Marc Boucher: July 2010 Archives

The Automatic Identification System Satellite 1 (AISSat-1) built by the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) was successfully launched on July 12th onboard the Indian PSLV-C15 rocket. The satellite was part of the 6th launch of the Nanosatellite Launch Service (NLS-6) which also included the Swiss TIsat-1 satellite.

The Conservative Government of Stephen Harper, which governs as if it had a majority because of weak opposition, is notorious for controlling information disseminated to the public. This extends to every public agency including the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), much to its detriment.

Recently the Canadian Space Society announced the Call for Papers for the upcoming Canadian Space Summit. The summit is an annual conference that brings together all elements of the Canadian space industry. The annual meeting is being held between November 19th through the 21st at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa. In addition to displays, booths, and activities, the centerpiece of the Summit are two days of paper sessions covering a wide variety of topics. Registration is open for the Summit.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) recently held its annual general assembly in Fredericton between July 1-4. One key event at the general assembly was an open forum and panel discussion titled "Boldly Navigating Where no one has Gone Before: The Future of the RASC in the 21st Century. The panel discussion was recorded for the Starizona's Let's Talk Stars radio programme hosted by David & Wendee Levy.

From researcher Dale Andersen: "During the PLRP field season of 2009, Dr. Ian Hawes and I made several night dives. Here you can see Ian exploring the microbialites, searching for grazers such as amphipods and snails that might have an impact upon the overall growth and morphology of the structures. The underwater video was taken with my Sony PMW-EX1 in a Gates Housing using a Fathom SWP44c port and two Green Force Squid 250 HID light set with FIII Batteries."

You won't find an official Canadian Space Agency (CSA) account on Twitter or any other social media network either, unless you count a rarely updated YouTube account. That does not mean you won't the CSA mentioned on social media sites like Twitter on a daily basis. And if you're familiar with Twitter you know that topics can be organized by including a hash tag with a tweet. For instance the most popular hash tag for the World Cup is #worldcup. So if I tweeted "Sad to see Germany lost to Spain #worldcup", then anyone who follows that hash tag would see my tweet. The CSA has no set hash tag but it would be useful if it did. For that reason we've created a poll to see what the community thought should be the CSA hash tag.

The wheels and suspension system have been installed on NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, a key step in assembly and testing of the flight system for the Mars Science Laboratory mission slated to launch next year. The centerpiece of MSL, Curiosity has six wheels and a rocker-bogie suspension system like its smaller predecessors: Spirit, Opportunity and Sojourner. Each wheel has its own drive motor and the corner wheels also have independent steering motors. Unlike earlier Mars rovers, Curiosity will also use its mobility system as landing gear when the mission's rocket-powered descent stage lowers the rover directly onto the Martian surface on a tether in August 2012.

The Canadian Space Agency today issued a call for proposals to build two Lunar Exploration Light Rover (LELR) prototypes at maximum cost of $11 million per rover. Up to two contracts will be awarded with each contract requiring a prototype to be built. Only one contract will be awarded per bidder. Proposals are due by August 17th.

In an article posted on Spaceflight Now Gilles Leclerc, Director General of Space Technologies at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) confirms that the International Space Station (ISS) partners have contacted Russia about purchasing an additional Soyuz spacecraft, potentially one new flight per year between 2013 and 2016. Currently an additional seat on a Soyuz costs $56 million based on the last contract signed by the U.S.