2012 Canadian Space Summit in London, Ontario: November 14th - 16th

Jack Mustard.

There's still time to grab a speaking spot for the 2012 Canadian Space Summit, but only if you apply online, using this link and do so before September 14th. 

So you'd better hurry.

Speaker (and attendee) slots are filling up fast for this, the 14th annual conference of the Canadian Space Society, which will be held at the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration at Western University in London ON, from November 14th - 16th.

Bonnie Schmidt.

The theme this year is "Bridging Communities: Unifying the Canadian Space Sector" and confirmed keynote session speakers so far include Dr. John "Jack" Mustard from Brown University (the deputy principal investigator of the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), a visible-infrared spectrometer aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), Perry Edmundson (the product marketing manager for Canadian space systems company COM DEV International), Dr. Bonnie Schmidt, the founder and president of Let’s Talk Science (one of Canada's largest charitable organizations dedicated to improving science literacy) and Dr. David Beaty, the chief scientist for the Mars exploration directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Peter Smith.

The keynote speaker for the Thursday night banquet, a traditional feature of the summit, is Dr. Peter Smith, the principal investigator for the 2008 Mars Phoenix Mission. Smith currently holds the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Integrated Science at the University of Arizona (UofA) Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

The summit is designed to provide a multifaceted forum for the Canadian and international community to present recent scientific advances, exchange information on new technologies, develop new ideas and to discuss opportunities for international collaboration. Presentation formats include a mix of plenary sessions, invited talks, poster sessions, and panel discussions to provide a venue for interdisciplinary networking and promote further connections between the various communities within the Canadian space sector.

For more information, please check out the summit website and facebook event pages.

Macleans Magazine Won't Send Men to Mars

A recent editorial in the old media Macleans Magazine provides strong indications that the magazine editors don't want to send men to Mars for the foreseeable future because of the difficulties involved.

Neil Armstrong (1930 - 2012), the first man on the Moon. He went because it was hard.

Instead, the editors would prefer to continue writing badly sourced and mostly unattributed commentary on the topic for the people who remain on Earth. Evidently, this is easier.

At least, that's the impression given by the August 23rd, 2012 editorial "Why we don’t need to send a man to Mars—at least, not yet" which makes a number of unsupported and likely erroneous statements relating to manned exploration in general and Mars exploration in particular.

For example, the article quotes former US astronaut Tom Jones as stating:

Science is one of the great results of exploring the cosmos, but it’s not the only reason we go to space. We send humans as an expression of national will and the superiority of our form of government.

Tom Jones.

But the editorial then goes on to claim that "any space specialist will admit, as Tom Jones does, that the added marginal scientific value of a manned mission to Mars will probably, on the whole, be zero to negative for the foreseeable future."

Did astronaut Jones actually say this?

There are certainly no direct quotes; only the bald statement that he admitted to this, when asked. But while Jones is certainly an engaging and knowledgeable public speaker, his personal website, which promotes his book "Planetology: Unlocking the Secrets of the Solar System" also focuses on topics related to how the manned space program is generally a good thing.

So we have a dichotomy here. The Macleans article has either not provided important context related to the quote or has ignored this context in its quest to support the larger view that we don't need to send men to Mars.

Even the comment about how "any space specialist" would be in agreement with the overall point of the statement (that manned Mars exploration would provide little scientific value) is unsupported except for the incomplete Tom Jones attribution.

In fact, its quite likely that we could find dozens or even hundreds of "space specialists" at the recently concluded 15th Annual Mars Society National Conference who'd like nothing better than to see people on Mars ASAP and understand the scientific value of such an endeavor. Speakers at this years conference included author, society president and outspoken manned Mars exploration advocate Robert Zubrin, astronomy professor Jim Bell, ex NASA Astronaut Pete Worden, Dr. John Johnson from the NASA Exo-Planet Science Institute and quite a few others.



The Macleans article does mention the Mars Society, but not its advocacy for manned Mars missions and settlements (as outlined on the society website and in the above panel discussion). The society receives a mention only within the context of the expected round trip time for a manned mission, which would need to be "self-sufficient in ways that the Apollo astronauts weren’t" and is therefore hard.

It's also likely that there are hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of others who didn't make it to the recent Mars Society conference but are active in the area, attend other conferences and think that sending humans to Mars ASAP is a good idea. The Macleans editorial ignores them all.

A motivational poster, evidently required.

There's more (including a complete absence of any context or justification for the statement that "we may well learn more about Mars from Curiosity than all the Apollo missions combined told us about Earth’s moon.") but the key thing here to remember is that Macleans couldn't even find someone willing to put a byline on the finished editorial. Essentially no one would claim responsibility for it.

Any publication claiming to be "Canada's only national weekly current affairs magazine" should be able to do better.

Canadian Astronaut Standing Ready for Political Launch

Marc Garneau

Chris Hadfield isn't the only Canadian astronaut expected to blast off on one last adventure this fall.

Former astronaut and current Liberal MP for Westmount—Ville-Marie Marc Garneau (who also acts as the Liberal Party house leader) is expected to throw his hat into the ring for his party's leadership just as soon as the currently acknowledged front runner in the race (the youthful and so far undeclared Liberal MP Justin Trudeau) decides if wants the job now or after a few more years of political seasoning.

Garneau may not have that option.

The 63 year old retired military officer, electrical engineer, ninth Chancellor of Carleton University and former head of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is likely at the tail end of a stubborn and fitful political career, complete with poor timing (Garneau first ran for office during the sponsorship scandal) false starts and at least one attempted political retirement.

After being considered in 2011, Garneau was passed over in favor of outgoing interim leader Bob Rae. But as per the August 15th, 2012 Toronto Star article "Marc Garneau ready to enter Liberal leadership race," he's evidently still ready to jump back into the political fray, just as soon as he can gather up a “dream team” of political operatives to work with him.

Of course, this suggests that volunteers aren't yet rushing his doorstep to work on the campaign.

Still, we wish him luck, if only because (as per my July 4th, 2011 post "Ground Control to Marc Garneau") he once advocated a doubling of the CSA budget and an all-Canadian robotic mission to Mars to "stimulate the country's space industry during uncertain times for North American space programs."

Now if only he'd fill in a few of the details.

Canadian Space Agency Shuts Down Frenchwoman's FaceBook Fan Page

On the heels of recent budget cuts, which have shrunk the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) public outreach capabilities and the well known restrictions on Federal government departments using social media, it seems odd to find someone within the beleaguered agency intent on discouraging enterprising third parties from publicizing Canadian space accomplishments and capabilities.

Screenshot from the official CSA facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/CanadianSpaceAgency showing the recent jump in fans in early August 2012. Screenshot c/o Facebook.

Unfortunately, this does seem to be what we've found.

Someone within the CSA, acting on behalf of the CSA, has filed a formal complaint with social networking site FaceBook, over an independent CSA fan page in order to protect CSA "copyrighted logos, identifiers and intellectual property." This complaint has led to the shutting down of the fan site even though the specifics of any CSA "intellectual property" referenced in the complaint have not been publicly identified.

Another CSA fan page. Graphic c/o CSA Fans Group.

Even better, according to shuttered fan site co-administrator Catherine Laplace-Builhe in her new facebook page, titled "petition online to reinstate the fan page Canadian Space Agency" the CSA hasn't just simply shut down her advocacy site. Laplace-Builhe also feels that the CSA has "stolen" the 7770 supporting fans from her site and added those fans to the far smaller listing of 600 fans on the formal CSA administered Facebook page.

A second Facebook Canadian Space Agency fan page, covering much the same topics, also containing CSA logos and links to various CSA press releases but with only 300 or so Facebook fans, so far remains operational.

According to an August 16th, 2012 e-mail received from CSA representative Julie Simard, the independent fan site was shut down by Facebook, which "followed their established procedures" when responding to the CSA complaint. According to the referenced Facebook procedures:

When we (Facebook) receive a a claim of copyright infringement from a third party alleging that content on the site infringes their copyright, we may need to immediately remove or disable access to that material on Facebook without notice to you (the site administrator). We are not in a position to adjudicate disputes between parties.

According to Simard, the migration of fans to the CSA administered Facebook page was also not the CSA's responsibility. "The Facebook Pages Terms clearly states that “all migrations are at (their) discretion” states Simard. According to the Facebook page terms "only authorized representatives may administer a Page for a brand, entity (place or organization), or public figure."

However, the Facebook Page Terms also indicates that "any user may create a Page to express support for or interest in a brand, entity (place or organization), or public figure, provided that it is not likely to be confused with an official Page or violate someone's rights."

It seems hard to believe that the fan page could be confused with the official CSA Facebook page, especially given the obvious disparities between the amount of fans on the two sites.

Catherine Laplace-Builhe from Google+

Laplace-Builhe, who lives in Paris, works at a travel agency with strong connections to the growing space tourism industry and administers a variety of Facebook and other sites focusing on European, Japanese and Canadian space science activities (including the online Cat Laplace Builhe Daily), has had previous problems with Facebook and its ill defined copywrite rules.

As outlined in my August 23rd, 2010 "this Week in Space for Canada" post, her Facebook CSA fan site was also temporarily disabled in 2010 as a result of a complaint from photographer Anthony Ayiomamitis relating to improper attribution of the June 20th, 2008 NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.

But she's also a member in good standing of the growing online media, which is comprised of sites like Spaceref.com (and the affiliated Spaceref.ca site) the Space Politics blog, the Space Review website, Clark Lindsay's HobbySpace blog (which recently morphed into the subscription service NewSpace Watch), the Space.com service and quite a few others (including the site you are reading now) which increasingly define, disseminate and drive the media coverage in this area.

Right now, there is no indication of whether the CSA decision to shut down the fan site was taken at the senior level or at a junior level. But its summer and most senior CSA people are on vacation. Once those senior heads get back to the office, they'll likely realize that the wisest move for the CSA right now might just be to stand back and allow new media experts like Laplace-Builhe to carry on with what they know best and continue promoting Canadian space activities.

NewSpace Competition a Potential Model for Canada

           by Farnaz Ghadaki,

There are easily 180 entrepreneurship and business plan type competition events worldwide (at least, according to bizplancompetitions.com) but only three are listed as space sector related and of these three none are Canadian based.

The $100,000 first prize for the 2012 BPC.

The most notable is the NewSpace Business Plan Competition (BPC) hosted by US-based Space Frontier Foundation (SFF).

Created to “foster the development of commercial space companies centered around critical space technologies” according to the SFF website, this competition is a good model to set up for Canada.

The SFF launched the BPC in 2006, when the first winner amongst five finalists (two with Canadian members) was awarded $2,000. Since then, SFF has hosted four more BPC’s, each getting bigger and better. Courtesy of the Heinlein Prize Trust, the 2009 BPC prize grew to $5,000, and an additional contribution from NASA took the prize level to $32,500 for 2011. This year the award increased by about 340%, to a whopping $110,000 total cash prize, thanks to a grant from NASA's Emerging Commercial Space Office.



The increasing prize money, coupled with the rapid growth of the private space sector, have spiked the number and quality of applicants to a total of 55 this year (vs. 25 last year). Prize money aside, the success of the BPC also contributes to SFF’s planning process, its fine-tuned model for the competition and more importantly the time and dedication of the team and its supporters.

The 2012 BPC was announced at the beginning of this year and Canadians learned about it first at the 9th Annual Astronomy and Space Exploration Society (ASX) Expanding Canada's Frontiers symposium in Toronto on January 20th, during a presentation by BPC project manager Tom Olson. Executive summary applications were accepted until May 25th and on June 15th, a committee of 11 selected and announced the 10 finalists.

The selected finalists then had to submit a full written business plan by July 6th, and go through a two day boot camp to prepare for a final six minute pitch (plus a further six minute Q & A with the judges) on July 27th at the 2012 NewSpace Conference in Santa Clara, California.

A distinguished panel of five judges with expertise in investment and business development (including Canada’s own Eva-Jane Lark of BMO Nesbitt Burns) carefully selected the winners who were announced at the Awards Gala on July 28th.



Among the ten finalists (whose impressive offerings ranged from new propellant technology to bio-engineered products and satellite-related hardware/ software) only one had a Canadian team member: Joel Spark of NanoSatisfi LLC. But despite a great presentation by NanoSatisfi CEO Peter Platzer, the cool ArduSat product (an open-source cubesat) and recent headlines about their overwhelming success on Kickstarter, this partially-Canadian owned company (profiled, but not identified as such in the June 21st, 2012 CBC News community blog article "What would you send into space if you had the chance?") was not a winner this year.

Instead, the $100K prize went to Space Ground Amalgam, LLC, the $10K second prize went to Digital Solid State Propulsion, LLC, and an honorable mention went to Terapio Corporation. According to the business plans, these three companies will use the developed plans and new connections to seek an additional $3.5 - $10 million USD's to fund their businesses.

“The prize money [..] is actually only a small part of what the competition offers”, said Spark. He felt that NanoSatisfi got tremendous exposure from the contest “After Peter gave his pitch, within seconds of sitting down, there was an investor tapping him on the shoulder,” said Spark.

2012 NanoSatisfi team members Reka Kovacs, Joel Spark, Peter Platzer and Jeroen Cappaert.

Also of benefit was the two day Boot Camp, where finalists not only practiced their pitch with ten outstanding coaches, but also received valuable feedback from industry experts attending the NewSpace Conference (which attracted a record of over 500 attendees this year).

Tom Olson attributes "the huge success of this year's BPC to a combination of many factors, including but not limited to: prizes, vision and scope, outreach to multiple sectors (including nano- and biotech), and the dedicated hard working people." For those who'd like to learn more, videos of the conference proceedings are available at Space Vidcast.

Although there are many business plan competitions in Canada (for example, the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition, Enterprize Canada, IBK Capital - Ivey, BMO Apex, and TIE Quest), and at least two space-related competitions focused on technical designs (the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC)  and the currently on hiatus U of T Space Design Contest (UTSDC)), there is currently no Canadian business plan competition focused on space activities.

Having one, especially with a growing commercial space sector, would not only foster economic growth and innovation (particularly in the area of space science and technology capacity building which is of interest to the Canadian Space Agency), but would also keep our Canadian talent in the country and give them a forum to get together and come up with creative solutions.

Will the Mars Rover Invigorate US & Canadian Space Budgets?

An example of how closely Canadian technology and expertise is embedded into the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is provided by the August 11th, 2012 post on the Space.com website titled "NASA Rover's New Red Planet Address: Yellowknife, Mars." The article quotes Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger as stating the the MSL site was named in tribute to the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories, a city that has long served as the jumping-off point for geologists interested in studying North America's oldest rocks.



Canadian built technology aboard Curiosity includes the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer ( developed by a team of Canadian researchers including Ralf Gellert at the University of Guelph and others from the University of New Brunswick Planetary and Space Science Centre, the University of Western Ontario Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration and others under the direction of prime contractor MacDonald Dettwiler) plus the image sensors for the various navigation and hazard avoidance cameras (which were built in the Teledyne DALSA semiconductor foundry in Bromont Quebec).

Brock University scientist Mariek Schmidt, who is part of the team working on the latest NASA Mars mission.

As well, according to the August 11th, 2012 Toronto Post article "Can humans live on Mars? Canadian scientists looking for the answer," at least three Canadian scientists will be joining a team of 29 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories, starting in September to begin sifting through the data being provided by the rover.

Any connection to the successful and publicly popular American Mars rover should reasonably be expected to boost the fortunes of the embattled Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the space industry in general.

Unfortunately, that's likely not going to happen. According to the August 7th, 2012 Florida Today article "NASA hopes recent successes will boost its support in Congress," space experts are concerned that:

NASA’s recent successes, remarkable as they are, don’t change the fiscal climate that is compelling President Barack Obama and Congress to constrain the size of the federal government.

If lawmakers are unable to agree on a deal to reduce the deficit cut at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years, automatic spending cuts at almost every federal program will take effect in January.

As outlined in the February 25th, 2012 post on the Spacepolicyonline.com website "Mars Shaping Up as NASA Budget Battleground" the FY2013 NASA budget includes a 20% decrease in the planetary exploration budget, which has forced NASA to withdraw from a series of planned Mars missions with the European Space Agency (ESA) that were intended to lead eventually to returning a sample of Mars to Earth.

Although not identical, a similar situation prevails in Canada, where the current Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper remains committed to a series of long-term austerity measures and federal cutbacks (as outlined in the March 29th, 2012 Conference Board of Canada's federal budget analysis) which are designed to balance the federal budget by 2014-2015.

According to the CSA 2012 - 2013 Report on Plans and Priorities, the overall CSA budget will decrease from $388 million CDN in 2012 - 2013 to $289.1 million CDN in 2014 - 2015 with the budget for space exploration (a bucket which includes both manned and unmanned projects like the MSL) decreasing from $151.0 million CDN in 2012 - 2013 to $93.0 million CDN in 2014 - 2015.

Oddly enough, the report indicates that CSA salaries (expressed in terms of FTE's or full time equivalents) will remain at exactly the same level (687 FTE) during the entire three year period covered by the report.

Diagram of the MSL spacecraft: 1 - Cruise stage; 2 - Backshell; 3 - Descent stage (the "Sky crane"); 4 - Curiosity rover; 5 - Heat shield (4.5 m diameter); 6 - Parachute. From wikipedia.

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According to the March 1st, 2012 Spaceref.com article "GAO Summary: Cost Overruns, Schedule Delays, Ongoing Technical Problems With Mars Science Laboratory" which referenced excerpts from the March 1st, 2012 "NASA: Assessments of Selected Large-Scale Projects" report (GAO-12-207SP), the overall cost of the MSL mission is approximately $2.5 billion USD and the project costs have increased "$881 million since its original baseline in 2008, which includes an 84 percent increase in development costs."

All of which suggests that MSL is not a paragon of fiscal responsibility and its success will not likely  lead to calls for increased funding for space activities any time soon.

Schools out for Summer

I'll be taking the taking the next month off from writing so I can recharge my batteries and go to the beach. The Commercial Space Blog will return with all new articles on Tuesday, August 14th.



Of course, its not quite as if nothing more will get published from now until August 14th.

The Space Conference News (SCN) and Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) websites will continue to function normally. The next SCN post (covering the August 2012 period) will go up on July 15th and subscription service members will receive their latest edition (covering the period from August until October, 2012) at the same time.

I'll likely also be posting CSCA submissions to the Aerospace Review written by Adam Trumpour ("Fostering Innovation, Creating New Markets: Novel Approaches to Space Policy and Programs"), Arny Sokoloff ("Creating an Indigenous, Canadian Small-Satellite Launch Capability") and myself ("Using Tools from the Mining Industry to Spur Innovation and Grow the Canadian Space Industry") on the CSCA website over the next few weeks.

The twitter feed (@acuriousguy.com) will also continue to function.

As well, the 2013 edition of the Futron Space Competitiveness Index, should be available over the next few weeks and I've made a few minor contributions to the section on Canada (which is evidently enough to get me listed as a "contributor" to the publication).

And finally, I'll also be contributing articles to the latest issue of the NewSpace Global (NSG) monthly publication, titled "Thruster." NSG is an information services provider that brings "timely, accurate and critical information regarding the commercial space sector (i.e., "NewSpace") to the financial industry so that our clients can make more informed business decisions" and I look forward to helping them with this mission.

Enjoy your summer. I look forward to reconnecting with everyone next month.

The 1967 Recommendation to Build a Canadian Launcher

It's not generally known that Canada's original blueprint for space activities understood that "Canada will, within the next decade, need to launch small scientific satellites at a rate which will justify supply from Canadian sources."

This specific statement is part of the 11th and final chapter (focused on "Recommendations") of the report entitled “Upper Atmosphere and Space Programs in Canada” which was written over 45 years ago, but which is still publicly referenced and as good of a description of our Canadian space interests as anything currently coming out of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

The report, a technical study originally commissioned in 1967 by the Science Secretariat (which was then a part of the Federal Government Privy Council Office), recommended using Canadian satellite and space technology for commercial activities such as communications and resource management instead of focusing only on scientific research.

John Chapman in 1967.

Over time, the report became “Canada’s Original Blueprint” for space activities and is now known simply as the “Chapman Report,” out of respect for senior author, John H. Chapman (1921-1979). 

The Chapman name was also attached to the John H. Chapman Award of Excellence, established in 2000 to celebrate and honor the members of the space community for the advancement of the Canadian space program, so you just know the author and his report were well respected.

But it's not commonly known that the report dealt with the issues surrounding the development of a Canadian small-sat launch capability. For example, there is this sentence in chapter 11 specifically recommending:

The initiation of a design and cost study for a small-satellite launch vehicle and related facilities for Canadian use.

Of course, by now there are a lot of those studies lying around, since every few years a new one is commissioned. The most recent, as outlined in the December 9th, 2009 Spaceref.ca article "A Rocket to Call Our Own? Canadian Space Agency Explores the Business Case," were commissioned during the 2008 - 2009 period and  have never been  made public.

A 1981 photo of a Black Brant X, Canadian suborbital sounding rocket. 

Which is a shame, because the Chapman Report went far further than simply recommending further studies. Chapter 11 also understood that: 

The domestic need for launch vehicles and space hardware is growing. Developments of this nature in other countries are fully supported by government on military or other grounds.

Therefore we recommend:

• That industrially based, study and research and development programs, fully funded, be undertaken on launch-vehicle systems and components to meet Canadian needs. 
• That systems management and prime contract activities be awarded to Canadian industry for the development and supply of the major hardware portions of the Canadian space program.

In essence, the Chapman report also recommended awarding contracts to Canadian companies to develop and build rocket components with the expectation that eventually the country would be fully capable of launching Canadian rockets from Canadian facilities with Canadian payloads into orbit.

In the 1960's this was a reasonable expectation since Canada then possessed substantial rocketry expertise as outlined in the report and at least one rocket actual launching facility located in Churchill, Manitoba.

In those days, the sky really was the limit for Canadian technology.

Maybe the CSA should release some of the those rocketry studies, just so we know if/ and/ or when the Chapman report contributors "fell off  the turnip truck," at least regarding this one, specific recommendation.

Three Short Stories from our Canadian Space Sector

The June 26th, 2012 announcement by BC based MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) of the intent to acquire 100% of US based Space Systems/Loral (SSL) for US$875 million in order to open up the US commercial market and provide new markets for its Canadarm and DEXTRE derived on-orbit satellite servicing technology, essentially ends the firms current reliance on government contracts.



From now on, MDA will focus more on the international business environment and less on trying to get the attention of the Canadian government through a variety of private and public activities as outlined most recently in my May 27th, 2012 post "Federal Government says "Yippee Ki Yay" to MDA."

Here are three other short, anecdotal stories from those with Canadian connections who have decided not to bet their futures on the current Canadian business environment for space focused companies:

James Cameron.

• The April 24th, 2012 announcement by Planetary Resources Incorporated, a US based mining company backed by major financiers such as Canadian film director James Cameron, of a multi-year plan to inventory and eventually mine asteroid resources suggests strongly that others already recognize the natural synergy and business cycle similarities between the space and mining industries. Investors in the company also include Google co-founder Larry Paige, executive chairman Eric Schmidt and investor and board member Kavitark Ram Shriram, internet entrepreneur/ astronaut Charles Simonyi and Henry Ross Perot, Jr., the chairman of the board of Perot Systems. Of course, individual Canadian investors like Cameron and his international colleagues who understand the concepts behind these new types of businesses are currently investing where the business environment supports their business activities.

Elon Musk.

• Given the recent successes of US based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) with the independent private development of a whole series of orbital launch vehicles (as described in the Falcon rocket family Wikipedia entry) for far less cost than typical for wholly government funded projects, it’s important to note that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is South African born; his mother is Canadian and he is a naturalized US citizen who could certainly have located his businesses in Canada (or anywhere else in the world), given the appropriate local support and business environment. 

• Even Canadian born serial space entrepreneur Dr. Robert Richards, the former Optech International Director, the co-founder of the International Space University (along with Planetary Resources Co-Founder Peter H. Diamandis) and current Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor Moon Express, Inc. has decided that it’s more useful to become an American citizen and build American companies. According to the December 29th, 2010 Spaceref.ca article “This Week in Space for Canada," the good Canadian doctor immigrated to the US because “Canada was not a good place to build a commercial space company.”

Hopefully, the Aerospace Review (which just finished up its call for public submissions on June 30th) will have a few suggestions for  addressing some of the concerns surrounding the organizations and people discussed above who have opted into going somewhere else in order to build their space company.

MacDonald Dettwiler buys Space Systems Loral for $875M

Daniel Friedmann looking pleased.

The deal  may still officially require regulatory approval, but it looks like iconic Canadian space systems company MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) has followed through on the stated intent of CEO Daniel Friedmann to buy a space company with US roots to gain a foothold in the lucrative US market.

The acquisition turns the company into a global communications player and opens doors for MDA to begin subcontracting US space projects like those for on-orbit satellite servicing through the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The essence of the deal is outlined in the June 27th, 2012 Reuters article "MacDonald Dettwiler to buy Loral subsidiary for $875mln" which states:

Loral Space & Communications Inc. has agreed to sell its satellite manufacturing subsidiary, Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to Canadian communications rival MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd for about $875 million.

The deal is set to enhance Macdonald Dettwiler's position in the communications arena and creates potential for increased business with both commercial and government clients.

The article goes on to quote an MDA spokesperson, who said that the acquisition "will immediately boost its earnings," make the expanded company a "major player in commercial communications" and provide it with "critical mass in the US market." 

The old and the new. From the June 27th, 2012 MDA conference call on the acquisition.

As outlined over a year ago in my May 9th, 2011 post "Fighting Words from MacDonald Dettwiler," the company always intended to buy a US based space company using money acquired through the January, 2011 sale of the MDA property-information business.

Even the recent MDA proposal to DARPA for on-orbit satellite servicing (as described in my February 19th, 2012 post "Details of MDA On-Orbit Satellite Servicing Proposal") is now also likely to move forward.

As explained by MDA CEO Friedmann during the June 27th, 2012 MDA conference call on the acquisition, MDA has consistently performed well in the design phase of the DARPA programs, but until now has been unable to guarantee that final manufacture would be on US soil, which is a requirement for the DARPA contract.

The MDA/ SSL deal includes a 1.3 million sq. ft state of the art satellite facility in Palo Alto, California which could be used for the final assembly of any DARPA contracted satellite.

Overview of MDA SS/L facilities in Palo Alto. From the June 27th, 2012 MDA conference call on the acquisition.

According to Friedmann, the acquisition will not immediately effect ongoing layoffs in Canadian facilities. As discussed in my May 14th, 2012 post "MDA & RADARSAT Constellation's War of the Words" the company has recently been laying off Canadian employees involved with the RADARSAT Constellation and Canadarm programs. 

Five Canadian NewSpace Companies to Watch

While the mass media wraps itself around the latest Chris Hadfield exploit in preparation for what looks to be the last Canadian astronaut trip until at least 2014 (when Winnipeg natives Rob Bendall and Vince Jandrisch are scheduled to begin ferrying tourists to the edge of space in their new capacity as Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo pilots), its easy to forget some of the smaller Canadian companies contributing to space activities.

Here are five of them, listed below in alphabetical order:

• Cimetrix Solutions - It's hard to believe that a company focused almost entirely on reselling rapid prototyping solutions developed by others could contribute in a substantive way to Canadian space exploration. But rumour has it that the company contributed several thousand dollars and a custom built 3D manufactured nose cone to the Waterloo Rocketry Team for its entry into the 2012 Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition, held last weekend in Green River, Utah. In essence, companies like Cimetrix provide the practical tools needed for the rapid prototyping methodologies required by newspace firms as described in my February 7th, 2012 post "Our Next Industrial Revolution Could be Off-World."

• exactEarth Ltd. - This data services company, jointly owned by COM DEV International and Madrid based HISDESAT Servicios Estratégicos S.A. is focused on using advanced microsatellite technology to monitor international ship traffic (under the exactAIS banner). The company is growing, consistently profitable and the only Canadian concern able to launch anything into orbit in 2011 (as outlined in my August 23rd, 2011 post "Political Passing, Antarctic Mapping, Grounded Russians, JWST Increases and exactEarth Launches"). As outlined in my June 5th, 2012 post "State Politics Delays exactEarth Baikonur Launch" the company currently has two more micro-satellites awaiting launch.

• MapleSoft, a Cybernet Group Company -This is a Canadian subsidiary of a larger international company (the Japanese based Cybernet Systems, which acquired Maplesoft in 2009) which has had great success selling high-performance software tools for engineering, science and mathematics to organizations like the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and others. As is the case with most Canadian high technology companies, Maplesoft maintains close working relationships with a specific university faculty, which in this case is the University of Waterloo (U of W) Symbolic Computation Group. 

• UrtheCast - As per the company website, this firm is "launching the world's first ever high definition, streaming video platform of planet Earth." Using partnerships with Russian aerospace giant RSC Energia, Canadian space icon Macdonald Dettwiler (MDA) and quite a number of other firms, the company has built two HD cameras for the Russian module of the International Space Station (ISS) which are expected to be installed on the ISS next year. The company advocates an open source model of the development of applications for the geographic or spatially referenced information which the cameras will collect.

• Xiphos Technologies - The company builds low cost flight processors for on-board spacecraft, aircraft and other platforms requiring protection from harsh environments and high radiation. In many ways the most successful in terms of employees and revenue, this company is also one of the most low profile. Xiphos has been serving space and UAV markets for 15 years and has a flight heritage on a dozen different satellite missions.

Undoubtedly there are more, but these five companies are good places to start getting a sense of where fortunes are likely to be made over the next decade and how Canadian companies are likely to make them.

Jerry Pournelle, the CoDominium and ITAR Policy

Jerry Pournelle in 2005.

At first glance, one might find it hard to categorize science fiction author Jerry Pournelle as a "conspiracy theorist."

But advocates of the US laws relating to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) might want to take note that an entire series of Pournelle novels takes place in a near future society which restricts the development of technologies that can be used in warfare.

Since even pillows can be used to smother opponents, this state of affairs eventually halts progress and improvement for pretty much everything.

Which is bad, although the stories themselves are very, very good.

Beginning with the 1971 Analog Magazine serialization titled "A Spaceship for the King," which was later expanded out into the 1981 novel "King David's Spaceship," Pournelle and his co-authors (Larry Niven and S. M. Stirling) created an alternative Earth where a transnational bureaucracy (the CoDominium), originally designed to facilitate relations between the United States of America and a revived Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, ends up controlling Earth and its resulting interstellar empire.

To maintain their rule, the CoDominium routinely suppresses all scientific research and development. Scientists are overtly censored, spied upon, and can even be deported off Earth.

More covertly, public sources of information in the CoDominium universe are contaminated with false data and confused by the encouragement of contradictory rules and regulations for disparate organizations which proliferate to encourage the division of knowledge into increasingly smaller, unconnected and useless sub-specialties.

The end result in the CoDominium universe is that progress halts (which makes for a series of pretty good stories related to the mercenaries of Falkenburg's Legion), then collapses until a more progressive civilization takes hold (as outlined in the classic novel "The Mote in God's Eye").

While surely none of this has any direct relevance for the real world, it's important to note that Pournelle's wikipedia bio references stints of political activism (as research director for the 1969 mayoral campaign of Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty and as contributor to the US Strategic Defense Initiative sections of Ronald Reagan's 1983 State of the Union Address), personal friendships with major political figures and long periods of aerospace industry employment on top secret projects for Boeing, the Aerospace Corporation, and the North American Rockwell Space Division. 

It also includes a version of Pournelle's "Iron Law of Bureaucracy" which states that:

...in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself.

Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representatives who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent.

The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

As the US moves forward with ITAR reform, the creation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations governing commercial spaceflight and the development of safety principals appropriate to the space tourism industry, it might it be useful to remember this law and some of the other writings of Jerry Pournelle.

Even if much of his work, sounds ever so slightly, like a "conspiracy theory."

Timmins, Ballooning, the French and Lots of Hot Air...

Timmins, Ontario from the air.

It looks like the City of Timmins, Ontario has entered into an agreement with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) to build, operate and maintain the infrastructure for a giant balloon launching base, which will support "at least one launch every two years."

At least that's the story as outlined in the June 15th, 2012 press release on the CSA website under the headline "Canada–France Collaborate on Balloon Launches: City of Timmins Selected as Launch Base."

But while the French benefits are explicitly defined as finding a launch site for their upcoming Polarized Instrument for Long-Wavelength Observations of the Tenuous ISM (PILOT) and a variety of other high altitude balloon missions discussed in the January 22nd, 2012 CNES "Call for Scientific Research Proposals using Balloons," the benefits to the CSA and Timmins are less well defined.

According to the CSA press release, the partnership will "provide Canadian scientists and engineers with a new platform to test technologies and advance space science." But according to Daniel Leveque, the CSA co-project manager for the program, the specifics of any Canadian experiments or contributions coming still need to be defined.

This high altitude weather balloon from the California Near Space Project,  crossed the United States and then the Atlantic Ocean before landing in the Mediterranean Sea in 2011.

In a phone conversation earlier today, Levesque explained that potential Canadian experiments and contributions will be discussed at an upcoming conference being scheduled for October 2012.

This new conference will be a follow-on to the April 2010 Workshop on Suborbital Platforms and Nanosatellites and will likely include most of the same participants. Similar conferences (with most of the same participants) were also held in 2007, 2008 and 2009 but Levesque is optimistic that an announcement of opportunity followed by several requests for proposals related to potential Canadian balloon experiments will be issued after this latest 2012 conference.

Steve MacLean.

Of course, Levesque also said the CSA's announced $10 million dollar contribution to the project is only to build the base and does not include the cost of any payloads.There also seems some ambiguity over the dates these funds are expected to be available for use.

According to CSA president Steve MacLean, 

balloon missions are cost-effective and can be prepared more quickly and more frequently, making them ideal for training university students. Offering hands-on learning opportunities helps Canada retain the next generation of space scientists and engineers, and keeps our country innovative and competitive... 

Canadian Space Agency "Pulling Financial Support" for International Space University

Bob Richards.

Serial space entrepreneur and co-founder of the International Space University (ISU) Dr. Robert D. Richards has confirmed a recent rumor circulating through the academic community that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is "pulling their financial support of ISU."

The ISU, a private non-profit institution of higher education focused on space science and applied technology, is supported by a variety of Canadian and international organizations including Bristol Aerospace, the Boeing Company, ComDev International, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Israel Ministry of Defense, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Macdonald Dettwiler (MDA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Optech Incorporated, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Military College of Canada the United States Air Force (USAF) and quite a number of others.

The CSA is also currently listed on the ISU partners and sponsors webpage.

But, according to Richards, the CSA informed the ISU on April 12th that funding would be curtailed and that CSA representatives could no longer participate on the ISU Board of Directors.

"Canada has been a valued and dedicated ISU sponsor since pre-CSA times. So many leading Canadian space sector people are ISU grads who have been key to Canada's space activities and have paid the investment back to Canada many times over, its' hard to fathom (the decision)" he stated in response to an e-mail query earlier today.

A CSA withdrawal from the ISU would also seem to contradict the stated CSA public policy (most recently outlined in the May 24th, 2012 Space.com article "Space Agency Leaders Say Global Cooperation Vital for Future Exploration") advocating increased international co-operation among space agencies and stakeholders.

Canadian born Richards is is currently co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, Inc., a US company awarded a $10M commercial lunar contract by NASA and a competitor in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. In 1987, together with Todd B. Hawley and Peter Diamandis, Richards helped create the ISU.

Requiem for a Heavyweight Rocketdyne

The publicly held American multinational United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is now "in negotiations with one buyer to sell storied rocket engine maker Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and a deal may soon be announced," according to the June 11th, 2012 LA Daily News article "Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne about to be sold to private-investor group."

 The Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne space shuttle main engines from Endeavour's and Atlantis' final missions in the Engine Shop at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in November 2011.

As outlined in the May 22nd, 2012 Reuters article "United Tech says Goodrich deal to close in July," the Rocketdyne subsidiary was always expected to be sold by UTC, along with the industrial arm of the Hamilton Sundstrand division, and the Clipper Windpower operation, in order to fund the $16.5 billion UTC takeover of aircraft components manufacturer Goodrich Corporation.

But a private investment deal could end up giving the historic company (originally formed after the second world war to study the German V-2 missile and adapt its engine to US requirements)  new capabilities and perhaps even the potential to compete in the international marketplace against privately held Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).

Mike Griffin.

A June 11th, 2012 post on the NASA Watch under the title "Rocketdyne Sold - Griffin as New CEO?" even states that the new owners, working through a group organized by the Chase Bank, have hired ex-NASA Director Michael D. Griffin as the new Rocketdyne CEO.

All of which suggests the possibility of one final hurrah for the once promising and innovative company which simply grew too old and dependent on fixed price government contracts.

Which kinda sounds like the plot of the 1956 teleplay "Requiem for a Heavyweight." Written by Rod Serling (who later went on to create "The Twilight Zone"), the teleplay focused on Harlan "Mountain" McClintock, a once-promising but now washed-up boxer who faces the end of his career after being savagely defeated by a younger, and more capable foe.

Boxing is all "Mountain" McClintock has ever known and he's both terrified of trying something new and intensely loyal to the coach who has nurtured him from his youth, but also bets against him (much like the US government has hedged its bets once or twice with Rocketdyne in its various incarnations).

Of course, analogies rarely transfer directly to the real world.

Rocketdyne possesses serious political connections and legacy assets in the intellectual property surrounding the RL10 rocket engines, the RS-68 first stage engine for the Delta IV, the RS-25 engines used as the space shuttle main engine and quite a few other programs and projects.

And no one expects that the new owners will be "punch drunk."

Expect the official announcement of the sale and the new management team to be made over the next month.