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Mostly, they do.

From http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/pdf/educator-ecosystem_edu.pdf

In orbit portions of the ISS will be exposed to direct sunlight 16 times per Earth day.
Temperatures on these occasions can climb to over 120 degrees Celsius. The ISS will
also be exposed to complete darkness or lack of radiant energy. Temperatures can
plummet to -100 degrees Celsius. Thus, the internal environment of both spacecraft
and space suit, developed for extravehicular activity, must have an active temperature
regulation system that maintains a narrow range of thermal comfort.

The weather station on the unit is actually Canadian, so we use the proper units.
  Mars Weather Office

Not only that, but Phoenix has a little weather station on board called the Telltale project. And if you look at this page you can see the weather reports for where Phoenix is on a sol by sol basis. None of them show windy conditions, although it looks like there is data missing for a few sols.

There is an interesting article, written by a Canadian, in which he discusses the manual descent training that he received as part of cosmonaut training. Apparently, one of the back up computer systems is your brain itself (i.e. full manual control or renentry with analog controls and instruments). Queue the Soviet Russia jokes now...In Soviet Russia the re-entry computer is YOU!

From TA: "Under nominal end-of-mission situations, an automatic re-entry system will return the Soyuz vehicle and crew from space safely back to the ground. However, the crew must be familiar with the several backup modes that exist in instances when the automatic system fails. One of the backup re-entry modes is the crew themselves! For certain hardware and software malfunctions, the crew will be required to manually fly the Soyuz back to Earth through the atmosphere."

The construction of Radarsat II was mostly funded by Canadian taxpayers through the Canadian Space Agency and gifted to MDA. The financial details are given at http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/resources/publications/rpp-2008-annexes.asp. It is not chump change we are talking about: $421.6M (expected).

MDA is the 800 lb gorilla in the Canadian space industry. In addition to building the Radarsats, Canadarm and Dextre, MDA also built the MET station and lidar (laser radar) system that is on the Phoenix Mars Scout which will land on Mars this May 25. Losing MDA would be akin to the US losing Lockheed Martin. It could quite possibly destabilize the whole Canadian space industry, and so the Government was right to intervene.

Of course, there are reasons why a sale was made in the first place. The Canadian Space Agency's budget has been stagnant for years, and this has had a big impact on MDA. Hopefully the Government steps up and reinvests in Canada's space industry again given that they prevented the sale alternative.

While the summary tends to allude to such future possibilities, this robot is a long ways away. It is a "human-robot project." Meaning that a human is required to perform the tasks, and that they are not automated. The Canadian Space Agency provides information on the robot. http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/missions/sts-123/dextre.asp

Doing operations with these robotics requires a communication link, which would first have to be built by automated robotics (which this is not) or humans; I for one believe we will visit mars personally by the time we have automated robotics that could perform the necessary tasks to create this type of comm-link.

Yeah that pissed me off pretty bad too. I ended up on the canadian web site that shows a lot of pictures! you can go here http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/app/gallery/results1.asp?session=

"...The robot has no face or legs, and with its long arms certainly doesn't look human...'" Maybe it is just my twisted imagination, but it looks human to me: http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/spdm-hr.jpg I can see arms, legs, head and even something between the legs... ;)

That's Canadarm, not CanadaArm.

I believe the CSA have been developing the CanadFinger for just this purpose. Any time something like this sticks you can robotically prod it from the safety of your nice warm Mission Control.



Note - The above post is humorous in content, and does not intend to violate patents past or present on the "Design and Implementation of Remote Digit Activation Devices"

Soyuz flies with several dozen thrust chambers, and is the most reliable launcher in the world:
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/soyuz-rocket-comtoi s.jpg

(canadian site since we're discussing Silver Dart)

I think the Silver Dart is just paper, or PowerPoint. They really, really need to fly the "Arrow", it's almost 2006. If they couldn't fly it for the XPrize or the Zeroth XCup, their probably not going to fly. You or I can easily do what they've done to "make" the Silver Dart: haul out pictures of your favorite NASA airframe, redesign it using modern materials in CAD or 3D software, render it and make media with it. It has nothing to do with actual aerospace engineering. We've suffered 3 decades of viewgraphs from NASA, the small alt.space groups are supposed to be innovating not copying the space agency's worst attributes. Build it, fly it, break it.

This is for all of the guys in the biz or getting there: make me eat crow. Fly something cool and blow my socks off. I was at Mojave for SS1's first XPrize flight, THAT blew my socks off. Some 3D artist's wireframe does not impress me. Prove me wrong.

Josh

Now if only we had a way to simulate Zero-G for longer than 20 seconds

Otherwise I see some really short games with some really motion-sick players.

Hi,

That system is used to monitor Canada's northern and coastal terroritories using radar-based imagery satellites. From catching ships illegally dumping in canadian waters to monitoring environmental impacts these satellites have done alot of work. Furthermore most of the design, development, testing and operation was done in Canada. And it will be same for future systems. Furthermore the systems have been a commercial success. Radarsat II to launch next year will have the highest commerically available resolution of 3m.

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/default. asp
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/radarsat 1/default.asp
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/radarsat 2/inf_tech.asp

In the current political climate I realize its tempting to bash everything that comes down the pipe, but in this case, this bill is funding Canadian Industry to develop a tool which will help all Canadians which is much better than some of the stuff that money has been spent on.

Thanks,
- James

Hi,

That system is used to monitor Canada's northern and coastal terroritories using radar-based imagery satellites. From catching ships illegally dumping in canadian waters to monitoring environmental impacts these satellites have done alot of work. Furthermore most of the design, development, testing and operation was done in Canada. And it will be same for future systems. Furthermore the systems have been a commercial success. Radarsat II to launch next year will have the highest commerically available resolution of 3m.

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/default. asp
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/radarsat 1/default.asp
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/radarsat 2/inf_tech.asp

In the current political climate I realize its tempting to bash everything that comes down the pipe, but in this case, this bill is funding Canadian Industry to develop a tool which will help all Canadians which is much better than some of the stuff that money has been spent on.

Thanks,
- James

Hi,

That system is used to monitor Canada's northern and coastal terroritories using radar-based imagery satellites. From catching ships illegally dumping in canadian waters to monitoring environmental impacts these satellites have done alot of work. Furthermore most of the design, development, testing and operation was done in Canada. And it will be same for future systems. Furthermore the systems have been a commercial success. Radarsat II to launch next year will have the highest commerically available resolution of 3m.

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/default. asp
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/radarsat 1/default.asp
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/radarsat 2/inf_tech.asp

In the current political climate I realize its tempting to bash everything that comes down the pipe, but in this case, this bill is funding Canadian Industry to develop a tool which will help all Canadians which is much better than some of the stuff that money has been spent on.

Thanks,
- James

What do you think they are going to mine, raw materials. There is also theoretically a large amount of sub-surface ice that can be tapped.

As far as getting these materials around, getting them to orbit is the only challenge, but that could be accomplished by mass driver or rockets fueled with propellant made from ice. The lower gravity of Mars would make this far more cost effective then launching supplies from Earth, although more costly then the Moon. At this point, the ores can be ballistically sent anywhere in the solar system for minimal cost (It may take a few years for shipment but once continuous shipment starts, there will be a constant stream of materials arriving at the destination.)

The following is an excerpt I found on available materials. This also doesn't account for substantial metorite deposits left on the surface.

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/pdf/csew4_BarrieCT01.pd f
The approach should consider terrestrial, non-arc settings on Earth, including: impact-related magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide deposits (e.g., Sudbury Basin, Ontario, the world's largest Ni resource), komatiite-hosted (e.g., "lunar rille"-related) magmatic sulfide deposits (Kambalda district in Western Australia, Timmins, Ontario komatiite-hosted deposits, anorthositic (e.g., lunar and martian highlands) Fe-Ti oxide (Schreifferville, Quebec) and magmatic sulfide (Voisey's Bay, Labrador) deposits, kimberlitic diamond (Ekati, NWT) deposits (potential at Olympus Mons and nearby volcanos?); sedimentary Fe (Helen Iron Range, Ontario), Mn (Kalahari deposits, South Africa) Cu (Kupreschifer, Poland) and possibly U (Athabasca deposits, Saskatchewan) deposits; and a variety of continental magmatic-hydrothermal deposits (Olympic Dam Cu-U-REE, Australia; possibly Creede caldera epithermal Au-Ag, Colorado). Aggregate minerals need to be considered as well.

AGI (makers of STK) was started by two former General Electric (space division) employees and their software has become industry standard. It is used by most space agencies including ESA & NASA. Note that the price point is high and roughly equal to the engineering time they envison their software replaces. A relatively base model will set you back about $30K USD if you want something with opengl graphics visualization. If you want to plan a mission to Mars you'll need astrogator and probably the visualization so your looking at $50K USD. There are academic discounts of about 20%. For perspective, I'm using STK right now for a Mars mission trade study.

I use the software daily and while I cough at the price and maintenance, it does what it is supposed to do most of the time. Sadly, it does crash a fair bit under windows and they stopped developing for unix a few versions back...

Canada has 1/10 the population of the US, so at most 1/10 the resources, so agencies such as CSA must concentrate focus on a few areas such as Canadarm or Microsatellites (for example check out MOST). While CSA does provide astronauts for NASA, it has no involvement in private space travel.

The Canadarm is one of the greatest things to come from the Shuttle program.

Imagine, Canadians in space. What a crazy idea.

Imagine if they put Canadian made parts on the shuttle or ISS.

Imagine, Canadians in space. What a crazy idea.

Imagine if they put Canadian made parts on the shuttle or ISS.

Imagine, Canadians in space. What a crazy idea.

Imagine if they put Canadian made parts on the shuttle or ISS.

I'm sure some poeple on /. are racist, but get a reality check. Most people are just ignorant. If the article was about Canada trying to send a probe to the moon, do you think that most people would have the first clue about the Canadian space program and its accomplishments? I'm sure we'd be getting lots of uninformed comments and jokes (the usual regarding beer, hockey, high taxes or how we pronounce something), but no accusations of racisim.

Just beacuse people don't know anything about the Indian space program or conditions in India in general doesn't make them a racist.

I'm sure some poeple on /. are racist, but get a reality check. Most people are just ignorant. If the article was about Canada trying to send a probe to the moon, do you think that most people would have the first clue about the Canadian space program and its accomplishments? I'm sure we'd be getting lots of uninformed comments and jokes (the usual regarding beer, hockey, high taxes or how we pronounce something), but no accusations of racisim.

Just beacuse people don't know anything about the Indian space program or conditions in India in general doesn't make them a racist.

"The University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group has developed an artificially intelligent (poker playing) automaton known as "Vex Bot," "

At last! We Canadians have a piece of technology that can make us as proud as the mighty Canadarm!

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/app/gallery/results2.as p?image_id=spdm

Well, you COULD add a Head to Dexter but it would probably be pretty scarry...
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/spdm-hr.jpg

Here's a good link from the Canadian Space Agency's web site on Dextre (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator): http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/csa_sectors/human_p re/iss/mss_spdm.asp

Great, but will it be able to service a device that wasn't built to be taken apart?

The Hubble wasn't designed to be entirely serviceable...that led to problems with previous servicing missions, most notably replacing the old defective mirror.

It looks like Dextre is supposed to be mounted to something before operating. Perhaps they're planning on a free controlled platform?

"I'm wondering if these robots could be used for the ISS assembly/maintenance, minimizing crew EVAs while maximizing assembly time and hopefully reducing costs."

Robotics repairs of ISS is already in the plans, in order to minimize crew EVA time. The SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System aka Canadarm2) is scheduled to receive a "hand", the SPDM (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator). SPDM is designed to be able to carry replacement parts to most external locations of ISS and swap them in place of a defective part. The robotic system is controlled remotely by the crew from inside ISS. The ETA for the launch of SPDM was 2005. That might have changed now that the shuttles are grounded.

For more info on SPDM from the Canadian Space Agency: Dextre (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator)

Huh? Because it's going slower than escape velocity it will eventually escape anyway? That makes no sense. Escape velocity by definition is the minimum speed you must travel to escape the pull of gravity. BTW, things in geosynchronous orbit travel much slower (they have a period of 24 hours instead of 90 minutes) and yet they still remain in orbit.

Data taken from here.

The only problem is the 10 day deadline. No university could find that kind of money that quickly, the funding/budget/beaurocratic cycles re too long.

Umm.... I think you're missing the idea... they're not beaming light to the Earth, but rather microwave (radio waves with a frequency greater than 300MHz is a microwave) to base stations on the Earth. Now, this may sound like it could be very dangerous, but the density of these waves is lower than current cell phones. Birds, planes, whatever could cut the beam, and not be fried. I've seen a working model of a system like this, currently being developed by the Canadian Space Agency, and its quite impressive. There are safety concerns, including terrorism, I definately agree, but I'm sure a solution can be found.

About three years ago, I saw a display at Canada's largest student run science and technology show at the University of Saskatchewan - College of Engineering. The Canadian Space Agency displayed a working model of a satellite that would capture the Sun's rays, and convert them to power via a massive array of solar cells. The device would then beam the electricity to Earth base stations via microwave radiation (these are just electromagnetic rays much like your microwave oven generated, not what you make think of radiation as (ie. beta, gamma, xray, etc)). The rays would have a power lower density so that animal life would not be affected. They would place a bunch of these satellites in orbit, with a good amount of redundancy. It is estimated that only three of these would be required to take on the entire world's power consumption needs, with ground stations all over the world. I actually saw a working model, where they used a 60W incandescant light bulb to power this little satellite model, which beamed the energy to a map of the world (about 3 feet away) with little LED's all over the place. It was quite interesting, and I hope their research proves fruitful, as it is a fair amount more environmentally friendly that most other power alternatives. Also to get the entire world on this, you would not have to convert say the United Kingdom to 120V RMS/60Hz from 240V RMS/50Hz, as each base station could convert the energy to whatever it deems necessary for the grid. A world-wide power grid would require major changed to a lot of the countries as there are different standards for voltage and frequency, among other things.

They also study the effect of zero-G on actual astronauts with results that can be beneficial for normal people.

Seems like I've been reading about this for years. Glad to see it finally becoming reality.

The Press Release" was dated 20 Nov 2001 but MOST will not be launched until Oct 2002. My post was accepted in Nov but was delayed in posting due to a bug in the database which showed its date as 31 Dec 1968. I emailed Hemos and he fixed it Christmas eve.

The Canadian Space Agency describes MOST as a next generation microsatellite that will be the world's smallest astronomical space telescope, capable of measuring the ages of stars in our galaxy and perhaps even unlocking mysteries of the universe itself.. You are probally reffering to SCISAT1 on which will be the MAESTRO instrument (Measurements of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation). SCISAT1 is due for launch in Dec 2002. There are other projects here.

The Press Release" was dated 20 Nov 2001 but MOST will not be launched until Oct 2002. My post was accepted in Nov but was delayed in posting due to a bug in the database which showed its date as 31 Dec 1968. I emailed Hemos and he fixed it Christmas eve.

The Canadian Space Agency describes MOST as a next generation microsatellite that will be the world's smallest astronomical space telescope, capable of measuring the ages of stars in our galaxy and perhaps even unlocking mysteries of the universe itself.. You are probally reffering to SCISAT1 on which will be the MAESTRO instrument (Measurements of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation). SCISAT1 is due for launch in Dec 2002. There are other projects here.

So you can imagine what success we might have at the local Canadian Tire and with $80000 in CT money

One of my beefs with Enemy of the State, apart from the fact that the satellites appeared to hover over the target was the fact that they appeared to be unaffected by the weather. There were scenes where it was raining and yet they were able to get wonderful overhead optical imagery. Last time I checked, if it's cloudy, all you're going to see it white, basically.

If you want to "see" through clouds, use synthetic aperture radar. Of course, you'll have to use a non-American satellite like Canada's RADARSAT or ESA's ERS... ;)

1) Canada already has its own space agency, it just doesn't launch rockets on its own. But it does just about everything that goes in them. Communication systems, robotics, satelites and astronauts. 2) AFAIK, all canadian astronauts already use NASA's facilities to get up there (including the shuttle). The european cooperation stuff is more about launching satelites and sharing technology. Launching rockets costs an awful lot of money, and you have to be a BIG country (not just large) to that on your own. And having a launch site near the equator also helps.

Um, first canadian SPACE WALK! I'm pretty sure there has been canadians in space before.
Travis

-I don't have the answers, but I have questions, and the desire to find the answers.

*sigh*

(insert various comments about how I wish that US citizens knew a bit more about their neighbor to the north...) Now, back to the question: Canada a space power? Well, first off, Chris Hadfield is *not* the first Canadian in space. He will be the first Canadian to make a spacewalk. However, Marc Garneau (who currently heads up the Canadian Space Agency) had the distinction of becoming the first Canadian in space on October 5, 1984. For more information about Canadians in space, you can take a peek at: Canadian Astronaut Missions

Here's the Main CSA page

Canada, being a relatively small country population-wise (approximately 31,000,000, although geographically we are the 2nd largest country in the world) doesn't have the resources to maintain a full space program like the US. What we *are* good at is providing infrastructure - the Canadarm (shuttle and ISS), communications hardware (we've become quite good at telecom over the years, due to the geography of the country), manpower and technology. This arrangement works well, as it complements the US launch systems...

So, as for Canada being a space power? Depends on your definition. We definitely have had multiple people in space (11 missions so far), we've got experience with space and space-systems... building the necessary hardware, and we've providing a great deal of that hardware to the US and other country's programs. Many of the comm satellites out there have Canadian tech in them. So, I would have to say yes, we are a space power of sorts - or at the very least, we *enable* the other space powers.

(as for not owning much of the sky - see the part above about comm sats and enabling technologies!)

*sigh*

(insert various comments about how I wish that US citizens knew a bit more about their neighbor to the north...) Now, back to the question: Canada a space power? Well, first off, Chris Hadfield is *not* the first Canadian in space. He will be the first Canadian to make a spacewalk. However, Marc Garneau (who currently heads up the Canadian Space Agency) had the distinction of becoming the first Canadian in space on October 5, 1984. For more information about Canadians in space, you can take a peek at: Canadian Astronaut Missions

Here's the Main CSA page

Canada, being a relatively small country population-wise (approximately 31,000,000, although geographically we are the 2nd largest country in the world) doesn't have the resources to maintain a full space program like the US. What we *are* good at is providing infrastructure - the Canadarm (shuttle and ISS), communications hardware (we've become quite good at telecom over the years, due to the geography of the country), manpower and technology. This arrangement works well, as it complements the US launch systems...

So, as for Canada being a space power? Depends on your definition. We definitely have had multiple people in space (11 missions so far), we've got experience with space and space-systems... building the necessary hardware, and we've providing a great deal of that hardware to the US and other country's programs. Many of the comm satellites out there have Canadian tech in them. So, I would have to say yes, we are a space power of sorts - or at the very least, we *enable* the other space powers.

(as for not owning much of the sky - see the part above about comm sats and enabling technologies!)

>The US and France (not that France has any kind
>of space program) are not at the best of terms,
>Germany is still re-building the eastern half,
>the UK... what are they up to, and Japan.
>Actually, I'm surprised that Japan isn't
>involved... well, maybe they are, but if so, the
>newspeople are ignoring it.

>You can pretty much count out all of Africa, the
>Middle East, most of Asia, South America,and a
>fair chunk of Europe. No one really lives in
>Antarctica, so that really leaves the Aussies.
>Are they involved? If not, why not? (Probably
>because you couldn't convince an Aussie he'd
>need a spacesuit...)

Well while it is true Russia and the U.S. are doing the majority of the work and cost, there are a number of other countries that will contribute after the core of the station is built.

Some of the countries future contributions include:

U.S.:
-Truss and Photovoltaic Arrays
-U.S. Lab
-Centrifuge Accomodation Module
-Node 2
-Node 3
-Crew Return Vehicle (X-38)
-Habitation Module

Russia:
-Science Power Platform
-Universal Docking Module
-Research Module 1
-Research Module 2
-Docking Compartment

Japan:
-Kibo [JEM Experimental Logistics Module, JEM Remote Manipulator System, JEM Exposed Facility]

European Union:
-European Lab/Columbus Orbital Facility

Canada:
-CSA Remote Manipulator System (robot arm)

Italy:
-Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (A supply "van" for moving stuff from Earth to the station) Brazil: Express Express

Some excellent links:

• Diagram
• Timeline
• Progress

Last march, Canadian astronaut Judith Lapierre almost walked out of a long-term space station simulation experiment when a drunken russian astronaut started making passes at her.
Is this the kind of crap we can expect from Destination MIR ?
---

I will give $50 to anybody who can parse the above sentence into a form that even remotely makes sense. In its current form, it appears to have been pounded out by a drunken, fiddle-playing Newfie.

Classic flamer diversion! When they can't come up with anything creative to write, they try to dismiss it.

Hey, there's M2. Is there a Much2? Or would that be "too much?"

Much More Music

Oh, that's rich. Use one isolated example. Of course, you ignore the fact that Americans have walked on the moon, that Americans have explored and mapped every planet in the entire Solar System (except for Pluto and Charon.) What have Canadians contributed to space exploration? A method to make powdered maple syrup, perhaps? Don't tell me .. "beaver's foot" keychains to put the keys to the Space Shuttle on? Fiberglass hockey sticks, maybe?

The Robotics for the international space station and space shuttle, Vision Systems "crucial to connecting the first two elements of the International Space Station" and others I don't have time to look up right now.

I will give $50 to anybody who can parse the above sentence into a form that even remotely makes sense. In its current form, it appears to have been pounded out by a drunken, fiddle-playing Newfie.

Classic flamer diversion! When they can't come up with anything creative to write, they try to dismiss it.

Hey, there's M2. Is there a Much2? Or would that be "too much?"

Much More Music

Oh, that's rich. Use one isolated example. Of course, you ignore the fact that Americans have walked on the moon, that Americans have explored and mapped every planet in the entire Solar System (except for Pluto and Charon.) What have Canadians contributed to space exploration? A method to make powdered maple syrup, perhaps? Don't tell me .. "beaver's foot" keychains to put the keys to the Space Shuttle on? Fiberglass hockey sticks, maybe?

The Robotics for the international space station and space shuttle, Vision Systems "crucial to connecting the first two elements of the International Space Station" and others I don't have time to look up right now.