Cosmonauts, Street Performers and the Kwartzlab Society

As shown in the video below, Canadian billionaire and Cirque du Soleil entrepreneur Guy Laliberté, retired US Army Colonel Jeffrey Williams and Russian Army Colonel Maxim Surayev blasted off today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Russia Today's Gayane Chichakyan was right there, perhaps even a little too close to the action that looks to be only a few dozen meters behind as she provides launch coverage and background material while being blown about by the blast of the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft's engines.

Back in the early 1980's, Laliberté was just an enterprising street performer in Quebec, hanging with other street performers in much the same way as he is now hanging with cosmonauts and astronauts.

But how does any of the above relate to the Kwartzlab Society you may ask? In fact, does anyone even know what the Kwartzlab Society is?

For those who don't, this Kitchener, Ontario based organization is defined on the about page of their website as focused around something called a "hackerspace," which is a:

physical location where like-minded people get together in a cooperative environment to pool their knowledge, experience, and physical resources with a goal to bringing into reality the projects about which they’ve been dreaming.

The sky is the limit, almost literally: projects range from building hardware to building art, from restoring antique equipment to putting electronic blinking eyes in a crocheted doll.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Cirque du Soleil was formed in Quebec in the early 1980's by a group of enterprising street performers:

At that time, the province of Québec did not have a circus tradition, so this group of stilt-walkers, jugglers, fire-eaters and buskers banded together to create a performance platform for themselves. They called themselves "Club des Talons Hauts" or "High-Heels Club," since most of them were stilt-walkers.

The group organized a festival "Fête Foraine de Baie St-Paul" (The Baie Saint-Paul Fair), in which the street performers could exchange ideas and techniques and this led to the birth of Cirque du Soleil.

So in the 1980's a group of performers banded together to exchange ideas and techniques and this led to the creation of the Cirque du Soleil and in 2009, another group banded together to pool their knowledge and expertise in much the same way.

I'm not sure yet what the Kwartzlab Society wants to create or build or accomplish over the next few years but at least one of their members has been active in the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) and worked with the DaVinci Project when it competed for the Ansari X-Prize several years back.

Perhaps in twenty or so years, members of the Kwartzlab Society, using the same techniques as led to the Cirque du Soleil and Guy Laliberté's current adventure will themselves get to hobnob with astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (or whatever ends up replacing it).

As for Laliberté, the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station on Oct. 2, where Laliberté, Surayev and Williams will join Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk and five others.

The Montreal Gazette has indicated that the "CBC Might Air Show From Space" when Laliberté hosts his unprecedented program from the International Space Station, titled "Moving Stars and Earth for Water" on October 9th. The production is part of his plan to raise awareness of water-related issues and is organized through the ONE DROP Foundation.

Let's hope CBC ends up running the program. 

Canadian billionaire and circus entrepreneur Guy Laliberte has blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome with the 21st mission to the International Space Station.
RT's Gayane Chichakyan was there for the lift-off.

Category:  News & Politics

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Space  Baikonur  blast off  cosmodrome  Kazakhstan  stars  ISS  launch  Soyuz  rocket  Cirque du Soleil  Guy Laliberte  Canada  Russia  US  United States  countdown  mission  atronaut  cosmonaut  space tourist  TMA-16  Космос  Союз  МКС  миссия  запуск  Ги Лалиберте  Максим Сураев 

The Difference Between Butter Knives and Bayonets

Adam Côté, an MA candidate at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carelton University believes that comprehensive legal structures governing space based activities are vital in order to provide the appropriate framework to undertake space based scientific, engineering, business and technical projects in much the same way as the works of Hugo Grotius, Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili laid the foundations for modern international law and contributed to the growth of trans-national trade, exploration and discovery beginning in the 17th century.
And the key to any international treaty or legal structure, according to Côté, is a credible verification regime.

He will be speaking at the upcoming Canadian Space Summit, being held on November 20-22, 2009 in Kingston, Ontario as part of the law and policy track, which is focused on space traffic management, potential legal regimes for space debris removal, international space surveillance/situational awareness and space arms control.

According to Côté, verification is the process of gathering and analyzing information to assess compliance or non-compliance with an international agreement through the development of defined criteria to distinguish between harmful, space based devices and benign satellites.

Simply put, we should be able to tell the difference between a "butter knife" and a "bayonet," the latter of which generally doesn't work well when spreading marmalade.

"The design of a space system, which is constrained by the initial launch and by the space environment, is generally closely related to its function which can be extrapolated from form, location and observed activities," states Côté. "Plus, the development of verification mechanisms based on observational evidence is something that has been done many times previously as part of a international treaties on trade practices, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.”

So what's the real difference between a space based butter knife and a space based bayonet?

Côté won't tell me that over the phone. He says I need to go to the 2009 Canadian Space Summit and attend his presentation in order to find out.

For more information on the 2009 Canadian Space Summit, please contact the Canadian Space Society.

Science "Blinded" by Social Media

Thomas Dolby, one of the more famous one hit wonders of the 80's but also a working artist today (having begun performing again in 2006 after a long hiatus) is best remembered for the quirky, playful synth-pop song "She Blinded me with Science."

 
Thomas Dolby-She Blinded Me With Science

Of course, these days social media is blinding, confusing, modifying and changing science all out of recognition, at least according to Hornby Island resident Fraser Cain and the rest of his team at Universe Today, a popular internet site dedicated to news about astronomy and space exploration. The site receives over 600,000 page views a month, and the newsletter edition goes out to 26,000 subscribers every weekday.

Along with Dr. Pamela L. Gay, he hosts the Astronomy Cast podcast and recently had some interesting things to say about the advent of social media and how it affects the scientific process.

For example, according to Cain and Gay:

Astronomy is one of the scientific fields that have been completely shaken up by new media. The internet has enabled communication by researchers in a dramatic new way creating new collaborations, removing obstacles and drawing in an army of enthusiastic volunteers to help with the research.

Changes include:

• The advent of portable text based content that can be read by small devices or cell phones anywhere in the world. This essentially means that there is no more need for traditional library or even formal internet access since the data is now posted online and available anywhere cell phones function.
  
• A more open research environment using blogs to provide ongoing research updates, compare notes and provide context for scientific collaborations. This new environment is building an openness among scientists who may always have hungered for the opportunity to discuss problems, compare solutions, build community and provide insight into the "life of a scientist," but were never able to do so until now.
• The creation of entire "virtual worlds" through social media constructs like Second Life, which has pretty much replaced the construction of physical buildings for the traditional planetarium experience of astronomy for a generation of students.
  

Essentially, where before solitary scientists would toil for years in private before eventually publishing a paper in a prestigious journal and then wait patiently for feedback and "peer review," science today is now done "out loud" and peer review is done in real time without the "middle man" to screw things up.

According to Cain and Gay, there is nothing scarier for a scientist than to talk to a "network or a mainstream journalist" because "they get it wrong a lot."

The podcast (episode 148 in the long running series titled "Astronomy and the New Media") is available here, for those who'd like to learn more.

Space Scientists and Contractors Thumbing Rocket Rides

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), various contractors and suppliers (including Bristol/ Magellan, Burley Scientific, EMS, Magnametrics, MDA, Novatel and Routes AstroEngineering), multiple universities ( including the University of Calgary’s Institute for Space Research, the University of Alberta, the University of Athabasca, the University of New Brunswick, the University of Saskatchewan the University of Western Ontario and York University) plus even the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are each waiting patiently for someone to provide extra, free space aboard an appropriately pointed rocket in order to launch their “CASade, Smallsat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer" (CASSIOPE) satellite.

This program is “vital to the future of the Canadian space program” according to the CASSIOPE website so it’s a shame that the project team is having such a difficult time finding a launcher.

Now it’s not as if Canada doesn’t have any rockets it can use. It might just be that no one recognizes them for the assets they are as evidenced by this recent article where a NASA launched Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket built by Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg, Manitoba was mistaken for a UFO.



Geoffrey V. Hughes has even written a book about a previous attempt to upgrade the suborbital Black Brant series of rockets to orbital capability under the title "The Orbital Express Project of Bristol Aerospace and MicroSat Launch Systems Inc." According to the book, this previous effort died because of a simple lack of funding and political infighting among the main participants. There were no large technical hurdles to overcome.

Perhaps, if Canadians don't want to generate their own orbital launch capability, they could try hitching a ride with Telesat. This former Bell Canada Enterprises subsidiary (now privately held and with most shares owned by either the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board or Loral Space and Communications Inc.) celebrated the launch of its Nimiq 5 television satellite from Kazakhstan on September 17th.

Telesat now operates twelve satellites in total which is quite a few more than is currently administered by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

For those of us who don't wish to buy Canadian (hitchhikers generally don't like to buy anything), here's the Wikipedia list of orbital launch systems.

New Canadian Space Stories Now Available!

Congratulations to SpaceRef.ca on the launch of their new and updated website at www.spaceref.ca.

A quick search shows a variety of original Canadian space focused articles from Elizabeth Howell (who’s written for the Globe and Mail, Air and Space/ Smithsonian, the Space Review and the Ottawa Business Journal), SpaceRef.ca Chief Architect Marc Boucher, Editor Keith Cowing and others.

I’ve even posted an article on the site titled “This Week in Space for Canada" for anyone who’d like to take a look.

Also of note are the articles listing Canadian Space Agency (CSA) postings for requests for proposals (RFP's) on the federal governments MERX website, which is a listing of Canadian public tenders, private tenders, U.S. tenders and private-sector construction news presently available through the Canadian government and it's respective agencies.

There is a burning need for the various, disparate Canadian space focused communities and advocates to tell their stories and build public awareness, create connections, grow community and publicize opportunities in the Canadian space sector.

I congratulate SpaceRef.ca for the steps they’ve taken to begin this process.

Americans Engaged in Spirited Strategic Space Debate

New media stalwart "The Huffington Post," listed as the "Top Blog for Authority" by Technorati has joined the debate on the future of NASA with a series of articles focused on "Launching Commercial Space Flight" by X-Prize Foundation founder and newspace icon Peter Diamandis, which is a follow-on to previous articles by planetary science writer Jeff Goldstein on "Weighing in on the Blue-Ribbon Panel Exploring NASA's Strategic Options For Human Space Flight" and Seth Borenstein who believes that "Obama's space panel says moon return is a no go."

These article join other recent articles on the future of NASA published online by Discover Magazine ("The Future of NASA"), The Orlando Sentinel ("Future of NASA's manned space program comes before Congress") and quite a few others as they attempt to interpret the Augustine Committee Preliminary report.

For those interested doing the appropriate due diligence, the Augustine document is located here in PDF format.

Given that the Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. have just signed an agreement on "Civil Space Cooperation" it might be worthwhile for Canadian's to do some research and get a sense of who we've decided to continue to cooperate with.

Ten years from now, we may have more money and greater options than they have.

Focused Today on the Boring Business of Making a Living

With all the interesting space focused stories coming out of NASA, the CSA and the private sector over the last little while (including the recent release of the Augustine Committee Summary Report with it's description of the US human spaceflight program as being on "an unsustainable trajectory," the Wednesday announcement of a signed agreement between NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and CSA President Steve Maclean providing for a framework for cooperative civil space activities which formalizes the exiting "ad-hoc" mechanisms between the organizations and Guy Laliberte's upcoming trip to the International Space Station) its useful to sit back and note that most of the people who are engaged in space focused activities are doing it, at least in part, to make a living.



This includes the Augustine Committee, the NASA administrator, the CSA president and most of the other people commented upon or noted in this blog. Of course these people probably like their jobs and perhaps perceive of their positions as being somewhat of a higher calling than most of the rest of the potential jobs available but they certainly still need to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head.

With that in mind, here are a couple of recent reports illustrating the success that Canadian space focused firms have been having lately as they struggle to be fiscally responsible and provide a sustainable return on investment for their stakeholders:

• Canadian space subsystem manufacturer COM DEV just announced "Q3 Revenue Soars 19% to 61.5M. Profits up almost 1M" according to this Canadian Press article dated September 3rd.
• The space systems subsidiary of McDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has had a run of good luck over the last 18 months since the Canadian government torpedoed a planned sale to Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK). Successes include recently announced contracts with Boeing to refurbish communications systems on the ISS, the Canadian government to design the successors to the Radarsat-2, and with  EADS Astrium for the Alphasat I-XL mission. According to this article in Satellite PR News, MDA has nearly doubled it's earnings over last years figures.
  
• Canadian satellite provider Telesat "reports $187 million profit in second quarter" according to an article published in Network World Industry Watch. This contrasts well when compared with last years $822 million loss during the same period.
  

These revenue increases seem to be a general trend across the industry and perhaps bode well for those of us who are merely looking to make a decent living, much like most of the people profiled in this blog.

Guy Laliberté, New Media and the 119th Carnival of Space 

The 119th Carnival of Space has just been posted on the Planetary Society website and it's interesting to note that their choice for the top space focused story this week is an article from the MS-NBC Cosmic Log on Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté and his plans to host a global extravaganza starring Al Gore, U2, Dr. David Suzuki, Peter Gabriel, space station astronauts Frank De Winne and Julie Payette plus Laliberte's own Cirque du Soleil performers along with quite a few others from the International Space Station on October 9th. 



The article has even been picked up by the regular media including this article in the Montreal Gazette which states:

Adding a wondrous twist to the halting issues of climate change and water conservation, Guy Laliberté will host an unprecedented live show from Earth’s orbit on Oct. 9.

The Cirque du Soleil founder and former fire breather announced yesterday the 120-minute live show will involve shows broadcast from 14 cities, starting in Montreal, and he’ll conduct it all from the International Space Station.

The show will promote the ONEDROP Foundation,  which is using this "poetic social mission in space" as described on their website, to raise awareness of the need for accessible water supplies to fight poverty and disease. It will reportedly be carried live on the Internet through the onedrop.org website and in partnership with AOL.com.

It's interesting to note that most of  the links provided to reference this story (with the exception of the links to the Montreal Gazette and perhaps the MS-NBC Log sites) come from internet based new media sites. It's essentially a platitude to even mention this but these new media sites are the future of news no matter what large media owners such as Rupert Murdoch might think.

It's also interesting to note that Mr. Laliberté (no matter what else he may be) is turning into a newspace entrepreneur without peer as he builds profitable, far reaching and useful connections between his day job at the Cirque du Soleil and the various businesses and national organizations involved in government and civilian space access, the political and social activists concerned over climate change, access to fresh water, the commercialization of the worlds water supplies and even simple recording artists looking to sell a few extra records.

It's a far better performance than expected in June when his trip was first announced and I suggested "Let's Not Embrace our First Canadian Fire Breathing Space Tourist Too Tightly." 

At this point, it's a performance worthy of Delos D. Harriman, the Robert Heinlein character in the novel "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and I look forward to seeing the big show on October 9th and learning more about future business opportunities that may follow from this adventure.

The Plan to Move Power Plants into Orbit

Space Canada, in cooperation with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has just announced the final speaker line up for their 2009 Symposium on Solar Powered Satellites being held next week at the Ontario Science Centre.



The symposium, hosted by Bob Macdonald (the national science correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and host of CBC Radio One’s “Quirks and Quarks”) is expected to attract an international assortment of academics, economists, global warming pundits and space focused legal experts along with representatives from provincial, federal and international government and non-government organizations plus dedicated space activists and quite a few others.

Speakers include Dan Fortin (the CEO of IBM Canada), Marc Garneau (MP for Westmount-Ville-Marie), Dr. Robert Zee (Manager of the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory), John Mankins (former NASA and CalTech Jet Propulsion Laboratory policy guru) and others.

So what will they be talking about, you may ask?

They'll be talking about space based solar power (SBSP) which, according to Wikipedia is "a system for the collection of solar power in space, for use on Earth. SBSP differs from the usual method of solar power collection in that the solar panels used to collect the energy would reside on a satellite in orbit, often referred to as a solar power satellite (SPS), rather than on Earth's surface."

Here's a video from futurist David Houle attempting to provide some context for the overall thrust of the space power advocates in Canada, the US and elsewhere.



Here's a higher level discussion on space solar power provided by the European Space Agency (ESA).



The idea does have quite a few international backers at this point and yesterday, Bloomberg even ran this news report announcing that Mitshubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp. will be joining a $21 Billion Japanese initiative to develop the technology needed to build a space solar power satellite. The effort is being coordinated through the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

I am personally a little cautious about the financial, the engineering and the political difficulties surrounding an effort of this nature. I remember how even Werner Von Braun was wrong once in awhile, especially when he advocated the immediate creation of large expensive space infrastructures to do things that could best be done in a smaller scale way.

But I would also like to see what the organizers, attendees and participants at the symposium have to say when it's concludes.

They may perhaps know things that I don't.

The 118th Carnival of Space

Blog carnivals are composed of communities of like minded bloggers who contribute their best posts to topic specific community listings, or "carnivals" which are then organized and distributed to other bloggers to provide context and some idea of the top stories of the blogosphere at any given moment.

It's sort of like the internets replacement for the traditional newspaper front page.

One of the best and longest running is the Carnival of Space, organized weekly by Fraser Cain, the publisher of Universe Today. It's focused specifically on space and astronomy and this weeks Carnival of Space (number 118 of the series) is being hosted on the Cumbrian Sky blog.

Check it out. Once in awhile, you might even find some stuff originating from here and re-posted on the Carnival.

NASA as the Next General Motors and What That Means for Canada

British born Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, defines tipping points as "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable."

That's where we are today with space exploration, research and the development of commercial space activities. We're at their tipping point.

As an example, here are a couple of indications that NASA no longer has the right stuff and has instead become a lot like bankrupt automobile manufacturer General Motors.

• The Augustine Panel re-examining NASA's human spaceflight plans "has concluded that the agency's current Constellation Program to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 will not fit into the current presidential budget" according to this August 12th article in the Orlando Sentinel.
• In the same issue of the Sentinel, Associated Press Science writer Seth Borenstein writes that "NASA also lacks the money to keep track of asteroids" and references this recent report by the National Academy of Sciences.
• Arguments for providing NASA with new funds to maintain existing commitments also tend to focus on maintaining existing jobs. For example, here's a recent report from the Aerospace Career Development Counsel titled "Federal Space Policy Agenda" which focuses on Brevard County, Florida where NASA and NASA subcontractors are major employers according to this article in Florida Today. Unfortunately, with the space shuttle set for retirement in 2010 and the International Space Station nearing both completion and retirement (mostly because of a lack of funding), it seems a little unclear how anyone could reasonably expect to maintain existing jobs tied to projects that are winding down without serious restructuring and retraining (which also requires appropriate and ongoing funding).

• And finally, any effort to maintain existing NASA jobs ignores the fact that the workforce is aging so quickly that NASA has recently taken action to "rebalance" the age ratio by adapting a policy "that 50% of all new civil servant hires will be fresh-out (of university)" according to the article "Rebalancing NASA's Workforce" on the Open NASA website. NASA workforce demographics are discussed in more detail in the article "Shaping the NASA Workforce for 2020" on the same site but it seems unlikely the "fresh-out" hires will be able to perform the same role as their experienced, but soon to be retired mentors (although NASA could pay the new hires a lower wage).
  

So we're got an organization teetering on insolvency, with no money for new products and with an aging workforce. This could certainly describe both General Motors in 2007 and NASA today.

Of course, we all know what happened to General Motors.

But even if what happened to General Motors does not or cannot happen in the same way at NASA (if only because it's not a private corporation), the knowledge of the challenges facing the agency and the looming possibility of a similar type of catastrophe cannot help but hinder efforts to cooperate with the agency.

This is especially true at the Canadian Space Agency with its traditional close relationship (as outlined in NASA Tests Neptec Vision System on STS-128" from SpaceRef.ca)?

At the very least, it suggests yet another good reason why there will be no formal updated Canadian space policy document from CSA President Steve Maclean anytime soon. He knows the way the wind is blowing and is likely looking for a sense of what US space focused activities will move forward before deciding if Canada can continue along for the ride.

I bet he's also planning on maintaining the outsourcing of Canadian launches to non-US suppliers (a continuation of a pattern discussed in my June 19th post on "A Listing of Canadian Satellite Launches") plus planning for greater cooperation with other space organizations such as the ESA, the Russian Federal Space Agency and various private organizations presently developing launch capabilities. It's likely he's also expanding existing partnerships with these organizations in other areas as well.

So what else is on the other side of this tipping point?

Perhaps it's a movement towards smaller, more focused and less expensive missions using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies wrapped around aggressive, early prototyping and multiple testing opportunities to create ongoing, incremental improvements similar to those described by Grant Bonin (an employee at the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory) in his article "Microspace and Human Spaceflight."

The article describes methodologies advocated by many others, including Dr. John McGowan who describes it on a recent episode of The Space Show a simple, old fashioned trial and error testing.

This is essentially what the Wright brothers did in order to build up to their first, historic controlled flight in 1903 and it's interesting to contrast it with the methodologies of their competitors, especially Samuel Langley who was funded by the US government.

What will happen to NASA?

That's easy to predict. NASA employees and their subcontractors will either develop new skills, associations and capabilities to survive or the organization will become irrelevant and either slowly die or be changed into something else useful but in a different (perhaps less inspiring) way.

As far back as the 1980's, the Toronto based SCTV comedy group was offering suggestions as to how existing NASA skills could be adapted for new activities as shown in the video below.



Let's hope they're wrong.

By the way, I'm still officially on vacation. I'll be back in September.

Commercial Space Author "Going to the Beach."

I'll be taking a month off from the Commercial Space blog this August in order to go to the beach, recharge my batteries and do a little work for a new marketing blog I'm starting for a company called ITerro, which focuses on marketing automation.

Marketing automation is only one of multiple techniques used in advertising that aerospace and newspace focused organizations should be aware of in order to track clients and personalize targeted marketing messages so this is a definite opportunity to learn from experts including company owner Alek Mircovich and quite a few others knowledgable in this area.

I'm personally interested in learning a little bit about something called FundingMatch, a Canadian web portal that matches business plans to angel investors and funding mechanisms (it's structured in a very similar matter to the US based Space Angels website which focuses specifically on aerospace).

With a little luck, we'll get some good information on FundingMatch plus other useful case studies to pass along when I begin posting again in the fall.

Speaking of which, the Commercial Space blog will be back September 6th with updates and coverage of the 2009 Space Canada Symposium on Solar Energy from Space, the 2009 Canadian Space Summit and the 2010 SmallSat Canada Conference plus ongoing commentary on the Canadian aerospace industry, their partnerships and the politics surrounding those partnerships.

Until then, anyone looking for ideas for fun things to do at the beach or interested in some of our natural wonders might want to check out the video below.

Telesat HQ Likely to Remain In Ottawa Just Down the Street from Golf Course

The scientists and executives at global satellite services provider Telesat must like golfing because they certainly don't seem to appreciate recent Canadian satellite and business regulatory initiatives.


According to this July 23rd report on the website Tech Media Reports (a subscription news service focused on the Canadian communications industry), Telesat President and CEO Daniel Goldberg has indicated that the firm has no intention of pulling its Ottawa headquarters and research division out of Canada if the government introduces auctions for satellite orbital slots.

The report comes only one month month after this June 24th report from the same service which stated:

Telesat Canada warns it may leave Canada for countries with more hospitable regulations if Industry Canada moves forward with a proposal to use auctions to assign future satellite orbital slots and spectrum.

The 40-year-old Ottawa company complains it already pays 10 times the amount for satellite spectrum licences than do its US counterparts.

These press releases seem to be essentially political posturing over Industry Canada's Gazette Notice DGRB-001-09 under the Department of Industry Radio Communication Act, published in April 2009, which seeks feedback on the possibility of using auctions to award licenses to operate Canadian satellite services.

The formal Telesat response, dated July 15th and signed by Mr. Goldberg, provides a more measured reply to the Gazette notice but also indicates that:

Telesat notes the unanimous opposition to satellite spectrum auctions from those representing the satellite industry. In addition to Telesat and the CSSIF (whose comments were endorsed by Telesat), the S1A and Ciel also expressed strong opposition to satellite spectrum auctions.

All commenting parties involved in the satellite industry cited the following reasons why auctions of satellite spectrum would be inappropriate:

• Auctions are inconsistent with the international nature of satellite communications and international practice
• Auctioning of satellite spectrum by Industry Canada could disadvantage Canadian operators and have a deleterious impact on the Canadian economy
• Auctioning of satellite spectrum would not promote spectrum efficiency

Ciel has also pointed out that auctioning of satellite spectrum would be inconsistent with the Department's own Framework for Spectrum Auctions and that the paucity of potential bidders and the amount of satellite spectrum available are inconsistent with the economic arguments normally advanced to support spectrum auctions.

Both SLA and Ciel noted that diverting resources to auction fees would reduce those available for capital investment in the satellite networks themselves, ultimately reducing the benefits of satellite connectivity to the population as a whole.

Why is this debate even going on? That's simple: we're running out of orbits to launch satellites into.

Articles like "Hot Orbital Slots: Is there Anything Left" from the Satellite Today website define the problem succinctly when they state:

With satellite operators around the world looking to gain an edge in terms of offering new services, access to real estate is vital. However, with most of the so-called hot orbital slots taken, what opportunities remain for satellite operators to develop new positions or make better use of the existing slots?

Industry Canada, fully aware of the problem has simply opened the debate as to the appropriate method to allocate the existing Canadian orbital slots, which are provided through the International Telecommunications Union (which officially allocates orbital slots to nations only and not directly to satellite operators or other private corporations).

Telesat, although unhappy with the idea of auctioning off Canadian orbital slots is aware that this is only an initial move in a long process and has decided that it's not yet prepared to move corporate headquarters somewhere else, at least until the final offer is tabled.

After all, this is a company with very deep Canadian roots and quite a few golfers who must certainly appreciate the nearby Pine View Municipal Golf Course, which was voted "Best Golf Course" by Ottawa Sun readers for two years running.

MDA Signs Contract For Polar Communications and Weather Mission

Canadian aerospace company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) has finally signed the $4.3 million (CDN) contract with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the development of the mission concept for the Polar Communications and Weather Mission (PCW) according to this press release issued July, 23rd by MDA and posted on the Commercial Space Watch.

The PCW project is designed to facilitate Canadian operations in the north and support Canadian sovereignty by providing reliable and continuous space-based communications services and timely meteorological information.

The contract could indicate the beginnings of a more activist approach by the CSA to the use of Canadian space assets in issues relating to national security and northern sovereignty and might also be a logical follow-on to last years government refusal to allow portions of MDA to be sold to US based firm ATK.



As presently structured, the mission would consist of two satellites in Molniya-type orbits, supported by one northern ground station and connected to communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit with other connections to various portions of the telecommunications infrastructure in order to assist with tracking, identification and analysis.

The specific contract announced on Thursday is to develop the preliminary knowledge necessary to proceed towards the next phase.

OK, So Maybe the CSA Does Provide Some Support for Small Aerospace Firms...

I’ve been getting some excellent feedback from a variety of sources related to my July 19th Commercial Space blog post under the headline “Canadian Space Agency Provides "No Dedicated Programs" to Support Small Aerospace Firms."

The post is focused on comments from page ten of a publication titled: Small Aerospace Companies: Space Activities in North America and Europe written by investment bank Near Earth LLC which states that, when compared to organizations like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and others, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has "no dedicated programs for small business."

Here is one comment from a person who states quite unequivocally that:

Although, in a literal sense, it may be true that there are no dedicated programs, it is effectively quite an inaccurate comment. The CSA supports many small companies through a series of procurement opportunities.

In fact, it is interesting that one of the first highlighted examples of technology in the Near Earth report is the Neptec Space Vision System that is used in the Shuttle program and which was funded by the CSA. Although the big CSA funding goes to the major companies like MDA, the majority of the contracts are awarded to small and medium sized companies. Hopefully, someone at the CSA will offer a rebuttal to the Near Earth report.

The commentator goes on to list a number of CSA programs that “allow small companies to obtain funding, along with the bigger companies.” They include:

• The Earth Observation Applications and Utilization (EOAU) Program, which is an umbrella designation for a number of programs through which companies can obtain support. For example, one component of the EOAU program, the Earth Observation Application Development Program (EOADP) funds projects that are exclusively for industry led initiatives.
  
• The Space Technologies Development Program (STDP), which supports the development of technologies for the enhancement of industrial capabilities.
• The Satellite Communications Program, which supports the development of advanced satellite communications technologies and international services.
• The Partnerships Support Program, which is directed to universities, but does include the funded participation of industrial partners.
• The various Canada - ESA Programs, which allows Canadian companies to participate in ESA led initiatives offset with CSA funding.

I understand where the reader is coming from when he states that “typically, although the major procurement contracts may be awarded to a large company to manage and lead, they most often include a number of subcontracts to smaller companies” and these subcontracts help to sustain and grow small business every bit as much as the more formal programs administered through NASA and the ESA.

But I also can’t help but note that he categorizes the comment from the report about CSA providing no dedicated programs for small aerospace firms as being true in “a literal sense.”

So how do real small business space subcontractors feel about this state of affairs? Does CSA do enough to nurture and grow small aerospace businesses through the existing process?

The floor is open for questions, queries, statements of concern or support and general comments.

Even Werner von Braun was Wrong Once in a While

          by Chuck Black

It's been forty years since Apollo 11 landed on the Sea of Tranquility and it looks like we all sometimes get it wrong when it comes to predicting the future.

For example, here's Tom Lehrer, best known for the pithy, politically tinged and humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 60s, as he sings about one of the icons of our first great space age.

In only two and a half minutes, he manages to make fun of the space program and its military connections, nuclear Armageddon, America's sense of self-superiority, heroes in general, the Nazi's in particular and even bureaucrats. It's interesting to note how almost everything in the song is still relevant (and some of us rocket focused people might still want to consider learning "Chinese").

It is also a good reminder that those who led mankind to the Moon forty years ago were stubborn individualists and opportunists who embraced risk, endured setbacks, knew failure and were not universally loved or even terribly well respected in life but who continued forward anyway to accomplish unique and amazing things.

Here's a second example from the Atomic Rockets website (under the section devoted to space stations) to remind us that even the architects of our greatest accomplishments were not always totally correct about how things were going to turn out:

Oh, Werner von Braun had it all figured out.

In six issues of Collier's magazine he laid out a plan to send men to Luna and Mars. First you build a space ferry as a surface to orbit cargo transport (which was the great-grandfather of the Space Shuttle). Then you use it to make a space station.

And it was going to be a beauty of a space station, too. Three decks, 250 feet in diameter, and a crew of fifty. Makes the ISS look like a tin can. This outpost in space was where the Lunar expedition fleet would be constructed.

It would pay for itself as well. Meteorologists could plot the path of storms and predict the weather with unprecedented accuracy. Radio and TV signals could be transmitted all over the globe. Not to mention observing the military activities of hostile nations.

Why was this marvel never constructed? Because some clown invented the printed circuit.

Freed from the tyranny of fragile and short-lived vacuum tubes, technologists could make unmanned satellites for meteorologists, radio and TV signals, and watching hostile militaries. Such satellites could be assembled and launched at a fraction the cost of a manned station. They also did not require constant resupply missions to keep the crew alive. 

We're at the beginning of our second great space age and many are wondering what it will turn out to be like, who will end up as our next generation of heroes and what they'll be remembered for.

Here are a few ideas on areas to focus from Canadians and others participating in the 2006 IAC roundtable on Major Space Markets in the Next 20 years and the Corporate Approach for Success.

The panel, moderated by Virendra Jha (then VP Science, Technology and Programs for the Canadian Space Agency) also included Mag Iskander (then Executive VP and General Manager Space Missions for Macdonald Dettwiler and Associates) and quite a few other major figures in aerospace so it's amusing to note how the participants each act amazed at the things that have happened over the last twenty years, then marvel at how most of it was unexpected but then state unequivocally that the market has likely stabilized and will now remain essentially the same (with one or two predictable exceptions which are logical progressions of existing trends).

Of course, they haven't been entirely correct. 

The Augustine Committee, the British Space Innovation Growth Team and the MacLean team building our Canadian long term space plan might want to take note of this and then reflect on the earlier experiences of Werner von Braun.

Canadian Space Agency Provides "No Dedicated Programs" to Support Small Aerospace Firms

It's interesting that there seems to have been no comments relating to the publication by investment bank Near Earth LLC of its recent white paper on Small Aerospace Companies: Space Activities in North America and Europe, which categorizes small aerospace firms as "vibrant and important sources of industry innovation and value creation."

Small aerospace focused firms are also defined as being "recession resistant" with "high credit quality customers" plus "committed management and employees."

Unfortunately for Canadians, the report also states that, when compared to organizations like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and others, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has "no dedicated programs for small business."

A listing of active programs include the following:

• The NASA Mentor-Protégé Program, the Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) and IPP seed fund program plus the NASA Centenial Challenges program.
• The NOAA SBIR research grants.
  
• ESA Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Initiative, the LET-SME program and various technology research awards (TRP) for small and medium businesses.
• Other European agencies (such as the French CNES, the German DLR and the Italian ASI) also provide programs for small aerospace businesses such as the NAVOBS PLUS program, various RTD programs for space service infrastructure and the SME Working Group and Commissioner (through the DLR only).

These programs are separate from others developed and administered at the federal or provincial/ state level such as the variety of US government programs (various small business set-asides, the Section 8(a) Business Development Program, SBIR / STTR grants and the multple HUBZONE programs) or the Canadian SR&ED programs, the IRB tax credits or the multiple National Research Council (NRC) and National Sciences and Engineering Research Counsel (NSERC) grants that can be taken advantage of by small aerospace firms but are not designed specifically for them.

But taken together, this listing of space activities and small business programs (available on page ten of the report) provides a useful list of avenues of improvement for the CSA to explore as it moves forward with its (evidently ongoing) update of Canadian Space Policy.

To its credit, the CSA is sited for its microsatellite missions (such as NEOSAT) and "opportunities for small science platforms" which can be contracted to small aerospace businesses to provide a revenue source.

The report makes it clear that small aerospace companies cannot be ignored and states that, "although the aerospace industry is dominated by a small group of large companies, there is a sizeable and diverse universe of small aerospace companies engaged in space activities. These smaller aerospace companies are engaged in all elements of the value chain and provide critical and innovative components, subsystems and mission services to large prime contractors as well as to end user operators."

Someone in the CSA should either respond to this report or use it as a template for improvements.

A Two Stage Boost for Odyssey Moon



Google Lunar X-Prize contender Odyssey Moon, a newspace company with a strong Canadian connection, seems poised to benefit from two important announcements today.

The first boost is the announcement by Odyssey Moon Founder and CEO Dr. Robert Richards and Chairman Dr. Ramin Khadem that several well respected international firms have joined the Odyssey Moon "corporate team" to assist with the firms quest to "become the first private company to provide payload and delivery services to the Moon" according to this press release posted on the NASA Commercial Space Watch website.

The new partners are as follows:

• Near Earth LLC, an investment bank specializing in satellite, media and telecom properties.
• Ad agency The Brand Union, a member of the WPP group of companies, one of the six largest marketing and communication companies in the world.
• Aon International Risk Brokers, the worlds only insurance broker dedicated exclusively to the space industry.
• International law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, which has a strong telecom and space focused practice.

These new business relationships join existing partnerships with NASA (to develop a robotic lunar lander), MANSAT, the Paragon Space Development Corporation, independent merchant bank Quayle Munro plus Canadian based companies Optech and prime contractor MDA as part of the Odyssey Moon team.

The press release also announced the addition of veteran investment banker Carol Goldstein to the Odyssey Moon executive. With 25 years experience on Wall Street financing commercial satellite and telecommunication projects, Ms. Goldstein will focus on fundraising activities.

These items cannot help but be perceived as beneficial to Odyssey Moon and a solid base for consolidation of the business structure preliminary to moving forward with the actual hardware development.

And this is only their first boost of the day.

The second boost is another press release, also available on the NASA Commercial Space Watch website from the X-Prize Foundation. It promotes a recent study by the Futron Corporation, a well respected aerospace consultancy which predicts that companies such as those competing for the Google Lunar X-Prize "will be able to address a market in excess of $1 billion over the course of the next decade."

According to the press release, the study:

"...involved a detailed examination of the 19 teams already registered in the competition, as well as a robust analysis of potential lines of business, identified six key market areas: hardware sales to the worldwide government sector, services provided to the government sector, products provided to the commercial sector, entertainment, sponsorship, and technology sales and licensing.

Taken together, the study projects the value of these markets to be between $1 - $1.56 billion within the next decade. Additionally, some Google Lunar X PRIZE competitors have set their sights on additional market sectors that fell outside of the scope of the Futron report, which could result in an even higher total market size."

Futron has also written well recieved white papers and reports on space tourism, and the satellite industry in the past so this second boost of the day should go a long way to simplifying Ms. Goldsteins new job at Odyssey Moon, which is to raise money for their Google Lunar X-Prize attempt.