August 2010 Archives

Today the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) issued through the tender service MERX a request for two separate firms to carry out a study on the RADARSAT Next Generation Options Study. The primary objective of the study work is to perform an in-depth evaluation of the Department of Defence (DND) requirements for surveillance radars and identify implementation options in a system that would enter into operation after the initial deployment of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission. The RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) is a $497 million program which will tentatively launch three Earth-observation satellites between 2014 and 2015 and is follow-on to the successful Radarsat-1 and Radarsat-2 programs.

The Winnipeg Free Press reminds us that the Canadian aerospace industry has always straddled a dense political minefield while European based independent advocate Catherine Laplace-Builhe promotes the Canadian Space Agency (or at least she did until US based Facebook shut her down) and the Canadian contractor for the upcoming ExoMars mission reminds me personally that they consider their Canadian contribution to be "significant" and something I should mention here. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

See the steps of Dextre's final exam.

Working from his perch on the end of Canadarm2, Dextre will close in on his target, unbolt the first circuit breaker and remove it. He will then back up slightly to give himself more room to rotate at the waist in order to align his free hand with the second circuit breaker, and will grab it and slide it out. Afterwards, Dextre will move back again to give himself room to flip a second time so that he can align the first circuit breaker with the empty slot, and will slide it into place. He'll then return to the first worksite and replace the second breaker.

Voir les étapes de l'examen final de Dextre.

Dextre sera d'abord transporté à bout de bras par le Canadarm2 jusqu'à son lieu de travail et s'approchera ensuite de sa cible, déboulonnera le premier disjoncteur et le retirera. Puis il reculera légèrement, ce qui lui permettra de disposer de suffisamment d'espace pour pivoter à hauteur de la taille afin d'aligner sa main libre avec le second disjoncteur, qu'il saisira et enlèvera à son tour. Ensuite, Dextre reculera à nouveau de manière à pouvoir se tourner encore une fois pour aligner le premier disjoncteur avec l'orifice, puis le mettre en place. Finalement, il retournera à l'endroit où se trouvait le premier disjoncteur, et y installera le second.

Entrevue avec Mathieu Caron, Dextre Contrôleur de vol.

Dextre est le robot le plus perfectionné jamais construit selon l'agence spatiale canadienne.
Il est d'effectuer des travaux courants d'entretien et de réparation, comme le changement de batteries et le remplacement de caméras à l'extérieur de l'ISS.

Leslie Sponder is an Operations Engineer and Mission Planner who works with the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or as it is better know as, Dextre.

Dextre is the most sophisticated space robot ever built according to the Canadian Space Agency. It is designed to help in maintaining the health of the International Space Station (ISS). Dextre's role is to perform maintenance work and repairs like changing batteries and replacing cameras outside the ISS or to assist in spacewalks.

Entrevue avec Serge Gaudreau, Dextre Concepteur principal de systèmes didactiques.

Dextre est le robot le plus perfectionné jamais construit selon l'agence spatiale canadienne.
Il est d'effectuer des travaux courants d'entretien et de réparation, comme le changement de batteries et le remplacement de caméras à l'extérieur de l'ISS .

Daniel Lefebvre is a Staff Systems Engineer who works with the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or as it is better know as, Dextre.

Dextre is the most sophisticated space robot ever built according to the Canadian Space Agency. It is designed to help in maintaining the health of the International Space Station (ISS). Dextre's role is to perform maintenance work and repairs like changing batteries and replacing cameras outside the ISS or to assist in spacewalks.

NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency have joined to share resources and expertise on three future science missions to Mars. In three separate robotic missions (the first in 2016), both agencies will study the possibility of past life on the Red Planet, as well as test communications relays and other geochemical and biological mysteries. The third mission, in the 2020's, will return to Earth a sample taken from the Martian surface. Canada will co-develop the MATMOS instrument onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

With the Wall Street Journal reporting that shrinking budgets and national rivalries are slowly undermining European space programs and the Asia Times noting that the cash strapped National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is still able to find US$30 million in new funding for Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) contestants and the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) opening it's Canadian Arctic doors to collect data for the German TanDEM-X satellite mission, it's getting difficult to differentiate space players without a scorecard, at least as of this week in space for Canada.

Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean tells the Winnipeg Free Press that his cash poor agency is developing a space policy which lines up behind the Obama administration, the Washington Post tells it's readers that the cash poor U.S. space policy is already lined up on "a collision course with itself" due to a lack of funding and cash flush private satellite operator SES publicly lusts over Canadian competitor Telesat. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

It's the summer silly season and signs of life in Ottawa and at the John H. Chapman Space Centre in the sleepy Montreal south shore suburb of Longueuil are noticeably absent. So thank goodness for the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA ExoMars mission, expected to hunt for signs of life on the red planet during 2016-2018, which yesterday announced a series of mission instruments for their ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Canadian contributions are included, at least as of this week in space for Canada.

Canadians will once again be at the forefront of the ongoing exploration of Mars as it was announced yesterday by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) that they would be contributing to ExoMars mission. Canada's contribution will be the shared development with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the Mars Atmospheric Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer (MATMOS) instrument onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. MATMOS is scheduled for launch in 2016.