The Next Generation of Robotics

     by Brian Orlotti

A four-legged robot being developed to carry cargo for the US military now sports an arm strong enough to lift and throw 50 pound (23kg) cinder blocks.


   
This robot, BigDog, is made by Boston, MA based firm Boston Dynamics and funded by the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Designed mainly for military use, BigDog has been in development since 2005 and is the size of a large dog or pack-mule.

BigDog’s legs mimic an animal's legs, and are able to absorb shocks and recycle energy as the robot moves around. It is powered by an engine which drives a hydraulic pump to send oil under high pressure around its plumbing in order to animate its limbs. The robot’s small mule arm attached to its ‘head’ can help soldiers pick up and carry heavy loads as well as smaller tasks.

    
Boston Dynamics reps say that in addition to hauling cargo, BigDog’s technology shows great promise in the area of search and rescue. The robot can already move over rugged terrain (or even slippery ice) while carrying a 340 pound (154 kg) load. It can navigate autonomously and also obey voice commands.

Marc Railbert.

In the March 17th, 2013 Engadget interview "Boston Dynamic's Marc Raibert backstage at Expand," Boston Dynamics President Marc Raibert even dangled out the possibility of Boston Dynamics making robots for the consumer market. It's quite possible thatBigDog’s descendants could carry your groceries home from the store or patrol your property for intruders.

And BigDog is just one of a range of robots developed by Boston Dynamics. Others include:

• Alpha Dog - AKA the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), is being developed for use by the US Marine Corps. The LS3 is able to follow a human (or a squad of them) around while accepting voice commands. The Alpha Dog also has improved walking capabilities that allow it to cross rough terrain. The LS3 even has the ability to right itself if it, for instance, tumbles down a hill. Alpha Dog’s roles could include carry a Marine squad’s bags or even acting as a squad support weapon (if armed). 

• Cheetah - a headless machine whose body is inspired by the fastest land animal on Earth. By angling the feet and allowing its back to flex during strides, the designers created a more efficient range of motion, allowing for higher speeds. Cheetah can reach 28.3 mph (45.5 km/h) on a treadmill, faster than the fastest human. Possible battlefield roles for Cheetah include fast cargo delivery and even hit and run attacks on enemy positions.

• Petman - A two-legged human-like walking robot developed for use by the US Army to test chemical protection clothing. It performs heel-toe walking at up to 3.2mph (5.14 kmh) and can be pushed without falling over. It can also crawl and do a range of other movements that soldiers may perform so as to ensure accurate testing for the suits. Petman is even capable of sweating and controlling its own temperature. Petman aims to be as realistic a test subject as possible.  

• Sand Flea – AKA Precision Urban Hopper, is a DARPA-funded robot capable of leaping over 10 meter tall obstacles. This height can be limited if necessary so as to minimize impacts. The jumping mechanism works by Sand Flea rearing up on two rear arms and firing a piston. With a small battery to power the on-board electronics, Sand Flea can be remote controlled via GPS link for long-range surveillance. There’s even an onboard stabilization system to ensure smooth video capture during the jump. A CO2 container allows the 11 pound robot 25 jumps before a refill is needed. The Sand Flea is now in use in Afghanistan supporting US troops by allowing areas to be investigated before any soldiers set foot on the ground. The robot’s jumping ability will be very useful for traveling around major obstacles such as walls, or for gaining higher ground by jumping on to a roof. 

It’s hard to look at these machines and not conjure up images of the robots from the ‘Terminator’ sci-fi universe. In that world, the robots’ goal is to exterminate humans. In reality, our robots may share the dangers with us as assistants and even fellow combatants. Then, war will no longer be a solely human affair.

Emerson's Space Plan Versus the Canadian Budget

The 2013 Federal budget.

The David Emerson led Federal Review of Aerospace and Space Programs and Policies (usually referred to as either the "Aerospace Review Report" or the "Emerson Report") has just achieved its first two unequivocal victories for the aviation industry. 

But the review has so far been much less successful in its attempt to get the Federal government to address the concerns of the $3.5 Bln per year Canadian space industry or to address the ongoing structural and procurement issues which were uncovered by Emerson within the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) as reported in the December 5th, 2012 blog post "What the Space Volume of the Aerospace Review Actually Says."

Of course, the big wins for the aviation industry are easy enough to find. They're funded line items included within the March 21st, 2013 Federal budget.

The first is a 20% increase in funding over the next five years for the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI).

As outlined in the March 22rd, 2013 Canadian Skies Magazine article "Canadian aerospace industry welcomes 2013 Budget initiatives," the SADI program:

... was launched in 2007 to fund research and innovation initiatives and research collaborations. Since then, more than $800 million has been committed to new initiatives.

The budget extends SADI funding over the next five years with another $1 billion, while acknowledging that the program will undergo a number of changes recommended by the Emerson Aerospace Review to make it more effective, including better integration of post-secondary institutions in research collaborations.

As outlined in the March 21st, 2013 SpaceRef.ca article "Budget 2013 - Space Sector: Please Hold a Little Longer," the government "did include mention of companies who had received (previous SADI) funding but they were all in the aero part of the aerospace sector."

The second Emerson win is the new Aerospace Technology Demonstration Program (ATDP), which has been allocated $110Mln CDN over four years beginning in 2014-2015.

According to the budget, this new program will "support large-scale technology projects that exhibit strong commercialization potential and promote cross-industry collaboration, including simulation trials, systems integration testing and refinement activities." The ATDP program is essentially identical to recommendation #3 on page 12 of the first volume of the two volume Emerson Report ("Beyond the Horizon: Canada's Interests and Future in Aerospace") which recommended that the Federal government "create a program to support large scale aerospace technology demonstration."

A portion of the funding for ATDP (up to $20Mln per year) will come from SADI, while the remainder is expected to be new funding. It is also expected that, while Canadian space companies could certainly apply to the ATDP program, there is no specific incentive for them to do so and the majority of applicants will be large aviation companies like Montreal based Bombardier.

But while the aviation industry came in for the lions share of the increased funding, the budget did at least mention the Canadian space industry. It stated that the governments intention is to focus on:

... developing a series of strategic plans outlining the Government's space priorities over the short, medium and long term; establishing a Canadian Space Advisory Council to advise the Government on the development of these plans; stabilizing the budget of the Canadian Space Agency over the next 10 years and establishing cost-sharing models to support the development of new space projects; and implementing measures to expand the level of space-related commercial activity in Canada.

Of course, the aviation sector of the aerospace industry already understands that actions speak louder than words and the government has acted accordingly with the new funding for the SADI and ATDP programs.

Hopefully the space side of the aerospace industry will figure out the same over the next little while and will then follow down a similar path.

After all, the Aerospace Review Report is a two volume report with only part one focused on Canada's Interests and Future in Aerospace (or aviation) and with a part two focused on the entirely different area of Canada's Interests and Future in Space.

Toronto Space Apps Challenge: Technology Within Reach

     by Brian Orlotti

This coming April, a unique contest sponsored by NASA will take place at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto.

On the weekend of April 19th - 21st, one hundred and fifty developers, designers, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs will take a stab at thirty NASA-designed challenges as part of the Toronto International Space Apps Challenge, a ‘hackathon’ that is part of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge.

This is NASA's second space apps challenge and  over seventy five cities around the world will take part in the event. Toronto sponsors include the ROM, the Phuse (an advertising and design agency), the London, Ontario based Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX), the HackerNest collective (one of Canada's largest technical meet-ups), GitHub (which provides collaboration, review, and code management for open source and private development projects), and the Canadian Alumni of the International Space University (CAISU).

Space enthusiasts from a variety of organizations including web development houses, aerospace firms, and space scientists will form teams and be given 48 hours to build prototypes for presentation by weekend’s end. The challenges are divided into four categories: software, open hardware, citizen science, and data visualization. While building their solutions, teams are free to draw on NASA's extensive inventory of spacecraft, science data, and even games and space exploration apps for information (and inspiration).

Last year’s Space Apps Challenge produced a rich diversity of innovation, which included:

• BitHarvester - A data acquisition and control system for remote renewable energy systems developed by a team at the University of Nairobi. BitHarvester was initially built to monitor and control distant wind turbines in rural Kenya and utilizes the worldwide short message service (SMS) protocol, the same protocol used to send text messages over global cell networks, to harness existing infrastructure at minimal cost.

• Planet Hopper – A web app built at last year’s Space Apps Challenge by a team in Oxford, UK. Planet Hopper is aimed at students and non-scientists and takes data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (which collects data on recent and confirmed extra-solar planetary discoveries), then displays it in a visual and fun way. Through a simple interface, you select a star using the system finder and then view its planets. You can make comparisons with each planet to our own. For example, you can find out how long it would take to travel there, how old you would be if you were born there, or how high you could jump if you were standing on the planet’s surface.

• The Pineapple Project – A toolset that uses existing agricultural, climate and topography data to match groups and individuals in rural areas to tropical crops that are appropriate to cultivate in their specific region. These tools include a website, a mobile app, and a SMS text messaging capability that allows users to receive a planting recommendation based on their location.

This year’s Space Apps Challenge comes at a nexus of history for the Canadian space sector. The past few months have seen such milestones as the release of the long-awaited Aerospace Review (also known as the Emerson Report), the launch of four innovative Canadian satellites (as described in the February 25th, 2013 blog post on "the Real Winners of the PSLV-20 Rocket Launch"), Chris Hadfield becoming the first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station (ISS) and a key gathering of space business leaders at the 2013 CSCA National Conference.

It has also seen continuing economic difficulties, and government space activity faced with an increasingly uncertain future. With government activity in decline and the private sector stepping in to fill the void, events like the Space Apps Challenge may well be the crucible in which the future is forged.

"If man realizes technology is within reach, he achieves it. Like its damn near instinctive," according to Motoko Kusanagi, a charactor in the 1995 Japanese anime, Ghost in the Shell.

Hadfield Exploring the Canadian Political Landscape

The Friday chat between International Space Station (ISS) commander Chris Hadfield, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and students gathered at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa is an obvious reminder of how the political process has always been intimately connected to space exploration.



Some of this is because of the political capital which normally accrues to those who hang with intellectuals and explorers. Typically, politicians pay back this capital in more tangible ways, with the hard currency of continued funding.

Stephen Harper

But some don't and that's why the Friday conversation was so important.

The Canadian Prime Minister is essentially testing the waters to see if political capital can be cultivated by addressing the current concerns over the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), as outlined in the recent David Emerson led Aerospace Review.
 
Should this turn out to be so, it's quite possible that there will be some sort of announcement when the next Federal budget comes down on March 21st.

The focus of parliamentary activity will then will shift to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU), which is a committee with quite a bit of history in this area.

Steve MacLean.

In 2008, INDU initiated public discussions on the aborted sale of portions of space contractor MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) to American-owned Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Out of these meetings developed the original Canadian consensus on the need for an updated long term space plan (LTSP) which was duly added to the original mandate of the then incoming CSA President Steve MacLean, in September 2008.

As outlined in the May 23rd, 2010 blog post "Feedback on "The Bill to Push Canada's Agenda in Space," INDU was also the parliamentary committee which MacLean approached in 2010 to ask for an extra two billion dollars over five years in order to "put us at the table" of international space activities. 

This is the closest our last CSA president ever came to publicly releasing his LTSP and provided the real key as to why the plan was rejected. In essence, the MacLean LTSP cost two billion extra dollars over five years, which was simply too rich for the government. 

Hélène Leblanc.

Most recently, on February 28th, 2013, the official opposition in parliment, led by NDP Industry critic Hélène Leblanc, tabled a motion to call David Emerson before INDU to "talk about the recommendations from his report on the aerospace sector."

INDU membership normally includes the Industry Minister and various opposition MP's such as current Liberal MP (and ex-CSA president) Marc Garneau and NDP MP Peggy Nash, who initially brought the MDA/ATK sale to committee members in 2008, and is generally credited with being instrumental in halting the sale. 

While it's not expected that astronaut Hadfield will be required to present before INDU anytime soon, there is little doubt that his recent PR explorations as the public face of the CSA, will be noted by INDU members and affect their upcoming deliberations. 

He should be congratulated on a job well done.

A Quick Overview of CSCA 2013 Media Coverage

Public feedback from the 6th national conference organized by the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA 2013), which was held on Thursday March 7th in Toronto, ON and focused on commercial space resource utilization, has been generally positive, at least if you concentrate on the mass media articles and stories covering the event.

Listed below are a few of the more noteworthy examples:

Dale Boucher.

• According to the March 7th, 2013 Toronto Star article “Mining for gold in deep space,” the topic "sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact, it’s already here says a growing list of mining and aerospace companies." The article went on to quote Dale Boucher, the director of product design, prototyping and testing at the Northern Centre of Advanced Technologies (NORCAT), a Sudbury-based training and technology development centre for the mining industry, as stating that, "Canada can take a leaders’ role (in this new area) by adapting existing mining legislation to include places like asteroids and the moon. That would require international agreements, but Canada can certainly take a leading role."

Bob Richards.

• The March 7th, 2013 Globe and Mail article “Tech titans crucial to the next wave of space exploration" traced the genesis of the asteroid mining concept back to the 1970's and Gerald K. O'Neil, who argued that private enterprise was the key "to extending humanity's presence beyond Earth." The article also quoted Silicon Valley entrepreneur Bob Richards, who left Canada in 2009 because of the then common perception that the Canadian space industry focused primarily on procuring government contracts. According to Richards, the present interest in asteroid mining is simply "the expansion of the economic sphere outward to where the resources are."

Arny Sokoloff.

• The March 8th, 2013 Canadian Press article “Space: the final frontier for extra-terrestrial miners,” focused on how space mining could "become the dominant industry in the future." The article quoted CSCA President Arny Sokoloff, who noted that extra-terrestrial mining was mentioned in the recent Federal government Aerospace Review. According to Sokoloff, the government should encourage the industry, “in the very least,” by giving space companies some of the same tax benefits that Canadian mining companies currently receive. The article also quoted Gordon Osinski, the NSERC/MDA/CSA industrial research chair in planetary geology at the University of Western Ontario who said that “if those in government are watching things around the world and paying attention, this really is a potential niche area for Canada (to) take the lead."

For those who'd like to learn more, the March 11th, 2013 SpaceRef.ca article “Prospecting the Solar System” included complete videos from many of the presentations and more are available on the SpaceRef Commercial Space Resource Utilization channel on YouTube.

In the interests of full disclosure, it's also worth noting that both SpaceRef and the Commercial Space blog acted as media sponsors for the event.

MacDonald Dettwiler to Issue $250M Stock Offering

High flying BC based MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) has announced an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities to issue $250 million in new MDA common shares. The proceeds from the sale will be used by MDA to reduce outstanding bank debt and "support future growth opportunities."

As outlined in the March 7th, 2013 MDA press release "MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. Announces $250 Million Offering of Common Shares," the firm has agreed to issue on a "bought deal" basis, 3,605,000 MDA common shares at $69.40 per share which will raise approximately $250 million CDN for the company.

MDA has won a number of contracts from the US for on-orbit satellite servicing.

MDA has also granted the underwriters something called an "over-allotment option" which will allow them to purchase up to an additional 540,750 common shares on the same terms and conditions, exercisable in whole or in part at any time following closing of the offering for a period of 30 days.

The shares will be offered by MDA under a short form prospectus to be filed in each of the provinces of Canada.

Oddly enough, the press release is listed as being "not for distribution to the US newswire services or dissemination to the United States." However, that's not to say that the Americans aren't aware of what's going on. For example, the March 7th, 2013 Bloomberg article, "MacDonald Dettwiler Launches to Orbit on Satellite Boom," states that the company stock has:

... surged 65 percent over the past 12 months, (and is) the best-performing stock among six peers in the S&P/TSX Information Technology index. It’s also the second-best performing stock in the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index (SPTSX) in 2013, rising 30 percent to an intraday record on March 6...

The Bloomberg article also considers the recent MDA purchase of Palo Alto, CA based Space Systems/ Loral (SS/L) to be the key to the firms continued growth:

“If you’re trying to sell into the U.S. government or NASA the key is having SS/L -- it’s a multi-billion dollar market,” (Thanos) Moschopoulos (an analyst with BMO Capital Markets) said. “Most of their business is commercial, so the government contracts are the growth opportunity.” 

...
The MDA order backlog was $2.9 billion in January 2013. This backlog included a $706 million contract from the Canadian government to help build the three satellites of the RADARSAT Constellation mission, which will be used to monitor Canadian territory for military and environmental purposes.

More Private Sector Canadian Astronauts

The traditional, mass media has finally begun to notice that our next Canadian astronauts likely won't work for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

According to the March 3rd, 2013 Canadian Press article "Next Canadian astronauts could be flying commercial," four Canadians are currently training with private sector US based companies to be the next Canadian astronauts.



Two of them, Erik Seedhouse, a Milton, Ontario based aerospace scientist and Kris Lehnhardt, a medical doctor who trained with flight surgeons at the Kennedy Space Center and now teaches at George Washington University, are currently training with US based Astronauts4Hire, a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed in 2010 to recruit and train qualified scientists and engineers for the rigors of spaceflight.

The "last" government astronaut?

The second two, "a former Manitoba bush pilot" and "an ex-Snowbirds pilot," according to the article, were first profiled in the June 3rd, 2012 blog post "Meteorites, ITAR, a Secret Consortium of Research Universities & Astronauts from Manitoba," and the May/ June 2012 issue of Canadian Aviator magazine.

Winnipeg natives Rob Bendall, a former bush pilot and Vince Jandrisch, an ex-Canadian forces Snowbird demonstration pilot will be among the first to fly paying customers to the edge of space aboard the Virgin Galactic fleet of suborbital spacecraft. The first commercial flights are expected sometime in 2014.

The CSA has confirmed that there are currently no scheduled flights of Canadian government astronauts beyond Chris Hadfield, who will complete his five-month visit to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2013. However, a CSA official has indicated that it's still possible that one more Canadian government astronaut could go to the ISS before the end of the decade.

The Real Winners of the PSLV-20 Rocket Launch

While seven satellites went into orbit today aboard the Indian Space and Research Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flight C20 and the majority of the credit for the successful launch certainly belongs with the ISRO, at least one other Canadian organization looks poised to benefit.

...
The University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Laboratories (SFL), built two of the satellites (the CanX-3a BRIght Target Explorer and the CanX-3b TUGsat1, which are part of the BRITE constellation of micro-sats), tested and helped launch another (the third in a series of Aalborg University Cubesats or AAU-Cubesat3) and originally helped to develop the methodologies used to build both the Department of National Defence (DND) Surveillance of Space (Sapphire) satellite and the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat).

The manufacturing methodologies used in Sapphire and NEOSSat originally developed out of the Canadian experience with earlier satellites, such as the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) space telescope. As outlined in the May 9th, 2010 post titled "the Microsat Way in Canada" this methodology focused on inexpensive, quickly constructed components used frequently to build up a body of expertise by testing to failure (instead of just testing for functionality), because of the usefulness of the real world knowledge gained.

This methodology was eventually formalized in a paper titled "The Microsat Way in Canada" by Peter Stibrany and Kieran A. Carroll, two employees at Dynacon Enterprises (one of the contractors for MOST). The paper included many the core concepts in what would later become the standard operating procedures at UTIAS-SFL and other organizations.

MOST was developed as a joint effort of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Dynacon Enterprises (which went on to develop NEOSSat under the name MSCI), the University of British Columbia and the UTIAS SFL. 

...
All of which gives the UTIAS-SFL a direct connection to five of the seven satellites launched.

There's even an indirect connection to a sixth satellite, the innovative Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator 1 (STRaND1), built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and operated by a "Google Nexus One smartphone with an Android operating system" according to the February 25th, 2013 press release "World’s first “phonesat”, STRaND-1, successfully launched into orbit."

Both UTIAS SFL and SSTL (which also helped out with Sapphire) use satellite bus designs derived from designs used by the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA) in the 1970's and 80's for satellites containing amateur radio payloads.

 UTIAS SFL even provides a low-cost launch service through it's Nano-satellite Launch Services (NLS) program.

Nanosatellite Launch Services 8, the eighth launch under the UTIAS SFL Nanosatellite Launch Service (NLS) program, organized the CanX 3a, CanX 3b and AAU-Cubesat3 payloads aboard PSLV-20. To date, the NSL program has successfully launched 16 spacecraft from various countries.

Organizations like these are where the next generation of innovation in satellite design is going to come from, and the UTIAS SFL is a leading player in the process.

Which makes UTIAS-SFL one of the real winners from the PSLV-20 launch.

Are Military and Space Procurement Issues Related?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

As first outlined in the May 30th, 2011 blog post "Political Reviews Moving to the Forefront," the Federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has spent the last two years undertaking multiple policy reviews related to research and development/ commercialization,  military and space procurement activities

The most important from the perspective of the Canadian space industry was the Aerospace Review, which was discussed most recently in the December 5th, 2012 blog post "What the Space Volume of the Aerospace Review Actually Says."

But there have been others, including a formal review of the Canada First Defence Strategy (which included a requirement for command, control and situational awareness capabilities of a type best provided by Canadian satellites) and the Review of Federal Support to Research and Development (also known as the "Jenkins panel," after panel chair Thomas Jenkins), which focused on Federal R&D policies of interest to Canadian space companies and was discussed most recently in the October 24th, 2011 blog post "Responding to the Jenkins Panel on R&D."

Now comes a second Jenkins report from the very same Tom Jenkins (who's now the special adviser to the minister of public works and government services) but focused this time on military procurement. Titled "Canada First: Leveraging Defence Procurement Through Key Industrial Capabilities" the latest report attempts to tackle many of the same issues which also bedevil the procurement of space assets.

Even better, both the Aerospace Review and the second Jenkins report both seek to encourage the development of new and lower cost Canadian based suppliers as a way to deal with ongoing cost overruns, such as the F-35 fighter  program and the Radarsat CONSTELLATION mission.

According to the February 19th, 2013 Canadian Naval Review article "Leveraging Defence Procurement Through Key Industrial Capabilities, the latest Jenkins report makes the following recommendations:

• The Federal government should move forward "immediately" to identify and support key industrial capabilities (KIC's), such as space based radar surveillance capabilities, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems integration and other areas so that industry and government can together meet the operational requirements of the Canadian Forces (CF) while generating sustainable economic growth in Canada and increasing the abilities of Canadian firms to supply solutions to Canadian defence needs.  

• The Federal government should also move "immediately, in partnership with industry and academia, to facilitate the establishment of an independent, third-party defence research and analysis capability in Canada" to validate, amend or improve on the initial selection of KICs.

The aerospace review, while subscribing to much the same overall viewpoint, took a slightly different tact regarding the Canadian space industry, mostly because of its much smaller size.

The review recommended only the "encouragement" of domestic commercial space activity, the stabilization of existing government funding (via the Canadian Space Agency) plus slightly increased funding (an additional $10 million CDN per year over three years) for programs which support the development of space technologies for the enhancement of industrial capabilities, such as the Space Technologies Development Program (STDP):

... some of these ideas may prove fanciful, but others may be visionary and produce tremendous profits for their proponents and the companies in which those proponents operate... 

(However) its impossible to know with certainty whether a notion which appears unrealistic today might lead to tomorrows breakthroughs. Without endorsing specific speculative projects, public policies and programs can create the conditions for entrepreneurs and researchers to test and pursue creative approaches and, in so doing, jump start Canada's private space activity at a time when the global commercial space business is gaining momentum."

While it's refreshing to slowly watch the Federal government come to the conclusion that Canadian companies are capable of competing in any arena, not everyone currently subscribes to this approach. The February 20th, 2013 Globe and Mail even went so far as to suggest "How to waste tax money: Buy Canadian," and suggests that the same strategy used to procure Canadian space assets and skewered by the Emerson panel (what the author called the "Canadarm approach") is worthy of maintaining for the military procurement process. 

Lets hope these foolish people start coming to their senses soon.

Canadian Satellites Set to Launch: This Time for Sure!

      by Brian Orlotti

The Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

The clock is still ticking for a quartet of Canadian satellites being launched on an Indian rocket.

The Indian Space and Research Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flight C20 is currently scheduled for a February 25th, 2013 liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. The launch has suffered both recent (February 14th & February 18th) and long-term delays as outlined most recently in the January 14th, 2013 blog post "Robotic Refueling, Sapphire, NEOSst, CanX 3a, 3b and CASSIOPE on a Falcon 9," but now seems set to finally move forward

The flight C20 payload includes the Department of National Defence (DND) Surveillance of Space (Sapphire) satellite, the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) and the CanX-3a BRIght-star Target Explorer (BRITE) and the CanX-3b (TUGsat1) micro-satellites. The Canadian satellites are a secondary payload, with space being shared with satellites from India, France, Denmark and the UK.


...
Sapphire will be Canada’s first operational military satellite. Loaded with optical sensors, its primary missions will be monitoring orbiting satellites and tracking space debris. Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC) proposed Sapphire in response to China’s 2007 test of an anti-satellite missile, which left much debris in low Earth orbit and served as a stark warning to other nations that their commercial and military space assets were vulnerable to attack.

SAPPHIRE key elements. c/o E/O Portal.

Sapphire will serve as the core of the proposed Canadian Surveillance of Space System and will also link to the United States’ Space Surveillance Network. Sapphire was developed by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) of Richmond, BC, COM DEV International (COM DEV) of Cambridge, ON and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Surrey, England.

NEOSSAT will be the first space telescope designed specifically to search for near-Earth asteroids that could potentially collide with the Earth, such as what happened with the February 15th explosion of a meteorite over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The suitcase-sized satellite will orbit approximately 800 kilometres above our planet, searching for near-Earth asteroids that would be difficult to spot using ground-based telescopes.

...
Aside from planetary defense, this data will be crucial for future government and private missions to nearby asteroids. NEOSSAT will spend half its time looking for these small objects and the other half monitoring space debris in Earth orbit that could collide with other satellites and cause major telecommunications outages. NEOSSAT was jointly developed by DRDC, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Microsat Systems Canada Inc. (MSCI) , Spectral Applied Research and COM DEV.

CanX-3. c/o UTIAS SFL.

CanX-3a, also known as BRIght-star Target Explorer (BRITE), is a CanX-class nanosatellite designed and built at the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Laboratories (SFL). A 20 cm cube, its primary mission will be making photometric observations of some of the brightest portions of the sky to examine stars for their variability (fluctuations in brightness) as part of a two satellite constellation with CanX-3b. It is expected that these observations will be at least 10 times more precise that what can be achieved with ground-based instruments. BRITE incorporates a high-performance attitude control system, using reaction wheels developed by UTIAS SFL in collaboration with Sinclair Interplanetary of Toronto, ON. BRITE was developed by the UTIAS SFL with support from the CSA.

TUGSAT-1. c/o Gunters Space Page.

CanX-3b, more properly known as BRITE-AUSTRIA/TUGSAT-1, although reasonably considered to have been mostly "made in Canada" is funded by the Austrian Space Agency and slated to officially be the first Austrian satellite. Working with CanX-3a as part of a two satellite constellation, BRITE-AUSTRIA/TUGSAT-1 will inhabit an 800 km polar orbit and track the brightness oscillations of massive luminous stars using differential photometry. A Mission Control Centre has been set up in Graz, Austria with additional ground stations in Toronto and Vienna to be brought online later.

Also aboard PSLV flight C20 are the Satellite with ARgos and ALtika (SARAL) co-operative altimetry technology mission between the ISRO and the French Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator 1 (STRaND1), a microsat demonstrator mission utilizing commercial off-the-shelf components from standard smartphones running on the Android open source operating system and the third of a series of Aalborg University Cubesat (AAU-Cubesat3), a student project from Aalborg University in Denmark (which also just happened to use UTIAS SFL facilities for testing)

With so many space assets squeezed aboard a single launcher, Canadian and international space-watchers will certainly have their fingers crossed as the watershed launch approaches.

A Private Sector, Space Intruder Detector

Rick Tumlinson at CSCA 2013 on March 7th

Asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries (DSI) didn't wait for the dust to settle after the unexpected impact of an asteroid over the Urals on Friday before issuing a press release reminding everyone that tracking near Earth objects is one of the things the firm is focused on.

As stated in the February 15th, 2013 press release titled "Russian Meteor Impact Shows the Need for a Sentry Line of Asteroid Inspection Spacecraft" on the DSI website:

Today’s impact in Russia and the near miss by asteroid 2012 DA14 should shock the world into creating a sentry line of spacecraft circling the Earth to intercept and evaluate incoming threats, Deep Space Industries proposed.

“The hundreds of people injured in northern Russia show it’s time to take action and no longer be passive about these threats,” said Rick Tumlinson, chairman of Deep Space Industries.

Deep Space Industries proposes establishing several sentry lines encircling Earth with small spacecraft able to dart after intruders to get close-in photos and data as they pass. Over time additional spacecraft able to grab samples for analysis on Earth would join the sentry lines.

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As outlined in the February 16th, 2013 CBS News article "After dramatic meteor strike, Russians pick up pieces," over 1,200 people were injured by the shock wave and hundreds of building damaged from the explosion (estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs), which occurred when a meteorite vaporized over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk around sunrise on Friday.

A February 15th, 2013 update on the NASA Asteroid and Comet Watch website titled "Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid Flyby" estimated the size of the asteroid to be approximately 55 feet (17 meters) with an estimated mass of approximately 10,000 metric tons.

The February 15th, 2013 ABC World News article "Meteor explodes above Russian city; 1,200+ hurt" quoted NASA officials as stating that they "weren't tracking this meteor because it was so small."

The NASA Asteroid and Comet Watch website took pains to point out that the object which landed in Chelybinsk was totally unrelated to another asteroid which NASA did track.

However, NASA was tracking the close flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 which was estimated as being approximately the same size (50 meters) but much heavier (190,000 metric tons) according to the 2012 DA14 Goldstone Radar Observations Planning document from NASA Goldstone. This order of magnitude difference in mass between two objects of approximately the same dimensions suggests that there were major differences in structure and/or composition between the two objects. According to the DSI press release:

Not all asteroids are the same, and to be ready to deflect one that’s on a dangerous trajectory the world needs to know more about their structure and composition. Many may be solid but all photos so far have shown gravel and rock piles. A defense plan assuming the wrong type could make matters worse.

DSI isn't the only organization looking into tracking asteroids. According to the February 16th, 2013 UK Observer article "Scientists unveil new detectors in race to save Earth from next asteroid," a variety of public and private organizations have plans to develop techniques that can pinpoint relatively small but still potentially devastating meteoroids, comets and asteroids that threaten to strike Earth.

As outlined in the May 7th, 2012 blog post "Why not build Planetary Resources a NEOSSat," several existing Canadian satellites also possess the operational capabilities to contribute to these activities.


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As for DSI CEO Tumlinson, he'll be making a presentation in Toronto, Ontario at the 2013 CSCA National Conference (CSCA 2013) at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) in Toronto, Ontario on March 7th, along with Jim Keravala, the chief operating officer and co-founder of Shackleton Energy Company, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards the CEO of Moon Express, plus over a dozen other speakers and an estimated 100 attendees.

They'll be discussing the technical, legal and financial aspects associated with commercial space resource utilization and the tracking of those resources.

The conversation should be an interesting one.

The Buzz Aldrin Show

It's interesting to note the similarities between the 1970 Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "Little Red Riding Hood," in which American astronaut Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin rescues the "pretty" daughter of a humble woodcutter (played with gusto by John Cleese) and the currently running TV commercials for AXE deodorant where an astronaut modeled on Aldrin is chased by beautiful women because "nothing beats an astronaut!"

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In both productions, the astronaut simply stands by as others do the real work. In the 1970 Python sketch, "the wicked wolf was shot by security guards" and in the current AXE commercials, a series of firemen, lifeguards and others do the real rescuing while the astronaut shows up at the end to bask in reflected glory and adulation.

And maybe that's the real silliness of the current AXE commercials. No one can become a real astronaut simply by winning a contest and letting others do all the difficult work just like no boy can ever become a man simply by purchasing a cologne.



Of course, women have also been offended by the current AXE campaign.

As outlined in the February 9th, 2013 Space Safety Magazine article "Is the AXE/Apollo Campaign Sexist? The Resentment Builds Up," the overall campaign has been generally considered sexist and not altogether understandable. According to the article, "the campaign not only discourages female participants, but is also very disrespectful to all the women who successfully took part in various space missions, some of them even serving as ISS commanders."

According to the January 9th, 2013 Parabolic Arc article "AXE, Buzz Aldrin to Send 22 People into Space on Lynx Flights" Buzz Aldrin has even attached himself to the current campaign, which is wrapped around a promotional contest to win 22 suborbital trips on the X-Cor Aerospace Lynx suborbital spaceplane.

But Aldrin should know better. So should X-Cor Aerospace. Perhaps over the next few months they'll both come to their senses.

A Short Eulogy for a Tall Man

David Ewart in 2012.

The last of a small group of Canadian and British engineers and scientists, active in postwar Canadian aviation development, who moved south to participate in the early US space program and over time became silent repositories of much of our recent history, are slowly passing from the scene.

The latest to pass was David Dunlap Ewart. Author and editor Robert Godwin passed along the details late last week:

Henderson, NV – David Dunlop Ewart 85, died on Sunday Jan 20, 2013 at home from heart failure. He leaves behind his wife Sally Ewart and Stepson Mayo Sharpe as well as close friends Martine Jorden, Arin Mahoney and Shirley Coates.

David worked on Military aircraft as an apprentice during World War ll in London England and received his bachelor's degree from Trinity College at Cambridge in Mechanical Engineering His dorm room was not too far from where Isaac Newton's room was located. He eventually went on to serve with the Canadian Royal Air force from 1950-1953, after which he worked on The AVRO CF-105 jet aircraft.

In 1959 David joined NASA, part of a group of ex-Avro engineers hired when the CF-105 program was cancelled, where he worked on project Mercury and the Apollo spacecraft program in Downey California. He served as resident manager of Skylab at McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach California.

In 1973 he became Chief Systems engineer for the space shuttle program. His success can be directly attributed to his work ethic and natural mechanical ability as well as being able to work with other excellent engineers.

Services were held at Bunker funeral home in Las Vegas on Saturday January 26, 2013 by family and friends. 

After Hadfield: A Deluge of New Private Sector Astronauts

Rob Bendall

It's quite likely that our next Canadian astronauts won't work for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

As originally outlined in the June 3rd, 2012 blog post "Meteorites, ITAR, a Secret Consortium of Research Universities & Astronauts from Manitoba," Winnipeg natives Rob Bendall, a former bush pilot and Vince Jandrisch, an ex-Canadian forces Snowbird demonstration pilot, will be among the first to fly paying customers to the edge of space aboard the Virgin Galactic fleet of suborbital spacecraft.

This gives Bendall and Jandrisch a better chance of getting into space faster than current CSA astronauts Jeremy R. Hansen and David Saint-Jacques who are still waiting patiently for any upcoming Canadian seat to the International Space Station (ISS).

Chris Hadfield.

As outlined way back in the September 4th, 2010 Spaceref.ca article "Canadian Space Agency in Negotiations for Future Launch Access to the Space Station," the current trip by Chris Hadfield is the last available contracted Canadian launch seat to the ISS.

According to the article:

Future flights to the ISS will have to be paid for by the CSA unless some other arrangements are made with NASA. But NASA will not have its own human launch capability in place for many years to come. So that leaves the Russians. For 2013-2014 NASA will pay Russia $56 million per seat on a Russian Soyuz. Realistically with Hadfield being onboard the ISS until almost mid-year in 2013 Canada won't likely send another astronaut to the ISS until the earliest 2015 at which point a Soyuz flight will most likely have gone up in price. It would also most likely mean that this is Hadfield's last flight.

Virgin Galactic expects to begin commercial suborbital flights beginning in 2014 at which point, Bendall and Jandrisch become our next Canadian astronauts.

This situation isn't unique to the CSA. As outlined in the January 13th, 2013 Universe Today article "Private Test Pilots to Fly 1st Commercial Crewed Space Flights for NASA," commercial test pilots and not NASA astronauts, will fly the first crewed missions of the Boeing CST-100, the SpaceX Dragon capsule and the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser lifting body before passing the tested vessels along to NASA.

The article quotes "NASA managers" as stating that:

...the agency is implementing a new way of doing business in human spaceflight and purposely wants private companies to assume the flight risk first with their crews before exposing NASA crews as a revolutionary new flight requirement.

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On January 29th, Astronauts4Hire (A4H), a private sector recruiting firm and the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center announced that they had signed a services agreement for space training and collaborate on developing "new A4H-branded training programs for A4H’s commercial astronaut candidates," according to the January 31st, 2013 Parabolic Arc article "Astronauts4Hire and NASTAR Center Announce Partnership."

NASTAR is a division of Environmental Tectonics Corporation (ETC), a private firm with a long history of US and international military and civilian aircrew training.

In essence, while we should certainly be applauding the current adventures of our government funded astronauts, we also need to remember that their time is rapidly coming to a close. Perhaps they'll eventually find jobs in the private sector.

Hiding Science Behind Academic Journal Paywalls

As outlined in the February 1st, 2013 Chronicle Journal article "Ecocidal behaviour," there has been substantial, recent Canadian debate as to whether or not the Federal government has "muzzled" scientists by preventing them from commenting publicly on scientific research.

Of course, if mainstream journalists spent a little more time directly accessing the scientific journals and a little less time waiting for scientists to tell them what's happening, they might have noticed a larger problem.

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According to Nick Shockey of the Right to Research coalition and Jonathan Eisen, professor at the University of California, Davis and editor in chief of PLoS Biology, we live in a culture where access to scientific information is routinely restricted and not just by the government.

The two argue that much of the current government science funding is often compressed into a single research paper for publication in an academic journal which then can't be accessed by others because of the costs the journals routinely charge. Shockey and Eisen argue that journal prices have outpaced inflation by over 250% during the last 30 years and this cost often prevents those without the cash from accessing the most current findings. 

In essence, they argue that journal paywalls are considerable barriers to scientific collaboration and instead advocated a process of "open access," which is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. The logic behind this is that most of the research is paid for by taxpayers through government grants, who therefore have a right to directly access the results of what they have funded.

The situation is worse for rocket and space scientists, which work in areas often restricted over concerns related to national security.

As outlined in the June 24th, 2012 post "Jerry Pournelle, the CoDominium and ITAR Policy," the current confusion of contradictory rules and regulations for disparate organizations which proliferate to encourage the division of knowledge into increasingly smaller, unconnected and useless sub-specialties, isn't helping science move forward.

But many governments, including Canada, are slowly moving in the direction of mandating open access. For example, as outlined on the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) open access policy webpage:

As of January 1, 2013, CIHR-funded researchers will be required to make their peer-reviewed publications accessible at no cost within 12 months of publication – at the latest. 

While the revised Policy provides researchers with clear guidance on CIHR's minimum expectation, in the spirit of public benefits of research, CIHR continues to encourage researchers to make their publications accessible for free as soon as possible after publication. 

Compliance with the Open Access Policy will continue to be monitored through end of grant reporting.

All of which sounds positive for the private citizen, who would receive direct access to journals, but also sounds like more work for the poor traditional journalist. who might need to start doing more than simply buttonholing scientists for the latest sound-bytes.