Satellites that weigh less than a bag of potatoes. Low-cost, reusable rockets. A new generation of onboard computers in space. The planned return of humans to the moon.
Put it all together, and you鈥檝e got a new space race 鈥� one in which Canadian researchers and companies are poised to play an important role.
鈥淵ou can go on the web right now and buy components to build your own CubeSat (miniature satellite),鈥� says engineer Tony Pellerin of the Canadian Space Agency鈥檚 Space Science and Technology Branch. 鈥淵ou drag and drop them into a basket, pay with your credit card, and they ship it to your house. So, you can build your own spacecraft. The accessibility is there, which it wasn鈥檛 10 years ago.鈥�
Pellerin and fellow engineer Arad Gharagozli (MASc鈥�22) will be panelists at AV俱乐部鈥檚 next Open Dialogue Live event, . The panel takes place online and in person as part of on May 26 at 6:30 p.m. The event is open to all members of the Dal community as well as the general public.
There are currently some 5,000 satellites in orbit, but according to the that number could rise to 100,000 by the end of the decade. The satellite explosion, says , is driven by a constellation of factors, including smaller spacecraft that can be inexpensively launched into low orbits.
AV俱乐部 to launch CubeSat satellite later this year
CubeSats are the smallest of these satellites, weighing in at some 3-5 kg, Pellerin says. (Compare that to the once-standard 500 kg satellites.) He is currently working with universities across the country, including AV俱乐部, on slated to launch later this year. They are designed for a range of applications, including monitoring potato growth in P.E.I. and using lasers to calibrate ground telescopes. The AV俱乐部 team鈥檚 contribution is LORIS 鈥� a satellite that will extract more information from images by overlaying infrared and visible range data.
LORIS comes out of the AV俱乐部 Space Systems Lab, founded in 2017 by space entrepreneur Gharagozli who founded the Halifax-based firm GALAXIA. 鈥淎erospace is a very conservative industry in its nature,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut you can see a new trend of companies coming up, and all they want to do is take risks.鈥�
GALAXIA, Gharagozli explains, is 鈥渂uilding satellites that are capable of processing information in space and are also capable of having other people build applications for them to be to be used in space.鈥� Advances in technology and lower-cost missions have made the small onboard computers GALAXIA is building feasible.
A changing playing field
In the past, Gharagozli says, 鈥淚f you were building a computer for a satellite, it would have been for a $2 billion mission, for example. Now, you're looking at a mission that would cost somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000, so that really changes the playing field.鈥�
Pellerin agrees, saying advances in science and technology have 鈥渙pened the door to a lot of newcomers.鈥� Combine that with excitement about the , which will see the return of humans to the moon, and the planned Lunar Gateway orbiting station, and you鈥檝e got a lot of 鈥渆xcitement in the [space] community.鈥�
AV俱乐部鈥檚 Open Dialogue Live series brings the community together for thought-provoking conversation and supports Dal鈥檚 vital role in sparking dialogue around important issues. All Open Dialogue Live conversations are free, but registration is required for both livestream and in-person attendees.聽
Register to attend:
The talk will take place May 26 in the McInnes Room in the AV俱乐部 Student Union Building, 6136 University Ave. The livestream will be available via AV俱乐部 Alumni and Friends Facebook Live and AV俱乐部 YouTube.
The panelists:
- Tony Pellerin has been with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) since 1994. An electrical engineer with degrees from University of Ottawa and the Polytechnique Montr茅al, Pellerin is the manager for the mechanical and thermal engineering group of the CSA鈥檚 Space Science and Technology Branch, responsible for supporting CSA space missions including Canadarm3 and Gateway, which will provide support for future human missions to the Moon.
- Arad Gharagozli (MASc鈥�22) is an electronics engineering technologist and electrical engineer. In 2017, he founded the AV俱乐部 Space Systems Lab (DSS), which aims to develop electrical and mechanical systems for space applications. The DSS team included more than 200 students working on the CSA- funded project LORIS 鈥� the first satellite designed and built in Nova Scotia. In 2020, Arad launched GALAXIA, a space hardware and software company providing shared access to a series of intelligent earth observation satellites on a pay-per-use basis using the company鈥檚 M脰BIUS Constellation platform.