Quick Notes on the Upcoming CASI ASTRO'18

          By Henry Stewart

Here's a few quick notes on the upcoming Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) ASTRO'18, Canada's largest space conference, which will be held on May 15th - 17th at the Hôtel Delta Quebec in Quebec City, PQ.

• News updates, registration, sponsorship and accommodation information, plus information on the one day "Space Resiliancy" workshop, which will be held on May 14th, 2018, are available on the  main ASTRO18 webpage. 

• The conference overview & technical program along with the ASTRO'18 Book of Abstracts are available on separate web pages. 

• The ASTRO'18 team has organized a site visit to ABB Canada’s Measurement and Analytics business unit’s unique high-tech facility in the Espace d’innovation Michelet, a next-generation technological park in Québec City on Thursday, May 17th from 2:15pm – 4:30pm.

This 85,000-square-foot new facility boasts some impressive features including: 

• Cleanroom space (2,800 sq. ft.) composed of 8 individual rooms and external service hall to double simultaneous integration capacity. 

• Laboratory space (40% larger) for R&D and contract engineering with dedicated optical (2x) and ESD critical electronic (2x) rooms. 

• A large TVAC (1.5 meter inside diameter) adapted for large payloads such as the PCW Meteorological Imager. 

• Metrology room with anti-vibration floating slab and micro-vibration tests setup. 

• 28 feet height high bay production floor for integration and test of large equipment (ex. astronomy instruments).

For more information on this site visit, please check out the ABB Canada – Site Visit web page on the CASI website.

• Commercial Space blog editor Chuck Black is on the technical committee of the event this year and will be speaking on the topic of "So You Want to be a Space Advocate" on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 16th, 2018 as part of the Public Engagement and Outreach track. 

If you like what he has to say please feel free to provide feedback during the session. Otherwise, feel free to bring ripe fruit for throwing. Either way, a good time will be had by all. 

See you in Quebec City.

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer