser alignment system designed to measure the displacement of hard X-ray images, will be a key component of the ASTRO-H x-ray observatory, a satellite currently under development by JAXA.

Hyperspectral data collected by the Galileo Group, as part of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight operations and data collections for a series of missions supporting a NASA sponsored project. The data sets can be used to establish sea grass bed location, extent and its photosynthetic production, and can play a key role in monitoring changes over time relating to environmental conditions. Photo c/o Galileo Group. 

• Of course, some of the larger and more complex awards are no longer even announced through the CSA. Typical of these is the April 23rd, 2014 CNW press release from BC based MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) under the headline "MDA to further concept for Canadian Hyperspectral Mission." According to the press release, MDA has "signed a contract with the Canadian Space Agency to develop the mission concept for an operational Canadian Hyperspectral Mission. MDA will lead a team of experts to develop a satellite constellation concept to collect hyperspectral imagery around the globe and specifically in Canada and its coastal waters on a weekly basis." No dollar amount for the contract was included in the press release but the "ARCHIVED Concept Study for a Canadian Hyperspectral Mission (9F045-13-0556)" page on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website listed the contract as being worth $420,000 CDN and indicates that it was awarded in January 2014.

Now that everyone knows that new initiatives require political and fiscal backing from outside the CSA in order to move forward, business has begun to ramp up the public relations machine.

Typical of these efforts are two potential projects discussed in the April 30th, 2014 Vancouver Sun article "Metro Vancouver firm MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates, looks to future in deep space," which described two potential "deep space" missions, which could move forward, given some cash and the proper public support.

The first, described as "the EML-2 Deep-Space Habitat Mission" would establish a platform or staging area about 60,000 kilometres beyond the moon that could serve as a servicing or fueling depot for future lunar or deep-space exploration missions to Mars and other planets.

The second, an asteroid redirect mission would see "a robotic spacecraft travel to a small near-Earth asteroid (10 metres or less in diameter), capture it and redirect it to a safe orbit on the far side of the moon."

Both missions sound interesting enough but each will certainly require a great deal of public activism over the next decade in order to end up as anything more than another of the innumerable "power-point projects" currently clogging up the public presentations of space advocacy groups. 

Let's see how the public reacts to its new role as arbiter of our domestic space program.