By Chuck Black
It's worth noting that few (if any) Canadian Federal government space related initiatives can move forward without the active participation of some fairly senior Ottawa based politcal operatives.
As outlined most recently in the March 22nd, 2018 post, "What Happens After the Failure of the Space Advisory Board?," that political engagement has been missing under the present Justin Trudeau Federal government.
It's not that the appropriate politician won't politely return the phone calls from the appropriate technocrat, bureaucrat or independent advisory board panel member. It's that the politicians continue to promise action next week, not this week, after making similar promises last week and the week before.
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| An "advocacy funnel," one of many useful, graphic representations available online to help define the mechanisms and actions needed to gain the attention of elected representatives. Graphic c/o The Campaign Workshop. |
As outlined most recently in the March 22nd, 2018 post, "What Happens After the Failure of the Space Advisory Board?," that political engagement has been missing under the present Justin Trudeau Federal government.
It's not that the appropriate politician won't politely return the phone calls from the appropriate technocrat, bureaucrat or independent advisory board panel member. It's that the politicians continue to promise action next week, not this week, after making similar promises last week and the week before.
In some cases, such as the proposed Canadian contributions to the US Deep Space Gateway (DSG), now known as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G), political approval may simply be a formality.
After all, the general consensus within government is that the program is the logical follow-on to one of the current core mission of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which is to administer and co-ordinate Canadian contributions to the International Space Station (ISS).
But sometimes those initial assumptions are simply not congruent with the final political and funding decisions.
But sometimes those initial assumptions are simply not congruent with the final political and funding decisions.
As outlined in the both the April 30th, 2018 post, "NASA Resource Prospector Cancellation "Disappointing" Says Deltion Innovations CEO Boucher," and the September 26th, 2016 post, "The REAL Reason Why Canada Won't Be Participating in the NASA Resolve Mission Anytime Soon, Probably!," those disconnects happen often and occur because of political decisions at both the domestic and international level.
Sometimes, the consensus needed to make a political decision may be lacking.
An example of this could be found at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) ASTRO'18 conference, held this year in Quebec City, PQ from May 15th - 17th, during the Thursday morning presentation on the upcoming "RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) Data Policy."
The presentation focused on the substancial amount of legislation which has grown up around Earth imaging since RADARSAT-2 launched in 2005 and how the existing policy needs to be taken into account before creating a new set of policy decisions to cover the release of the expected flood of upcoming RCM data.
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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog. During this past week, he attended and participated at CASI ASTRO'18 in Quebec City.
An example of this could be found at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) ASTRO'18 conference, held this year in Quebec City, PQ from May 15th - 17th, during the Thursday morning presentation on the upcoming "RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) Data Policy."
The presentation focused on the substancial amount of legislation which has grown up around Earth imaging since RADARSAT-2 launched in 2005 and how the existing policy needs to be taken into account before creating a new set of policy decisions to cover the release of the expected flood of upcoming RCM data.
Given that RCM is currently scheduled to launch sometime before the end of 2018, there are reasonable grounds to conclude that the constellation could begin operating and collecting data before any RCM data policy is finalized and appoved at the political level.
The complexity of integrating the existing and proposed new legislation could also be a part of the problem with that new, private sector commercial ground station built by Inuvik, NWT based New North Networks for San Francisco, CA based Planet and Norwegian based Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT).
The complexity of integrating the existing and proposed new legislation could also be a part of the problem with that new, private sector commercial ground station built by Inuvik, NWT based New North Networks for San Francisco, CA based Planet and Norwegian based Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT).
As outlined in the March 5th, 2018 post, "That Commercial Ground Station Built by New North Networks in Inuvik Still Can't be Used," and the newer, May 7th, 2018 CTV news post, "'We're quite frustrated:' Red tape threatens growing Arctic space industry," that situation has remained unresolved for two years and will fall apart if not soon dealt with by Ottawa.
Of course, there were at least a few people focused on space policy at CASI ASTRO'18.
These including Federal Space Advisory Board (SAB) head Lucy Stojak, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) executive VP Iain Christie, along with representatives from the McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and others.
But there wasn't any influencial members of parliment in attendance or any explicitely political operatives of the kind that inhabit the darker corridors of the typical AIAC or Canadian Science Policy Centre conference.
And, for the most part, those who did attend focused either on a simple listing of the items needing to be politically addressed (and that's a long list) or on their favoured version of a political end result.
There wasn't a lot of discussion on practical methodologies needed to achieve results or address problems. This is an obvious failure on the part of our domestic space industry.
Until it can come to grips with the specific steps required to move the political ball forward, that massive political elephant already crowding every room at CASI ASTRO'18 will continue to grow larger.
Eventually, it could end up crushing us all.
Of course, there were at least a few people focused on space policy at CASI ASTRO'18.
These including Federal Space Advisory Board (SAB) head Lucy Stojak, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) executive VP Iain Christie, along with representatives from the McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and others.
But there wasn't any influencial members of parliment in attendance or any explicitely political operatives of the kind that inhabit the darker corridors of the typical AIAC or Canadian Science Policy Centre conference.
And, for the most part, those who did attend focused either on a simple listing of the items needing to be politically addressed (and that's a long list) or on their favoured version of a political end result.
There wasn't a lot of discussion on practical methodologies needed to achieve results or address problems. This is an obvious failure on the part of our domestic space industry.
Until it can come to grips with the specific steps required to move the political ball forward, that massive political elephant already crowding every room at CASI ASTRO'18 will continue to grow larger.
Eventually, it could end up crushing us all.
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| Chuck Black. |
Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog. During this past week, he attended and participated at CASI ASTRO'18 in Quebec City.
Chuck: lots of insight here. Not everyone wants to or has the time and energy to work all the way through the funnel to meet with the legislator. However, as I said at CASI, the easiest thing to do is contact your member of parliament via their website, or call, or best go meet them at their constituency office. YOU WILL NOT BE IGNORED. It is an election year soon! Ask them this simple question :"Because space is important to me, and Canada is rapidly falling behind globally, I want YOU to ask Minister Bains what plans he has to improve Canada's position globally so Canadian industry and academia can be competitive in space exploration". Tell them you expect to hear from them soon.
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