US Elections Have More Influence on the Space Industry than Canadian Elections

          By Henry Stewart

Unlike in Canada, where suggestions on what the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) should be doing tend to slip into a "black box" controlled by Federal Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and are never seen again, US space policy is often wrapped around the initiatives of specific US House representatives and/or specific US senators, who spend a lot of time pushing their personal agendas.

The most notable example of this would be US Senator Richard Craig Shelby, the chair of the powerful US Senate Appropriations Committee, who has a reputation for staunchly advocating pretty much any funding bill associated with the NASA Space Launch System (SLS), especially if the funding can be spent in Alabama, where he needs to be re-elected every six years.

Shelby wasn't running for re-election this week, but others were. Here are a few quick overviews of some of the winners and losers from Tuesday's US election.

• The Democratic party "will assume majority control of the House of Representatives next January" and gain control over the management of all House committees according to the November 7th, 2018 Planetary Society post, "What the 2018 midterms mean for NASA and planetary science."

The post also said that, while the Republican party expanded its majority in the Senate and Senate committees will remain under their control: 

... the Republican party will likely rediscover its resistance toward non-defense discretionary spending and debt, something that had largely been set aside for the previous 2 years. 

Non-defense discretionary spending includes NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation, and though these are generally not political targets, they are small enough to be caught up in the larger politics and brinkmanship likely to follow efforts to fund the government in coming years.

The post also noted five strong advocates for the US space industry in the Senate and House and noted whether or not they were successfully re-elected.

Screen shots c/o ADMO.

• Speaking of those who weren't reelected, as outlined in the November 7th, 2018 Houston Chronicle post, "Culberson's ouster could spell big problems for NASA's Orion program, experts say," several NASA programs could be in trouble after Republican representative John Culberson lost his House seat to democratic challenger Lizzie Pannill Fletcher.

For the last four years, Culberson was the chair of the House Appropriations Committees' Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over NASA funding and where he acted as a strong advocate of science and human spaceflight. 

Programs Culbertson was personally involved with included the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle (an American-European spacecraft program intended to carry a crew of four astronauts to destinations at or beyond low Earth orbit), the NASA Europa Clipper mission and the legislative language that prohibits NASA from cooperating with China on a bilateral basis unless certain conditions are met.

As outlined in the November 7th, 2018 Space Policy Online post, "Democrats Win the House, Republicans Keep the Senate - Updated," it's not clear if the Democrats agree with Culbertson's policy decisions, especially as they relate to China.

During the campaign, Fletcher ran a series of ads accusing Culberson of preferring to spend money "to fund the search for aliens on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa" instead of providing funds for flood protection in his district and promised that “Lizzie Fletcher will invest in humans, not aliens.” 

• The situation regarding the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a replacement for the old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the proposed US "Space Force," a possible new branch of the US armed forces intended to control military operations in outer space, and perhaps even the final details of the proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G), are each still in a state of flux.

Articles such as the November 8th, 2018 National Post article, "Is USMCA in trouble? What’s next for our trade deal," and the November 9th, 2018 Atlantic post, "Trump's Space Force Faces an Uncertain Fate," suggest that the path forward for at least the first two initiatives is problematic. 

Expect at least some of the confusion surrounding these policies to remain until January 2019, when the newest crop of US legislators formally take office. 

For more on the politics of our current space age, check out future editions of the Commercial Space blog.

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

Canada's "Signature" Contribution to GOSAT-2

          By Chuck Black

“ABB Canada is very proud of its involvement with GOSAT-2, our tenth optical system currently in orbit" according to Quebec PQ based ABB Canada Space and Defense systems director Marc-Andre Soucy, who talked with this blog on Thursday morning.

The TANSO-FTS, also known as the GOSAT interferometer subsystem. According to ABB datasheet (DS/TANSO–EN Rev. A),  the TANSO-FTS consists of tree modules: an opto-mechanical (OM) module and two remote control electronics modules. The OM module is inspired by the Canadian Space Agency's Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) which was launched on SCISAT-1, a Canadian satellite launched in August 2003. SCISAT-1 is still in operation and expected to remain operational until 2021, according to the July 27th, 2018 Canadian Space Agency (CSA) update to its SCISAT webpage. Photo c/o ABB.

Soucy and company have reason to be proud of their contribution to the second Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT-2), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) next generation satellite designed to monitor greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

Under a contract from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, ABB designed, built and tested one of one of two instruments aboard GOSAT-2, the thermal and near infrared sensor for carbon observation – Fourier transform spectrometer (TANSO-FTS), the core sub-system of the FTS instrument. The main purpose of the TANSO-FTS is to measure spectra of reflected and emitted radiance that will be used to determine the total column amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (NH4).

But the current success, at least according to Soucy, is heavily dependent on the long-term support of the Canadian government in the form of appropriate research and development programs and for "flight heritage" which demonstrates capabilities and help ABB and others to break into tough international markets, where people often prefer to buy locally.

Soucy said that, without the support of the Canadian government over the last twenty years, ABB would not have had the legacy flight hardware to export these optical technologies.

Exporting optical technologies is challenging as optical instruments are often highly customized to meet the specific needs of a mission. Given the high level of customization of optical sensors, few companies succeed in maintaining a sufficiently strong competitive edge. 

On government programs, there is a natural preference to procure from domestic suppliers:  a strong competitive edge is therefore vital to succeed in exports 

Marc-Andre Soucy. Photo c/o ABB. 

On risk-averse large space programs, you cannot export with only breadboards and nice viewgraphs:  you need flight heritage.  

Soucy is concerned that very few optical instruments were developed and flown by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in the last decade. He feels that this may begin impacting Canadian space industry exports in the near future.

ABB Canada also contributed an earlier generation TANSO-FTS to the first GOSAT-1, which launched in January 2009, from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan.

GOSAT-1 is generally considered to be the world's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse gas monitoring, and is still in operation.

But time marches on and improvements build over time.

As outlined in the November 6th, 2018 ABB press release, "ABB optical technology launched aboard GOSAT-2 Japanese satellite," the new satellite "is expected to double greenhouse gas readings per day over its GOSAT-1 predecessor."

According to Soucy:

GOSAT-2 relies on the heritage of GOSAT-1, a highly successful satellite in orbit since 2009, and GOSAT-1 relies on heritage developed through previous projects, including Canada's SCISAT, which was launched in 2003. 

The current generation TANSO-TFS used on GOSAT-2 is essentially a signature Canadian technology which we've developed domestically over the last four decades and now offer to the world. 

In fact, ABB has provided technologies for the Japanese space program for over 20 years, and contributed to several other high profile space missions including the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Soumi NPP), the Meteosat series of satellites, the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometers (IASI) being used on a variety of European Union (EU) satellites and quite a number of others.

But we've also learned from our previous efforts. Approximately thirty people are currently on the project and over one hundred have contributed over the years to the GOSAT program.

GOSAT-2 graphic. The details of the GOSAT-2 mission are outlined online in the Earth Observation Portal (EOPortal) Directory under the title "GOSAT-2 (Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite-2) / Ibuki-2." Graphic c/o Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.

GOSAT-2 (also known to the Japanese as Ibuki-2) was launched on October 29th, 2018 on the Japanese H-IIA launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan.

"With our technologies, we are helping to contribute to a better understanding of our planet, helping to overcome climate change challenges and creating important high value careers for our employees,” said Soucy.

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Going to the Bar to Watch the US Midterm Election on Tuesday Night

          By Chuck Black

The US is wrapping up one of the most consequential US midterm elections on record and the aftershocks are expected to reverberate even across the space industry, at least according to the November 2nd, 2018 issue of "POLITICO Space," the weekly online "must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the second space age."

This blog will be covering the US elections on Tuesday November 6th, 2018 from the main barstool of the Toronto ON based Madison Avenue Pub, which will be hosting several hundred expatriate US citizens who will be watching the activities on the major networks from a dozen or so strategically placed televisions throughout the bar.

As for POLITICO, they say that the new year is "shaping up to be a spaceflight turning point" and the politicians, democrats and republicans, are looking to leverage their positions to influence policy.

Issues include:

• The eventual status of the proposed US "Space Force," a possible new branch of the US armed forces intended to control military operations in outer space. It's a topic also discussed in the October 15, 2018 post, "Blue Origin Joins the US Military Rocket Building Club."

• The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a replacement for the old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which, although negotiated to a successful conclusion between the three primary parties, has not been ratified yet by either the Canadian Parliament or the US House of Representatives. 

As outlined in the November 5th, 2018 CBC News post, "How the US midterm elections could shake up Canadian business," some Canadian policy experts say "a Democratic win is not necessarily better for the Canadian economy or Canadian business."

• Which Democrat or Republican representative will become the new head of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology after current chairman Lamar Smith (who is not standing for reelection) retires. 

Screen shots c/o ADMO.

• Whether or not funding should even go to space activities. An example of this would include the series of attack ads from Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat trying to unseat Rep. John Culberson, the current chair of the House Appropriations Committees' Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over NASA funding. 

The ad accuses Culberson of preferring to spend money "to fund the search for aliens on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa" instead of providing funds for flood protection in his district. 

Fletcher promotes herself as being "Down to Earth, Where We Need Her" and her ads promise that “Lizzie Fletcher will invest in humans, not aliens.”

The action at the Madison begins as soon as the polls close across the US. I'll be showing up around 8pm EST. Feel free to drop by, say hi, tell me your story and buy me a drink.

Especially that last thing.

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Planetary Resources Purchased by US Based Blockchain Company

          By Brian Orlotti

Richmond WA based asteroid mining firm Planetary Resources has been purchased by ConsenSys Inc., a Brooklyn, New York-based blockchain software company. The acquisition could serve as an opportunity for the application of blockchain technology to commercial space activities and may also end up serving as a model for new fund raising and profit-taking strategies in the new space sector.

As outlined in the October 31st, 2018 Planetary Resources press release, "ConsenSys Acquires Planetary Resources," the full terms of the acquisition have not yet been publicly announced but both Planetary Resources’ President & CEO Chris Lewicki and General Counsel Brian Israel have joined ConsenSys and will continue to develop space initiatives out of the Planetary Resources’ former facility in Redmond WA.

Founded by Peter H. Diamandis, Eric C. Anderson and Chris Lewicki, Planetary Resources debuted in 2012 with the stated goal of expanding Earth’s resource base by developing and deploying asteroid mining technologies.

In the short-term, however, the company sought to generate a revenue stream by marketing a series of small, inexpensive space telescopes for Earth observation and astronomy.  These spacecraft would employ a laser-based communications system to reduce payload mass as compared to conventional radio systems.

The deployment of these space telescopes was envisioned by the company as a first step towards asteroid mining; the capabilities that the company hoped to sell to its customers could also be used to survey and scrutinize near-Earth asteroids.

Earlier this year, as noted in the March 12, 2018 Space News post, "Planetary Resources revising plans after funding setback," Planetary Resources failed to close an anticipated round of funding. The company had planned on receiving investment from an unnamed “major global mining company,” but the funding was “delayed” due to budgetary reasons.

Layoffs ensued, and the company's first asteroid prospecting mission, scheduled to launch in 2020, was delayed indefinitely.

Planetary Resources had successfully launched two test satellites into orbit: Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R) in July 2015 and Arkyd 6 in January 2018.

ConsenSys, founded in 2015 by Canadian entrepreneur Joseph Lublin, is a software company developing decentralized software services and applications that utilize the Ethereum blockchain. A Blockchain is a decentralised and public ledger of transactions shared via computer networks (i.e. the Internet) with each transaction linked to previous ones by cryptographic hashes.

This use of cryptography ensures the authenticity and integrity of the ledger, making it supposedly immune to fraud. Blockchains are used extensively by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The global banking and financial industries are currently investigating blockchain for use in their operations. 

As of July 2018, ConsenSys has over 900 employees. The company’s projects include:

• Meridio - a platform to create, manage, and trade fractional ownership shares in real estate assets.

• Blockapps Strato - a partnership with Microsoft Azure to build industry-specific blockchain database applications.

• TransActive Grid - a joint venture with Brooklyn, NY based LO3 Energy to enable peer-to-peer electricity sales.

• MineraC -  a consortium of mining companies and financial institutions working to create a blockchain system for minerals trading and logistics.

ConsensSys’ purchase of Planetary Resources may be a part of a two-step strategy. First, revenue from blockchain products may enable the development of asteroid mining technologies. Second, the emergence of an asteroid mining industry would provide a ready-made market for MineraC’s mining logistics platform.

When combining an old idea (asteroid mining) with a new one (blockchain), the results can be anything but predictable. But with the chance to finally achieve the dream of an off-world economy, it’s a gamble worth taking.

Brian Orlotti.

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Brian Orlotti is a network operator at the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit network service provider to the education and research sectors.

Maxar Technologies Share Price Collapses After Q3 Earnings Report Released

          By Henry Stewart

On the upside, most everyone agrees that Brampton ON based MDA Space Missions (a subsidiary of Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies) is a US company and will likely become even more of a US based company by the end of the year, so the Canadian government likely won't feel the need to bail it out by purchasing any more expensive third generation Canadarms to keep it solvent.

Five day Google market summary for Maxar Technologies stock prices on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) as per 4pm EST on November 1st, 2018. As outlined in the November 1st, 2018 Wall Street Investor post, "Maxar Technologies Ltd. (MAXR) could lead to an upward move," the stock has lost 76% of its value so far this year and approximately 45% over the last week. Graph c/o Google.

On the other hand, the #DontLetGoCanada space advocacy coalition might soon need to attract a new anchor advocate to lead the charge for increased funding for Canada's space industry. Maybe the Canadian based offices of Toulouse, France based Airbus will sign on. Airbus is certainly looking to increase its domestic corporate footprint and might even decide to be not quite so overtly self-serving with its recommendations.

Be that as it may, those are potential consequences of a story still playing out in the investor press. The core of the story is far, far simpler.

Maxar Technologies share prices have collapsed because, as outlined in the October 31st, 2018 Maxar press release, "Maxar Technologies reports third quarter 2018 results, declares quarterly dividend," the company missed its quarterly earnings forecast, by a large amount and included a massive writedown of assets, which wasn't expected.

Maxar CEO Howard Lance. Photo c/o Speakerpedia.

As outlined in the press release, Maxar reported:

• Consolidated revenues of $508.2Mln US ($665.07Mln CDN). 

• The company was expected to report a far higher $560Mln US or $733Mln CDN in consolidated revenues. Consolidated revenues a convenient accounting shorthand "covering all revenue generated by a parent company and its majority-owned subsidiaries, after intercompany eliminations" according to Quora. 

In essence, Maxar didn't sell enough product. 

• A net loss under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) of $432.5Mln US ($566Mln CDN) including $383.6Mln US ($502Mln CDN) in impairment losses and inventory obsolescence. A net loss under IFRS of $7.31 US ($9.6 CDN) per share; net loss excluding impairment losses of $0.83 US ($1.1 CDN) per share.

• The $383.6 Mln US net loss/ write-down was something no one was expecting. When combined with the shortfall in consolidated revenue, the news caused the Maxar stock price to plummet.

• An adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $146.3Mln US ($191.5Mln CDN) with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28.8%.

• An adjusted earnings of $44.6Mln US ($58.4Mln CDN) and adjusted earnings per share of $0.75 US ($1 CDN). 

• IFRS operating cash flow of $119.2Mln US ($156Mln CDN) with an adjusted operating cash flow of $91.9Mln US ($122.3Mln CDN) and adjusted free Cash flow of $29.2Mln US ($38.3Mln CDN). 

And the good news just continues. As outlined in the October 31st, 2018 Motley Fool post, "Why Maxar Technologies Stock Just Imploded -- Down 41%," Maxar told investors that:

it expects to end 2018 with a 6.5% decline in full-year revenues. Worse, management is forecasting total capital spending to exceed $300Mln US this year, potentially wiping out the company's predicted $300Mln US to $400Mln US in adjusted operating cash flow and putting Maxar's cash-flow statement in the red for the year.

Maxar almost immediately moved to respond to investors concerns. According to the October 31st, 2018 Space News post, "Maxar trying to sell GEO business as defective components compound troubles," one of the options on the table is to sell off the Palo Alto CA based SSL subsidiary formerly known as Space Systems Loral.

Independent analysts also moved to revise their assessments regarding the Maxar stock price, a reasonable thing to do since most considered the stock to be a good buy, according to the October 31st, 2018 Regina Post article, "Space systems company Maxar sees shares crater on earnings miss."

According to the post:

While its geostationary satellite manufacturing business has been lauded as an industry leader, Maxar’s orders have fallen every year for the past three years. GEO comsat orders declined to eight in 2017 from 15 in 2016. At one point, the company was averaging 20 or more per year.

In fact, the only analyst which seems to have a reasonable assessment of Maxar stock prospects is New York NY based Spruce Point Capital Management which, as outlined in the August 10th, 2018 post, "Maxar Technologies Might be Getting Paranoid," suggested earlier this year that Maxar stock was overpriced and Maxar's dividend was at risk.

As outlined in the October 9th, 2018 Maxar Technologies press release, "Maxar Technologies Advances Planned US Domestication," Maxar/ MDA is still moving forward with its plan to become completely US owned and operated and "expects to complete this process in January 2019, subject to security holder approval."

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

The REAL Path Towards Revitalizing the Canadian Space Industry

          By Chuck Black

It's worth noting that a great many academic, non-governmental and business organizations want the Federal government to give them bucketloads of new money for various projects and insist that this will revitalize the Canadian space industry.

They are wrong. Totally and irrevocably wrong. Our current worldwide explosion of private sector space accomplishments has nothing whatsoever to do with simply shoveling new government money into traditionally structured programs.

The problem is the structure of the program, not a lack of funding.

The only real way to revitalize the Canadian space industry and make it competitive in the marketplace of ideas (not just as a component manufacturer) is to change the procurement methodologies of government departments such as the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and update the Federal tax code to support innovative, Canadian based, private sector corporations.

This is what the US and Luxembourg are currently doing and it is the main reason why companies like Hawthorne, CA based SpaceX,  Las Cruces NM based Virgin Galactic, Betzdorf Luxembourg based SES SA and even Ottawa ON based Telesat are currently investing so heavily in the final frontier.

Oddly enough, back in 2012, the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) did look at those areas in the first two of its three part series of submissions to the 2012 David Emerson led Aerospace Review.

As outlined in the June 30th, 2012 CSCA submission to the Aerospace Review under the title, "Submission to the Aerospace Review Part 1 of 3 - Fostering Innovation, Creating New Markets: Novel Approaches to Space Policy and Programs," the CSCA recommended that government "explicitly encourage the development of entrepreneurial or “commercial space” industries and approaches," using a variety of policies and programs.

These included:

• Updated government policies and regulations covering the experimental permitting, safety standards, liability limitation and launch licencing for commercial launch providers in Canada. 

• The use of novel contracting approaches for government procurement, such as some of the approaches currently being used to maintain US dominance in this area. Examples of these would include the various NASA Space Act Agreements, the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program and the Small Business Industrial Research (SBIR) program. 

• The ability to commercially access existing US and Canadian government civilian and military facilities related to the space industry and the encouragement of the creation of appropriate new facilities (such as spaceports and satellite receiving facilities) and build new ones, as required. 

The often discussed "unlicensed" Nunavik ground station, last covered in the June 21st, 2018 post, "The Special Senate Committee on the Arctic Holds a Hearing on Northern Infrastructure & That "Unlicensed" Inuvik Groundstation," would surely have benefited from some of the proactive approaches discussed in this paper. 

Halifax NS based Maritime Launch Services (MLS), although saddled with the obsolete, expendable Cyclone-4M launch vehicle at the core of its plan to build a launch facility on Canada's east coast, would also have benefited from at least knowing the process required to gain government approval to build a spaceport. 

And, as outlined in the May 11th, 2017 post, "CATAAlliance Calls for Adaption of the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program," other organizations have also called for the use of novel contracting approaches for Federal procurement.

According to the May 25th, 2017 post, "Attempting Relevance, the Canadian Space Agency Announces Industry Focused & Small Business Funding," the Canadian government has at least begun to take a few small baby steps down this path. 

But it's the second of the three CSCA submissions to the Aerospace Review, "Using Tools from the Mining Industry to Spur Innovation and Grow the Canadian Space Industry," which may hold the most unique lessons for Canada's space industry.

The second submission doesn't suggest adopting new methodologies or co-opting techniques from others.

It suggests only that the techniques and tax breaks already in place to grow our mining industry, can also be used to grow our space industry.

The second submission contained two recommendations:

"Canadian companies engaging in extraterrestrial resource development should be granted all tax and other benefits now granted to them in their terrestrial exploration and development activities."

• To support this recommendation the paper discussed the fiscal similarities between the mining industry and space activities, explored how exploration has been historically been financed by investors and discussed the genesis of the recommendation, a 2008 White Paper titled, "Creating A Robust Canadian Space Research Exploration & Development Industry - The Canadian Mineral Industry Flow-Though Share Analog,” which was first presented at the 2008 Canadian Space Summit.

"The Federal government should create provisions in Canadian law for clear, transferable title to extraterrestrial mining claims and returned resources and work to negotiate international agreements to the same effect"

• To support this recommendation, the paper referenced the specific terms of the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, referenced a number of independent authors with expertise in this area and reviewed how the implementation of certain "revenue neutral" changes to Canada's tax code changes led to the massive growth of the Canadian mining industry, beginning in the 1980's. 

As noted above, the changes recommended in the CSCA submissions are "revenue neutral" for the Federal government to implement. Large new buckets of funding are not required to change the tax code or modify procurement contracts.

They're also changes which are being adapted in the US and in smaller jurisdictions, like Luxemburg, with great success.

Once the recommended changes have been made, our domestic space industry will begin to grow in the same way that Canada's mining industry (which grew in response to the tax changes) and private sector companies like SpaceX (which thrived at NASA under the various COTS programs and used its resulting expertise to dominate the launch market) have started to thrive.

It's simply a question of seeding the industry with the proper resources and opportunities needed to make things grow.

Of course, the whole plan is a least modestly dependent on the willpower of our political class. They certainly didn't have the willpower to implement those recommendations six years ago. They may not have the willpower now.

But if they do then maybe one day, even some of those who've left Canada for more favorable regimes will return to put down new roots in their country of origin. They might even relocate their corporate head offices. Mining companies have certainly done that over the last thirty years.

Here's hoping.

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog. 

He contributed to the CSCA's three part submission to the 2012 David Emerson led Aerospace Review. 

Canadian Fusion Power Funded by the Federal Government

          By Brian Orlotti

The Canadian Government has announced that it has made a new $49.3Mln CDN investment in Burnaby BC based General Fusion, a clean technology company developing an alternative form of fusion energy. The investment reaffirms Canada’s commitment to clean energy amidst a global trade war and helps to ensure that Canadian fusion energy talent remains at home.

As outlined in the October 26th, 2018 Business in Vancouver post, "Burnaby’s General Fusion lands $49m investment from feds," the announcement was made by Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development along with Harjit Singh Sajjan, Minister of National Defence. The funding will enable General Fusion to hire 400 new staff, expand its collaboration with various post-secondary institutions and support development of a 70% scale prototype power plant.

Founded in 2002 by Michel Laberge, General Fusion is currently the only Canadian firm developing fusion energy technology.

The company’s approach, magnetized target fusion (MTF), uses a reactor in the form of a three-meter-diameter steel sphere filled with spinning molten lead and lithium. The spinning lead and lithium form a vortex, into which a deuterium-tritium plasma fuel is injected. A series of steam pistons then strikes the sphere, creating shock waves that collapse the vortex and compress the plasma.

This compression heats the plasma to the point where the deuterium and tritium nuclei fuse, releasing energy. This energy then heats the liquid metal, which is pumped through a heat exchange and used to generate electricity via a steam turbine. The process then repeats, with the liquid metal being continuously pumped through the system.

A key advantage of MTF over traditional fusion devices is that it is a pulsed power system (similar to a diesel engine), making prolonged containment of the plasma unnecessary. Difficulties in containing plasma due to its instabilities has kept traditional fusion devices like tokamaks from achieving net energy gain.

General Fusion has attracted a global group of investors which includes Calgary AB based Cenovus Energy, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the Malaysian Government and the Canadian Government. The company will invest at least $150Mln CDN in research and development. An additional $250Mln CDN will be needed to finance the construction of the prototype plant, for which the company has already begun fundraising. It is likely that General Fusion’s current investors will participate in this next funding round.

In an interesting side note, one of General Fusion’s partners is Cincinnati OH based GE Additive, the 3D printing arm of General Electric. GE Additive is fabricating various titanium components for the reactor.

General Fusion’s MTF technology is poised for success at a time when it is very much needed. As wars continue to ravage the Middle East and the US continues to threaten Canada, fusion power holds the promise of not only healing our planet, but also giving Canada’s talent and technology a chance to shine

Brian Orlotti.

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Brian Orlotti is a network operator at the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit network service provider to the education and research sectors.

The Former CDN Air and Space Museum Avro Arrow Replica is Still Sitting in a Parking Lot at Pearson Airport

          By Chuck Black

There are very few organizations with worse luck than the ill-fated Canadian Air and Space Museum, a Downsview ON based charity now known as the Toronto International Aerospace Museum because of a spat it got into with the Ottawa ON based Canadian Aviation and Space Museum (CASM), an organization with a very similar sounding name, but better funding.

Summer 2018 photo of the replica CF-105 Avro Arrow owned by the museum. Portions of the plastic covering protecting the model have fallen off to expose the model to the elements. Photo c/o Sameer Haqqi.

It operated out of the historic de Havilland Canada aircraft manufacturing building from 1999 until 2011, when the museum was evicted by the landlord, the Federal Crown Corporation known as Park Downview Park (PDP) for a variety of reasons which, even today, seem contradictory and confusing. 

Since then, the organization has been struggling to find a new home for the museum exhibits, which were originally stored in twenty-one rented trailers at the Toronto ON based Pearson International Airport and at several other locations around the city.

Recent events, including the relocation of the rented trailers to a "secure facility" in Caledon ON, along with an August 21st, 2018 #GoFundMe campaign under the headline "Preserving CF-105 Arrow replica" organized by "volunteers and members of now-defunct Toronto Air and Space Museum/ Canadian Air and Space Museum" suggest that the string of bad luck has continued.

As outlined on their GoFundMe page, the campaign has managed to raise just under $3000 of the $10,000 necessary to fulfill the requirements of the campaign, and provide a second coating of the heavy duty shrink-wrap needed to preserve a full sized replica of Canada's famed CF-105 Avro Arrow, which has been mostly sitting in a parking lot at Pearson since the spring of 2016.

The campaign, although not formally affiliated with the museum, did ask permission from the museum's CEO, a local entrepreneur named Ian McDougall, who gave permission for the campaign "to raise funds to shrink wrap this replica again to protect it from elements in the open air environment" for the #GoFundMeCampaign.

However, at least according to Brian Keaveney, the "volunteer curator" for the museum who spoke with this blog on Monday, the museum isn't defunct and a new partner should be coming aboard soon to help cover costs and assist with the opening of either a new facility or new facilities, where artifacts can again be displayed.

Of course, it's not as if Keaveney is able to release the name of the potential partner publicly or any time frame for a formal announcement. In fact, he insisted during the interview that he hasn't been involved in any of the negotiations with the potential partner and doesn't know the name of the individual/ organization involved.

Undated Brian Keaveney photo c/o @Phunsecks123.

So we need to be patient.

But Keaveney insisted that there is a contract on the table with a legitimate partner just awaiting the working out of a few details. An announcement could be released sometime in the future, but Keaveney wouldn't say when.

Keaveney also said that the museum artifacts are stored appropriately at their new location in Caledon, although he hasn't visited the area.

As well, Keaveney doesn't think that there is any damage to the stored museum artifacts, although that statement is demonstrably false when it comes to the only artifact we can independently verify, the Avro Arrow replica currently sitting in a parking lot at Pearson.

Keaveney said that it was not possible to set up a trip to Caledon to view the artifacts and confirm their condition.

But Keaveney did say that the new partner/prospect is in no way, shape or form related to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), the organization which manages Pearson Airport, where most of the artifacts were once stored. At one time, the expectation was that the museum artifacts would eventually end-up on display at Pearson.

Of course, none of the information provided by Keaveney is currently available on the museum website and he admits that even his listed e-mail address on the website simply doesn't work.

"We were hacked a couple months back," said Keaveney, "I haven't had time to fix it." The website seems to have been last updated in March 2018.

And the person who would be most likely to have some actual knowledge of the situation, museum CEO McDougall has (so far at least) not responded to requests for an interview.

As outlined in the July 24th, 2018 Toronto Sun post, "Toronto Lancaster headed west," at least one museum display, a World War II Lancaster Bomber, has been shipped off to another museum. According to Keaveney, the Lancaster bomber was owned by the City of Toronto and they could do with it as they wished. Graphic c/o Toronto Sun.

There is no doubt to knowledgeable observers that the museum has seen better days, although Keaveney is also right when he said that at least the current museum board under McDougall has managed to keep most of the collection together.

But the current situation is getting so difficult for museum members that some have begun suggesting that, since there is no consensus on how to move forward, a vote must be taken to dissolve the museum. Only then will the board be able to donate the slowly (possibly) deteriorating museum artifacts to other not-for-profit organizations or museums, where they can be restored and protected.

Whether or not this is a fair resolution for the 170+ volunteers that spent eight and a half years building the Avro Arrow replica is another question entirely.

Two years ago, the July 11th, 2016 post, "Whatever Happened to the Canadian Air & Space Museum?" this blog reported on a $250K CDN "non-receipted" contribution from an unnamed donor, which essentially cleared off all debts associated with storing the artifacts and suggested that there was at least a possibility of reopening the museum at a new location at or around Pearson Airport.

But that money seems to have been spent and the situation doesn't seem to have gotten any better.

Here's wishing the museum better luck next time. 

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

The Growing US Space Industry is Scrambling to Find Workers, but Can't Hire "Foreigners"

          By Henry Stewart

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that, while the space industry located along Florida’s space coast is flourishing, employers "are scrambling to find qualified employees to temper a national shortage in the science, technology, engineering and math fields," because of current US legislation, which restricts many well trained, but non-US citizens, from holding down US jobs.

He even looks a bit like the young Justin Trudeau. Shayan Shirankekar is a Canadian citizen who grew up on "the unlucky side of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, an hour drive from the US border," and can't get a Florida space job, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Shirankekar is currently working at an unpaid internship at the Aldrin Space Institute, on the campus of the Florida Institute of Technology, where he is a PhD candidate. Photo c/o Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel.

As outlined in the October 25th, 2018 Orlando Sentinel post, "The growing space industry is scrambling to find workers — but it can't take foreigners," the 1976 International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) classified spacecraft and rockets as military technology and only US citizens or permanent residents can work for NASA or the major private space companies which utilize those tools.

According to the article:

Ironically, many of those qualified students are already here at schools such as the University of Central Florida, Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University and the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. 

Florida Tech, in particular, prides itself in a student body that is about one-third international. The school has been ranked as No.1 in the nation for its foreign student population by U.S. News and World Report for at least the past four years.

US industry has pushed back against the regulations in recent years, saying it stifles growth.

The February 2014 US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security Office of Technology Evaluation white paper, "Space Industry Deep Dive Assessment on the Impact of US Expert Controls and the Space Industrial Base" noted numerous areas where US export controls have adversely impacted on the health and competitiveness of the US space industry.

In 2014 and 2017, companies successfully lobbied the US Congress to relax some of the rules surrounding the export of satellite technologies overseas.

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

A White Paper on the "Case for a Global Telemedicine Vehicle Network"

          By Drew Klein

Nearly 50% of the world’s population have no access to basic health services. A new "white paper" from Ottawa ON based C-COM Satellite Systems hopes to address this challenge using modern telemedicine and telecommunications technologies.

According to the white paper, the vast majority of the world's population lives outside cities, in areas where few hospitals exist and healthcare is sporadic. Those geographical areas with limited to no healthcare accessibility are called ‘medical deserts,’ and they continue to expand as people move out of rural regions and into cities.

Medical deserts can be found in both developed and developing countries alike.

In the United States, approximately 30 million people live more than 30 miles from a hospital that provides emergency care. In Niger, more than 60% of the population (10 million people) live further than a one hour walk to a basic healthcare center. While Africa is urbanizing, approximately 63 percent of the total Sub-Saharan population still live in rural areas. Even France, often lauded as a prized model for national healthcare, has struggled with a steady decline in rural doctors, notably general practitioners.

To combat this growing crisis, C-COM has issued an international call to doctors, government health workers, hospitals, universities, vehicle/coach builders, satellite operators, service providers and system integrators to:

• Use modern Earth imaging and communications technologies to identify the world’s "medical deserts."

• The work together to create a global telemedicine vehicle network to address the problem and reverse the decline of healthcare in rural and hard to serve communities. 

The complete paper, under the title "The Case for a Global Telemedicine Vehicle Network: A Mobile Health Clinic White Paper," is available online at the C-COM website.

Both the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have confirmed that a direct correlation exists between distance to hospitals and an increased risk of preventable death.

In India, for example, it was estimated that 50,000 deaths (out of 72,000) from sudden abdominal conditions in 2010 could have been averted with better medical access.  Those who lived more than 100km from a hospital were at the highest risk.

A 2016 study showed that only 1 in 8 high income countries had developed a national policy on hospitals in rural or remote areas.  Rural healthcare facilities have historically been a poor investment and their sustainability is concerning.  Even in the US, 83 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 with another 673 vulnerable to shut down.

The problem isn’t likely to improve so long as the cost of building hospitals in rural areas remains prohibitive

According to one Harvard study, for every $1 spent on mobile healthcare, there is a return of $36 to the healthcare budget.

Mobile surgical vehicles, mobile MRI/CAT/Mammography/Ultrasound clinics, mobile maternity, mobile primary health care (Medical/Dental/Vision), and many other types of telemedicine vehicles can be strategically circulated throughout the world’s medical deserts, bringing healthcare to billions of people.

And while healthcare costs vary dramatically from country to country, a sad reality is that it will never be economically feasible to build hospitals or health care facilities in all the world’s medical deserts.

Providing mobile clinics to people who live in hospital deserts is both cost effective and efficient.

Drew Klein

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Drew Klein is the director of international business development at Ottawa ON based C-COM Satellite Systems. 

The original version of this post appeared as the October 25th, 2019 C-Com press release, "The Case for a Global Telemedicine Vehicle Network."

Those New Maple Leaf Brand Rockets

          By Brian Orlotti

Propulsion engineer Adam Trumpour has unveiled the Launch Canada Rocket Innovation Challenge, Canada’s first major rocket competition. The contest will offer Canadians the opportunity to build a home grown space launch capability, in turn fostering a vibrant private launch industry.

The announcement was made on October 18th, 2018 at the Montreal Space Symposium.

Launch Canada seeks to enable Canada's growing student rocketry community to take their activities to the next level by embracing the idea of ‘grassroots rocketry.’ Referring to the success of firms like Hawthorne CA based SpaceX, Kent Washington based Blue Origin and Huntington Beach CA based Rocket Lab, Trumpour made the point that groups initially made up of amateurs have achieved success and are now building sophisticated spacecraft and pushing the envelope of a host of technologies. It is this success that he wishes to replicate in Canada.

Trumpour’s motivations behind the contest are varied, but include the desire to reverse the decline of  Canada’s space sector, undoing Canadians’ self-limiting colonial mindset, diversifying Canada’s economy and creating new opportunities for Canada’s workforce. 

Adam Trumpour. Photo c/o CSCA.

The Launch Canada Challenge will consist of three prize categories meant to encourage the development of Canadian rocketry talent and launch vehicle technologies:

• Beginner Launch Challenge – A more accessible challenge intended for less experienced teams to build their expertise and interact with the larger Canadian rocketry community. It will involve building and launching a rocket to an altitude of 10,000 feet. The use of off-the-shelf hobby rocket motors will be permitted.  Points will be awarded for reaching the target altitude as well for demonstrating a useful payload.

• Subsystem Design Challenge - This challenge will allow teams to develop and demonstrate rocket technologies at the component or subsystem level. Adopting a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style approach, teams will make a pitch to a panel of judges, outlining potential business cases for their technology amidst the broader competitive landscape,

• Advanced Launch Challenge - This challenge involves the successful launch of student-developed rocket vehicles to high altitudes. The emphasis will be on overall systems engineering, incentivizing the use of innovative technologies and concepts as well as the development of reusable launch vehicles.

Launch Canada is intended to be a recurring annual competition (beginning in Summer 2019) with prize money allocated as a percentage of donations raised from industry. The current prize purse, consisting of donations from several Canadian rocket engineers, is $30,000 CDN.

Trumpour is modelling Launch Canada on the Base 11 Space Challenge, an ambitious $1Mln US ($1.3Mln CDN) competition for the first student-built liquid-propellant rocket to reach space. Trumpour currently sits on the Base 11 Space Challenge’s Safety Committee, conducting rocketry safety training for all teams and several Canadian teams are competing in the Base 11 challenge.

The Launch Canada Rocket Innovation Challenge comes at a branch-point in Canadian history.

The United Sates’ behavior during the recent NAFTA renegotiation, culminating in US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to the Canadian economy, have made clear the need for Canada to protect its homegrown talent and diversify its trade. An independent Canadian space launch industry would offer greater opportunity, keep Canadian talent at home and protect our nation’s space activities from foreign interference.   

Perhaps, on a day not far from now, maple Leaf-bearing rockets could propel us away from America’s grip.

Brian Orlotti.

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Brian Orlotti is a network operator at the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit network service provider to the education and research sectors.

The Difference Between Maxar/ MDA, AIAC and Almost Everyone Else in the #DontLetGoCanada Campaign

          By Chuck Black

It's worth noting that public documents from Brampton ON based MDA Space Missions (a subsidiary of Westminster Colorado based Maxar Technologies) mostly agree with public policy proposals generated by the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) and with the rest of the #DontLetGoCanada coalition, regarding the need for a "balanced space program" with a range of funded activities.

Except for the part where Maxar/ MDA has suggested that the best way to build that balanced program is to have the Federal government provide several billion extra Canadian dollars for one specific "third generation" Canadarm for the US led Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G or Lunar Gateway).

Who would get the lion's share of that single new funding opportunity? Why, Maxar/ MDA of course!

In fact, newly uncovered documents indicate that the #DontLetGoCanada organizers may not have even mentioned the funding requirements for a new Canadarm in the #DontLetGoCanada initial campaign literature, although the program itself was referenced. 

This blog has come into possession of August 2018 MDA "kick-off" email (under the title "Please Support Canada's Place in Space Campaign") intended to generate interest in what was then, the start of the #DontLetGoCanada advocacy campaign.

It was co-signed by "Mike and Jim," shorthand for MDA group president Mike Greenley and AIAC president and CEO Jim Quick, but sent from Greenley's MDA email account.

According to that e-mail:

Together, we are embarking on a communications campaign to encourage a more positive outcome in the 2019 Budget (for the Canadian space industry). 

The campaign, which is called "Securing Canada's Place in Space (later changed to #DontLetGoCanada)," will advocate for a long-term, fully funded space strategy that establishes the requisite funding to maintain and enhance our existing capabilities in space science, space robotics, satellite communications, Earth observation, optics and sensors and cultivate new areas of leadership.  

The campaign will also call for a commitment by Canada to participate in the international space community's next big exploration project, the Lunar Gateway Program. 

AIAC is also planning a concurrent and complimentary government relations initiative, called Vision 2025. which will also launch in September. 

A photo of the complete August 2018 e-mail from MDA group president Greenley and AIAC president and CEO Jim Quick to various Canadian space companies outlining their perspectives on what was needed to insure Canada's future in space and how both organizations intended to move forward with the creation of a group (then called the "Canada's Place in Space Campaign") intended to lobby the Federal government to support the space industry. As can be seen in the email, no one was then suggesting that the only real solution was to pay large sums of money to MDA to build a "third generation Canadarm," although the program was referenced. Photo c/o The Commercial Space blog. 

In essence, the email called for a "fully funded space strategy," but only a "commitment" to the Lunar Gateway.

AIAC policy in this area has also been discussed in multiple document and in greater detail over the last few years. Examples include the 2016 AIAC submission to the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2017 Budget under the title"Recommendations for Growth and Innovation - Budget 2017" and the AIAC September 2016 paper on "The Future of Canada's Space Sector."

Neither of those papers recommended funding the Lunar Gateway which, to be fair, hadn't been proposed at that time. The 2016 AIAC budget submission instead asked for:

• Increased funding, an extra $55Mln CDN over two years for space technology development and innovation.

• A commitment to developing new Canadian space missions and operations. 

• Continued support for flagship programs and capabilities

• The development and maintenance of "a balanced approach" for space

Those positions were congruent with the August 2018 MDA/AIAC email outlined above, which advocated for a balanced space program that delivered a range of benefits.

But independently of AIAC and as outlined in the September 18, 2018 post, "Colorado Based Maxar/MDA Asking for $1-2Bln to Build Another Canadarm for the US LOP-G," Maxar/MDA did focus on the third generation Canadarm/ Lunar Gateway in its written submission to the 2019 Federal government Pre-Budget Consultations and listed its funding as the "important first pillar" needed to revitalize the Canadian space industry.

The MDA submission also costed out the project at $1Bln - 2Bln CDN over at least the next decade or two. That works out to $50Mln - 100Mln CDN for each year of the program, a substantial portion of the current overall CSA budget.

But Mike Greenley's October 4th, 2018 in-person presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2019 Budget, only mentioned the preliminary budgeted costs to implement the program in passing, although he once again stressed how much the project is needed.

According to Greenley:

If we imagine the next generation of Canadarm space robotics on this new space station, there would two components—a large robotic arm that would be used to assemble the space station over the next seven years, and then the small dextrous arm that would support robotic operations helping astronauts. This small arm would also be able to crawl inside the space station and maintain and operate it during times when there are no astronauts on the space station.

To make all of this happen, budget 2019—this budget that we're discussing—and decisions by government in 2018 have to be made. The Government of Canada needs to recognize space as a national strategic asset, based on the 50 years of experience we've had. 

It needs to polish a long-term space plan for Canada, and this next budget must make a commitment for Canada to contribute the AI-based robotics to the next space station, the lunar gateway. 

Mike Greenley. Photo c/o MDA.

That is a $1 billion to $2 billion commitment. NASA and the international community need to see that Canada has made that commitment so that Canada can continue its leading role in the provision of space robotics to the international community.

No other specific funding was recommended by Greenley during his presentation, even though he stated explicitly that "I'm also representing several hundred other Canadian companies today that are engaged in Canada's space industry," and most of them also have projects which would benefit from further Federal funding.

In essence, MDA’s campaign (despite its references to others) was focused on a single flagship project (a third generation Canadarm for the LOP-G/ Lunar Gateway). Such a program would benefit  Maxar/ MDA far more than any Canadian based organization.

Perhaps the strongest support for the MDA proposal comes from the October 22nd, 2018 SpaceQ post, "MDA Makes a Forceful Point at Pre-Budget 2019 Finance Committee Meeting."

According to SpaceQ, the Maxar/ MDA recommendation is:

...an important first pillar of Canada’s long-term space plan, the government (should) announce a commitment in Budget 2019 (at the latest – time is running out) to provide a third generation Canadarm to the international space community’s next big exploration mission, the Gateway project. 

This is not merely an MDA wish. The (NASA operated) International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), which is made up of 14 national space agencies, has been for years laying the groundwork for what’s next after the International Space Station (ISS).

That vision centres around the moon and Mars with the now US led Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) as the leading project. Nations are currently making the decision if they will participate in the LOP-G and at what financial commitment level. 

The US is hoping, heck, literally banking on Canada’s participation, to help defray some of the cost. It’s a mega project akin to the International Space Station. Who will step up, contribute and benefit? 

The pressure is on for Canada and other nations to sign on by the end of the year. In examining the areas of what Canada can contribute to, it’s clear there are at least three areas we’re interested in. Robotics, artificial intelligence and medicine. All strengths, all have buy-in by the Canadian Space Agency. 

The question is, will this generate jobs, long term jobs in industries that also have commercial spin-offs. MDA, the Canadian Space Agency and other believe so, otherwise they wouldn’t be backing these technologies.

Of course, SpaceQ is often sponsored by Maxar/MDA, a situation which this blog has often noted.

But since SpaceQ thinks that most of the push to have Canada fund the LOP-G/ Lunar Gateway comes from external sources, it's worth noting that sources within the Canadian space industry have also told this blog that NASA employees (including Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA administrator for human exploration and operations) are working with senior members of the CSA, the AIAC "space committee" and Maxar/MDA to encourage the Federal government to announce funding for Canada's contribution to the LOP-G program as soon as possible.

The priority for these groups is to secure Federal funding for the LOP-G/ Lunar Gateway, to ensure that Maxar/MDA retains its position as the largest contractor for CSA programs and to ensure that Maxar/MDA retains control of Canadarm intellectual property, according to those sources.

Kristen VanderHoek, the AIAC senior director of communications & marketing responded to a request for clarification on the AIAC's position with the following statement:

I received your voicemail today, as did Jim Quick and (AIAC executive VP) Iain Christie, looking for comment on AIAC’s space policy efforts and involvement in the Don’t Let Go Canada campaign. 

Thanks for your interest!

As the voice of Canada’s aerospace industry, AIAC advocates for policies and programs that support the ability of the industry as a whole to grow, innovate and compete in the global marketplace. 

The “Don’t Let Go Canada” campaign highlights Canada’s history as a global space leader and calls for the creation of a long-term strategy for Canada’s future in space. 

This is something that AIAC has long advocated for, which is why we co-signed the “Don’t Let Go Canada” kick off letter and support the campaign. 

We’ll continue to work on behalf of all our members to ensure that Canada’s industry has the long-term strategy and funding it needs to remain a global space leader. 

Vanderhoek has refused all further comment on the specifics of the MDA Federal government Canadarm funding requests done in conjunction with the #DontLetGoCanada campaign.

As outlined in the October 9th, 2018 Maxar Technologies press release, "Maxar Technologies Advances Planned US Domestication," Maxar/ MDA is still moving forward with its plan to become completely US owned and operated and "expects to complete this process in January 2019, subject to security holder approval."

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.