Canadian Space Agency News

Developing the capability to discriminate between ships and icebergs in northern latitudes is a common interest shared by Canada’s Department of National Defense (DND) and the oil and gas industry. For DND, the focus is on ship detection for maritime security, whereas oil and gas companies are interested in detecting icebergs to ensure primarily the safety and also the productivity of offshore exploration and production operations. The Polar Epsilon and Polar Epsilon-2 applied…

The Franklin Expedition ship discovered in early September by the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition is Her Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Erebus. Sir John Franklin, who was in command of the Franklin Expedition, sailed on HMS Erebus, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday. On May 19, 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror of the Royal Navy departed Greenhithe, England, on a much-heralded Arctic expedition in search of a Northwest Passage. Under the command of Sir John Franklin…

The Govermnent of Canada announces that with an unprecedented number of organizations from the public, private and non-profit sectors it will partner together, using state-of-the-art technology, to locate the historic ships of the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition. The 2014 Franklin Expedition will also have the added benefit of furthering our knowledge in a number of priority areas, including through the collection of important scientific information about Canada's most remote region. Government partners for the 2014 Victoria Strait expedition include Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Navy…

MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. win Canadian Space Agency $706 million contract to build, launch & provide initial operations for the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM). The RCM is designed for three main uses: maritime surveillance (ice, wind, oil pollution and ship monitoring); disaster management (mitigation, warning, response and recovery) and ecosystem monitoring (forestry, agriculture, wetlands and coastal change monitoring). The contract is expected to extend over a period of seven years and brings MDA’s current backlog to approximately $2.9 billion.

Corvus Energy's 6.5 kWh lithium-polymer batteries passed the requirements of Lloyd’s Register Type Approval certification tests. Lloyd’s Register North America, Inc., a leader in assessing business processes and products to internationally recognized standards, reported that the AT6500 module met Corvus Energy's manufacturing claims. It is one of the world’s first batteries, designed for marine propulsion power, to receive Lloyd's Register Type Approval. Corvus Energy's power…

Intelsat S.A., the world's leading provider of fixed satellite services, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. ("MDA") for the servicing of Intelsat's on-orbit satellites via a space-based service vehicle to be provided by MDA. The innovative technology has the potential to extend the useful lives of Intelsat's satellites and enhance in-orbit reliability. The services provided by MDA to Intelsat under this agreement are valued at more than US$280 million over the timeframe during which services will be delivered.

A 15-man member of the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources in the Philippines is set to begin its three-day inquiry into the Guimaras oil spill to help the government address the problem in aid of legislation, tempo.com.ph reported. According to the committee, the main purpose of the probe is to determine how to assist the government in the task of cleaning up the oil mess and its surroundings, as well as to look into how the local government unit (LGU) could immediately respond in times of similar disasters. In the process of investigation, the probe body expects to interview Petron chairman Nicasio Alcantara and Sunshine Maritime Development Corp.

As part of the April 3-20 NEEMO (for NASA Extreme Environmental Mission Operation) 9 project, a joint effort of the U.S. space agency NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and McMaster University’s Center for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) at St. Joseph’s Healthcare, surgeon Mehran Anvari, took part in a six-hour experiment using a new, portable robot prototype system to stitch a simulated patient aboard the undersea laboratory Aquarius off Key Largo, Florida. According to the Hamilton Spectator, Anvari made a big breakthrough by overcoming a one-second delay between his movements and those of the robot arms 2,000 kilometers away and 19 meters underwater.

NovAtel Inc. was awarded a $142,000 (CDN) contract by Public Works & Government Services Canada for an Interoperability study on the receiver requirements for Galileo. Galileo is the European Union's state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which is expected to be fully operable by 2008 with up to 30 satellites orbiting the earth. This contract, sponsored in Canada by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), focuses principally on both GPS and Galileo receiver requirements and system performance. NovAtel will study the requirements for a combined GPS/Galileo receiver. The University of Calgary, also located in Calgary, Canada, will work under a subcontract to NovAtel to analyze the performance of the system using system constellation modeling techniques.