The Space Economy: Recent Episodes
SpaceQ
With the space economy generating close to a third of a trillion dollars globally each year and headed to being a trillion dollar economy, it's clear more focus needs to be put on what's driving the economy. We'll explore all aspects of the space economy including the trends, opportunities and challenges.
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we a have Future In-Space Operations Q&A from Nov. 30 with Mike Provenzano, Director of Lunar Surface Systems at Astrobotic Technology. Mike presented a comprehensive update on all of Astrobotic's programs. His talk was title "Astrobotic’s Space Logistics Services: Making the Moon Accessible to the World."
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we a have Future In-Space Operations Q&A from Sept. 14 on the US ISAM National Strategy which was released by the White House in April of this year. ISAM being the acronym for In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing.
The guest speaker is Ezinne Uzo-Okoro, from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Uzo-Okoro is the Chair of the National Science and Technology Council Working Group on ISAM. In the podcast she spoke for about 24 minutes on the the national strategy before spending another half hour answering questions.
In this episode of the Space Economy podcast our special guest is Clark Lindsey, the lead analyst of a new 161 page report from NewSpace Global called Cislunar Market Opportunities, In-Space Business within the Earth-Moon System. The report is available to purchase online at cislunar.report with a single user license, a team license for up to users and there's also a corporate license. Listen In.
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The Space Economy podcast is back for a sixth season with a wide variety of guests scheduled including first time guest Matthew Mejía of Sierra Space, the 2021 spinoff from the Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Matthew Mejía is the recently appointed Chief Strategy & Development Officer. The timing of this interview was perfect as they just announced today the creation of a new division, Sierra Space Ventures. Matthew explains in some detail the new division along with providing an update on their other existing programs including their spaceplane Dream Chaser, their planned private space station Orbital Reef and the Life Habitats.
In this weeks Space Economy podcast my special guest is Lori Garver, the former Deputy Administrator of NASA and author of the new book Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age.
During her 35 year career, and this is just partial list, Lori worked at NASA twice, advised a variety of presidential candidates, led the NASA transition team under Barak Obama, was the Executive Director of the National Space Society for nine years and co-founded the Brooke Owens Fellowship, an internship and mentorship program for collegiate women. Oh, and she's also a space pirate, and that's a good thing.
This week on the Space Economy podcast we're presenting a Future in Space Operations talk by Dan Lopez, Chief Business Officer of Arkisys. The title of Dan's talk is Driving the Next Silk Road in Space: The Arkisys Port Architecture.
Now, the one thing to remember about these Future in Space Operations presentations is that you will sometimes get ideas that are in the very early stages of development. That's the case with the Port Architecture by Arkisys. While the idea appears sound, the business case is ongoing. So Dan will introduce the product and their plans. The company is less than 2 years old but has garnered enough support including from the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Innovation Unit that they are preparing for on-orbit demo.
In this weeks Space Economy podcast we're presenting a Future in Space Operations talk by Gary Calnan, the founder and CEO of CisLunar Industries.
As we prepare to head back to the Moon, this time hopefully to stay, we'll need to continue to build up our commercial efforts in low Earth orbit. For CisLunar Industries that means making the business case for recycling space debris for in-space metal manufacturing. Visit our website for the presentation.
This week on the Space Economy podcast my special guest is Andy Bowyer, CEO of Kleos. Its been 3 1/2 years since Andy was last on the show when the company was just getting started. Kleos is building a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that detect and geolocate radio frequency transmissions to identify hidden and illegal activity. When we last spoke Kleos didn’t have any satellites on-orbit, but things have definitely changed. Listen in.
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In this weeks Space Economy podcast my special guest is Jaret Matthews, Founder and CEO of Astrolab. Jaret and I discussed his new venture which is singularly focused on building a multipurpose rover with lunar, terrestrial and eventually Mars applications. Jaret's new startup builds upon 20 years of his and his colleagues work experience at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SpaceX and other companies.
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In this weeks Space Economy podcast my special guest is Patrick Thera, President of Advanced Technologies at the Calian Group. Advanced Technologies was formerly known as SED Systems. As you'll learn, Advanced Technologies has quietly been building a strong business and is emerging with a stronger public voice. Of note, one of the topics Patrick was eager to talk about was the new industry group, Space Canada.
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In this weeks podcast my special guest is David Haight, the Chief Economist at the Canadian Space Agency. We'll be discussing the recently released report by the agency on the State of the Canadian Space Sector. While there are some good trends, there are also some issues.
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In this weeks podcast my special guest is Marc Bell, CEO of Terran Orbital. Bell is not you typical space CEO. Through Marc Bell Capital he and his partners have invested in lifestyle companies, tech companies and even other space companies. Oh, and he's won a Tony Award and Grammy Award for as a producer of the popular Jersey Boys.
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast, the third and last episode of our annual Winter Series, we're featuring a recent Future in Space Operations presentation by Tim Kokan, Principal Engineer at Aerojet Rocketdyne on "Space Nuclear Propulsion: From Current Efforts to a Future Human Mars Campaign."
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In this weeks podcast we are featuring a recent Future in Space Operations presentation by Barbara Braun and Sam Sims from the Aerospace Corporation, who spoke on "Policy Compliance Roadmap for Small Satellites." SmallSats proliferation in low Earth orbit continues due in part to the low barrier to entry, however one area that lacks universal standards is policy compliance.
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we are featuring a recent Future in Space Operations presentation by Paul Jaffe of the Naval Research Laboratory.
Dr. Paul Jaffe is an electronics engineer and researcher with over 25 years of experience at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). He has led or held major roles on dozens of space missions and on breakthrough technology development projects for civilian, defense, and intelligence community sponsors. In this episode Dr. Jaffe will speak on “Power Beaming and Space Applications." This complements an earlier podcast this season by Jeff Mankins on Space Based Solar Power.
Our special guest this episode is Jason Michaud, founder and CEO of Stardust Technologies. Stardust Technologies is an aerospace and technology startup based in Cochrane, Ontario and with offices in Ottawa. The company specializes in AI, XR, Robotics, and STEM education.
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This weeks podcast special guest is John Mankins, formerly with NASA and now running a consultancy, ARTEMIS Innovation Management Solutions, LLC. John also works with an Australian startup, more on that later, and works with various other space organizations.
John also happens to be one of the foremost experts and advocates for Space Based Solar Power, our topic today.
Today’s podcast is a Future in Space Operations presentation from Dec. 15 with Robert Smith of the University of Alberta who discusses The Making of Megascience: The History of the James Webb Space Telescope.
So what does the James Webb Space Telescope have to do with the Space Economy. Well to start, over 10,000 people worked on the project with over $10 billion being spent by the NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency over 20 years.
And if you are regular to this podcast you will know we previously interviewed NASA’s Chief Economist Alex MacDonald about his book the Long Space Age, the Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War. The book in part discusses the grand terrestrial observatories, how they were funded and the impact on society. So while the Webb space telescope will advance our knowledge of the universe, it will also have an economic impact.
In the second episode of season 5 of the Space Economy podcast my returning is Jeffrey Manber, President International and Space Stations at Voyager Space and Chairman of Nanoracks.
It's been a year since Jeff was last on the show and what a year it's been for him and the company. Voyager Space, an up and coming player in the space industry, acquired a majority stake in XO Markets and its largest subsidiary Nanoracks earlier this year. And just last week a team lead by Nanoracks was selected in the first phase of NASA's Commercial Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Development program for commercial space station concepts. Two other proposals were selected including Northrop Grumman and the Orbital Reef team led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. They are joined by Axiom Space which received a grant earlier in 2020.
My guest today is Mina Mitry, CEO of Kepler Communications. The Toronto based telecommunications company has a pretty big goal, that of being THE internet access provider in space, from low Earth orbit, to the Moon and beyond. To make that happen the company has two satellites constellations planned, the first for the IoT market. They currently and have 15 satellites in orbit of a planned 140. The other satellite constellation would be for the broadband market and would have 360 satellites. But that's not all.
They have a new product called Aether which Mina will discuss in detail during our interview. But subsequent to our interview which was recorded on Nov. 15, a news item came out outlining plans by Kepler for a S-band low Earth orbit constellation of 114,852 satellites. The media reports had it slightly wrong. While Kepler, working with Germany's Federal Network Agency, had submitted an application to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), it wasn't for a constellation, it was for the small Aether communication hardware that could eventually be placed on the potential 114,852 customer satellites. Still, these numbers are mind-boggling when you think that just over 10 years ago we only had a total of 1,000 active satellites in orbit.
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Note: We previously uploaded the wrong episode. That mistake has been fixed.Welcome to the last episode of our annual Summer Season special. Today we have another Future-in-Space Operations presentation this time by Bradley Jolliff of Washington University in St. Louis on the "Motivation and Challenges for Sampling the Moon’s Giant South Pole - Aitken Basin."
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Welcome to the third episode of our annual Summer Season special. Today we have another Future-in-Space Operations presentation from Joe Lazio and Marc Sanchez Net from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who discuss "On-Demand Access for Deep Space Operations."
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In 1987 Frank White coined the term “Overview Effect” which he used to describe the "cognitive shift that results from the experience of viewing the Earth from space and in space, from orbit or on a lunar mission."In this the second episode in our annual Summer Season special we have another Future-in-Space Operations presentation from a couple of weeks ago. The guest speaker is Jordan Bimm from the University of Chicago, who provides some fascinating insights into the Overview Effect, specifically that we need to rethink what the Overview Effect is.
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Welcome to the first episode of our annual Summer Season specials. We've just completed Season 4 and Season 5 is currently scheduled to start on September 27. Between now and then we'll be featuring weekly interviews or presentations from other content creators.Today we have a Future-in-Space Operations presentation from April of this year. The presenter is Mike Lindsey, CTO of Astroscale who discusses the need for satellite life extension services, active debris removal, their technology and offerings. We offer this presentation now as Astroscale's ELSA-D mission successfully demonstrated repeated magnetic capture of a clients satellite last week.In his presentation Mike states Space Development Demands Sustainability. This has never been more true. Space debris is, and has been a problem since the early days of the space age. While most space actors are taking sustainability into account, the issue of legacy debris is a problem still without a cost-effective solution. Companies like Astroscale are tying to make the business case by offering innovative solutions. They aren't offering to clean up legacy debris, but what they are attempting is a good first step. As new ideas, technologies, and importantly, business solutions come into existence, we can only hope that all space debris, legacy and new, can be removed safely.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast my guest is Jeremy Perrin, CEO of Connektica a Montreal based startup offering a radio frequency software platform to test antennas.Sometimes being highly specialized can limit a business. However, there are times where that knowledge and skillsets can enhance a market segment. Connektica appears to be the latter. Though a startup, it appears their combination of radio frequency expertise, software development, and determined entrepreneurs, is arriving at the perfect time to tackle some of the issues of mass manufacturing of satellites. Listen in.
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Welcome to the Space Economy podcast and the final and 10th episode in our special series Doing Business in the Solar System hosted by Elizabeth Howell.While this may be the last podcast in the Doing Business in the Solar System, I'm happy to announce that Elizabeth will be back in the fall hosting a new podcast for SpaceQ, making it the third podcast we produce. More details on Elizabeth's podcast will be revealed in September.Today's podcast: It's notoriously hard to predict the space exploration economy. Twenty years ago, space tourism was a pipe dream and no company had yet sent a cargo ship to the International Space Station. These days, tourist flights and cargo ships are becoming more common. Are there any lessons we can draw to think ahead to say, 2050?Joining us is Michael Dodge. He earned multiple law degrees, and is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of North Dakota's Department of Space Studies.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast we're going to get an update on the status of Firefly's launch vehicles and spacecraft including their NASA commercially sponsored Blue Ghost mission.The presenter is Eric Salwan, the acting Chief Revenue Officer for Firefly. The presentation is available on our website.
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We've found thousands of exoplanets in the last 30 years, particularly with tools like NASA's Kepler mission and the HARPS instrument at the La Silla telescope in Chile. But for the last few years, we've had the capability to seek out worlds that are potentially habitable, like the famous TRAPPIST-1 system with several planets the size of Earth.So far these worlds are just lights in a telescope, but before long observatories and potential missions will show us more. To tell us more about the future of exoplanet science, we'll hear from Franck Marchis, a senior planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast we're going to get an update on Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration. The topic was the subject of the June 16th Future in Space Operations teleconference. The presenter was Roger Myers, a consultant and formerly with Aerojet Rocketdyne. His presentation is based on the National Academy Report, Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration created for NASA. Meyers was the Co-Chair of the report.
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NASA hopes to expand its human spaceflight program to the Moon in the 2020s, and perhaps then to Mars. An international consortium is working to make this push into the solar system as efficient as possible. One key aspect is in situ resource utilization, or ISRU. Living off the land, proponents say, may make it cheaper to perform exploration because it means not having to tote all supplies with you.The Colorado School of Mines has done numerous studies concerning ISRU. Today's guest is Angel Abbud-Madrid, Director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines. He is also director of the space resources graduate program at the school.
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On this weeks Space Economy podcast my guest is Chris Robson, the CEO of Wyvern. Wyvern is an Edmonton based startup in the satellite imaging market with a focus on hyperspectral imaging.The company plans to have its first small satellites launched next year and is singularly focused on its innovative hyperspectral camera.
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we discuss the icy moons of the solar system including their potential for future In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU).
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On this weeks Space Economy podcast my returning guest is James Slifierz, the CEO of SkyWatch.Recently SkyWatch announced that it had raised $17.2 million US in its Series B funding round. As well, SkyWatch revealed that their TerraStream integrated data management solution was going to be launched on over 40 satellites including on the upcoming SpaceX Transporter-2 rideshare mission and the Virgin Orbit mission. James walks us through the recent news, and gives us some colour on what's coming up for the fast expanding Waterloo based company.
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Welcome to the Space Economy podcast and the next episode in our special series Doing Business in the Solar System hosted by Elizabeth Howell.Today's episode focuses on Mars and the Perseverance rover, its helicopter, a future sample return mission and touches on In-Situ Resource Utilization.
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My returning guest this week on the Space Economy podcast is Ewan Reid, CEO of Mission Control Space Services. On May 26 of this year ISED Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced that Mission Control was the recipient of a contribution from the Canadian Space Agency in the amount of $3 million.My conversation with Reid delves into what the funding and mission mean for his company and Canada. Reid also provides a glimpse into what their technology can and will do, details of the Moon mission, and how it's taken years to build up to this point. Included in the conversation is how trade missions with the Canadian Space Agency helped and why there should be more of them.
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we discuss countries that want to become a launching state and what that means. Our guest is Kenneth Hodgkins. This is the fifth of ten episodes in our special series Doing Business in the Solar System hosted by Elizabeth Howell.For many years, Canadian orbital dreams were restricted to launching things in other countries. But a Maritime Launch Services proposed launching facility in Nova Scotia secured nearly $11 million in Canadian investment dollars this spring. Its location takes advantage of the Earth's rotation to boost rockets into equatorial orbits.The facility is at an early stage, so early that Transport Canada says it isn't yet ready to comment. But we do have Kenneth Hodgkins, president of International Space Enterprise Consultants to talk about the subject. Mr. Hodgkins used to be the Director of the Office of Space and Advanced Technology at the US State Department, and was in Ottawa a few years back talking about Canada as a launching state.
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It's been several months since we did a podcast on China with a focus on their commercial space efforts. In this edition we'll discuss China's broadband mega-constellation, get a launch updated, learn about China's first commercial spaceport and learn more about the commercialization efforts of Chinese Earth observation data.My returning guest is Blaine Curio, a space and satcom industry consultant based in Hong Kong who focuses primarily on China. Beside his own consultancy, Orbital Gateway, Blaine also consults as a Senior Affiliate with Euroconsult. And this past summer, he along with co-host Jean Deville, launched a podcast called the Dongfang Hour, or literally translated, Eastern Hour.
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In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we discuss asteroids as a resource with Dr. Dante Lauretta. This is the fourth of ten episodes in our special series Doing Business in the Solar System hosted by Elizabeth Howell.Asteroids and comets are abundant resources in our universe, but there are a lot of challenges in mining them. They’re scattered throughout the solar system. We don’t have a good survey yet of what each small body contains. And even if we do know what’s out there, how will we get the resources out?To learn more, we’ll speak with Dante Lauretta, leader of the sample return mission on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Dr. Lauretta is also a professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast my guest is Brigadier-General Michael Adamson who assumed the role of RCAF Director General Space and Joint Force Space Component Commander in June of 2020.Today we're going to discuss how Canada's Armed Forces is adapting to an increasing congested, contested, and competitive space environment.
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NASA's next steps in the solar system include going back to the moon. The agency is working on its Artemis program that is supposed to put boots on the surface in the 2020s. It's a little different from the Apollo years. This time, the agency will be bringing in international astronauts and robots.To learn more about the Artemis ecosystem, we'll have a chat with Alex Ellery. Dr. Ellery is the Canada Research Professor in Space Robotics and Space Technology at Carleton University in Ottawa. He's also written extensively about the Artemis program.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast I have two guests, Oleg Khalimonov, Chief Rocket Designer at Space Concordia and Nathan Van Rumpt, Project Manager at UBC Rocket.Space Concordia and UBC Rocket are two of the university teams competing in the The Base 11 Space Challenge, an American competition where teams must design, build and launch a liquid-propelled, single-stage rocket to an altitude of 100 km by December 31st of this year. The prize for reaching this goal is a $1 million.Just under two weeks ago the competition announced the winners of the critical design review, the second to last milestone before an expected launch window opens in December at Spaceport America. In a competition heavy with Americans team, it was the Canadians how came in first and third in the critical design review with Concordia's University Space Concordia taking first place and the University of British Columbia's UBC Rocket coming in third.It is a remarkable achievement. Here's my discussion with Nathan and Oleg.
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In this, the second episode of our special podcast series Doing Business in the Solar System, we discuss the issue of property in space. It's hard to believe how fast private spaceflight is expanding across the solar system. We've seen companies fly cargo and people to the International Space Station. Other companies do business in telecommunications, observations or other activities in Earth orbit. Next might be the Moon. Later this decade, NASA wants to partner with private companies for lunar exploration. But what kind of legal questions need to be considered? Can we really mine other worlds, and if we do, what are the ramifications for space companies?
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast we have special episode. What are NASA's plans for the first lunar base? Well in today's Future in Space Operations briefing, we're going to learn what NASA is planning for what they're calling the "Artemis Base Camp" which will be located at the lunar south pole.We have two speakers that will discuss the Artemis Base Camp plans. Jeff George serves as the Lunar Architecture lead for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA HQ, and is a member of the Exploration Mission Planning Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Bret Drake currently serves as the Associate Director of the Space Architecture Department for the Aerospace Corporation. The presentation that goes with this talk is available on our website.
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April 12 is a special day in the space business. It's the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic human spaceflight in 1961. In Episode 1, we'd like to take you through a historical journey telling you the differences between then, and now.Doing Business in the Solar System is a new 10 part series on the Space Economy podcast hosted by Elizabeth Howell, SpaceQ's Associate Editor. The series will air every other week in-between our regular episodes.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast my guest is Pavel Bordioug of NXT Farm, a precision agriculture technology startup based in the Waterloo, Ontario that less than two years after launching their AG platform for farmers, are profitable and growing organically.
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In this weeks Space Economy podcast we learn about NASA's plans to commercialize communications and navigation from Earth to the Moon.The topic was the subject of the March 17 Future in Space Operations teleconference. The two presenters were Gregory Heckler, Engineering Manager at NASA's Space Communication and Navigation Program, and Andy Petro from NASA headquarters.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast we have something a little different for you.Scott Erwin works in the Space Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Lab. The AFRL is all about the cutting edge, and as they describe themselves, "AFRL leads the discovery, development and delivery of warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces."So naturally, Artificial Intelligence, is part of their R&D portfolio. In this Future in Space Operations talk of Feb. 24, 2021, Erwin discusses how AI is an emerging technology for contested space by describing the recent technological advancements using gaming tools. You might be surprised how fast things are moving, and the progress might scare you. The presentation and video are available on our website.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast we have a special presentation for you. The Canadian Space Agency is currently consulting with the public on its future space exploration activities. For those 'in the business', this is yet another consultation process, one of many they've experienced. For students and the younger workforce, this could be a generational opportunity to effect policy, and they shouldn't miss the opportunity.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast we have a Future In-Space Operations presentation by Mike Gold with an update on the Artemis Accords and some insights the future of space resources.Most people interested in commercial space and the development of space resources should be familiar with Mike Gold. Gold became a special advisor in late 2019 to then NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. And just over a month ago he was named as a NASA associate administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast our guests are Lilac Muller, VP Product Management and Jon Maron, VP Marketing of Kymeta.The company provides mobile internet solutions with their terminals connected to satellites and cellular networks. Today we'll be talking about the innovations the company has made in metamaterial made antenna's, the comms services they are now bundling with their terminals and what adding low Earth orbit constellations will mean for everyone wanting "comms on the move."
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy my special guest is Lisa Campbell, the new president of the Canadian Space Agency. Ms. Campbell joined the Canadian Space Agency just months into the pandemic and started at the beginning of last September. We talk about some of the challenges the pandemics created, but also some of the opportunities it's presented. As well, a discussion of the CSA wouldn't be complete without at least one budget question.Please note we did have one very short sound issue during a portion of her answer to my first question, but otherwise there were no issues.
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On today's episode of the Space Economy podcast we have final episode of our annual Winter Series.So far our Winter Series, focussed on NASA's return to the Moon with the Artemis program, has discussed the NASA VIPER robotic precursor mission to Moon's South Pole, the Lunar Gateway's first habitable element, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, originally known as HALO but which has been combined with Maxar's Power and Propulsion Element to create what is now being called the Comanifest Flight, and in our last episode, a look back to help us with the way forward where we heard about Increasing Science-Operations-Engineering Synergism in the Apollo Lunar Exploration Program: Perspectives for the Artemis program. Today, we're going to look forward in time. We're going to learn about one company's ideas of using lunar materials for manufacturing. The ideas presented here are going to take some time to develop. Hence, why this episode is a look forward to when the Artemis program has progressed much further than what we've discussed so far. The presenters are Ron Polidan and Alex Ignatiev from Lunar Resources a startup formed three years ago. Their presentation is titled Lunar Surface Manufacturing. You can download the presentation from our website.
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What are the lessons that can be learned from the Apollo program as we forward to the Artemis program from a science and engineering operations perspective?On this weeks Space Economy podcast we have another Future in Space Operation episode continuing our Winter Series related to NASA’s return to the Moon with the Artemis program.In our first episode we focused on NASA’s VIPER robotic precursor mission to Moon’s South Pole. In the second episode last week, we focused on the Lunar Gateway’s first habitable element, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, originally known as HALO but which has been combined with Maxar’s Power and Propulsion Element to create what is now being called the Comanifest Flight.Today our focus is a look back to help us with the way forward. James Head of Brown University discusses Increasing Science-Operations-Engineering Synergism in the Apollo Lunar Exploration Program: Perspectives for the Artemis program.Most of the people who listen to this podcast weren’t born when the Apollo missions took place. And now some are working on the Artemis program. This episode provides insights from the Apollo program for Artemis participants as they prepare for humanities return to the Moon.
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Today on the Space Economy podcast we have the second episode of our annual three part Winter Series. This year the series is related to NASA's return to the Moon with the Artemis program.While last weeks episode focused on the VIPER robotic precursor mission to Moon's South Pole, this episode focuses on the Lunar Gateway's habitable element, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, known as HALO. The guest speaker is Chad Davis, Manager, Human Spaceflight Integrations & Operations and HALO Integrated Operations Manager at Northrop Grumman. The presentation that goes with this podcast is available on our website.
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Today is December 21st, the Winter Solstice, and also the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. For the Space Economy podcast, it is the beginning of our annual three part Winter Series where we feature content from other creators.This year we're featuring three episodes all related to NASA's return to the Moon with the Artemis program and all are intertwined in the space economy of today and tomorrow. The first episode is on NASA's VIPER rover, a precursor science mission that does double duty in providing new data that will help scientists better understand the Earth-Moon dynamic, while at the same time providing key data to those interested in using lunar resources as part of a future lunar economy. The content originated from the Future in Space Operations weekly teleconference. The guest speaker is Dan Andrews, Director of Engineering at NASA's Ames Research Center. The presentation that goes with this podcast is available on our website.
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My guest this week on the Space Economy podcast is Marcia Smith, the founder of Space Policy Online. You may remember that Marcia was my guest recently on November 16. We didn't plan to have her back on so soon, but as it turns out there was some notable space policy news last week from the National Space Council meeting.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast, my guest is Daniel Faber, Co-founder, and CEO of Orbit Fab, a startup looking to set up Gas Stations in Space They've already completed a technology demonstration on the International Space Station, they've raised some money, and they're trying to make the concept of fuel depots in space, a reality.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy podcast my guest is Jeffrey Manber, co-founder and CEO of Nanoracks, a leading supplier of commercial space services. In this podcast Jeffrey and I will discuss the company's latest initiative, the StarLab Space Farming Center, why Jeffrey thinks it's important for food security, and the implications to the agricultural sector.
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This is part 2 of our special on China's space economy.My guest again is Blaine Curio a space and satcom industry consultant based in Hong Kong who focuses primarily on China. Beside his own consultancy, Orbital Gateway, Blaine also consults as a Senior Affiliate with Euroconsult. And this past summer, he along with co-host Jean Deville, launched a podcast called the Dongfang Hour, or literally translated, Eastern Hour.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy, my guest is Blaine Curio a space and satcom industry consultant based in Hong Kong who focuses primarily on China. Beside his own consultancy, Orbital Gateway, Blaine also consults as a Senior Affiliate with Euroconsult. And this past summer, he along with co-host Jean Deville, launched a podcast called the Dongfang Hour, or literally translated, Eastern Hour. This is a two part podcast, with the second part being published this coming Wednesday.
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy my guest is Marcia Smith the founder of Space Policy Online. Marcia's career includes being the Executive Director of the U.S. National Commission on Space, a Senior Level Specialist in Aerospace and Telecommunications Policy at the Congressional Research Service, and a Director of the Space Studies Board at the National Research Council. While Marcia likes to be referred to as a space policy analyst and will downplay her career, she is an expert in space policy and I'm thrilled to have her on the show as this week we discuss the election and its effect on the space program.Space Policy Onlinehttps://spacepolicyonline.com
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy I'm taking to Tahir Merali, COO of the startup 4pi Lab who are planning to build a constellation of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit to detect small wildfires. It's a fascinating idea. Once operational, the service is designed to give communities and governments who want access to the data, as early a heads-up as possible so the decision maker can decide what to do about the wildfires. But before they begin building satellites, the company is working on developing its optical sensor.4pi Labhttp://site.4pilab.com/
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy I interview Robert Jacobson, an investor in the space economy and the author of the recently published book, Space is Open for Business. After listening to the podcast, you can check out Robert's book and added features he has on https://www.spaceisopenforbusiness.com/Also, we have a new Twitter account for the podcast. Check it out at: https://twitter.com/TheEconomySpace
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On this weeks episode of the Space Economy we speak with Chad Anderson, a Managing Partner at Space Capital an early stage venture capital firm who invest in the space economy. Space Capital recently published their Q3 2020 Space Quarterly Report and today Chad and I will discuss some key points from the report touching on changes to the methodology, COVID-19, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies or SPAC's and China.- Our sponsor this week is MDA.https://mda.space- You can download the Space Investment Quarterly report from the Space Capital website.https://www.spacecapital.com/- Read daily news on these websites:https://spaceq.ca/http://spaceref.com/http://nasawatch.com/http://astrobiology.com/
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Welcome to season 4 of the podcast. And what a season have we got planned for you. To start, each episode will centre around the space economy. So naturally we’re changing the name of the podcast to The Space Economy.The other big change we’re making, at least from what you the listener will notice right away, is that the podcasts are getting shorter. Each podcast will be no longer than 35 minutes. And since we’re going to have shorter podcasts, starting November we’re going to have more of them. We’re going back to our weekly format but instead of publishing on Thursday’s, you’ll be able to tune every Monday morning.We’ll have more announcements coming up, but let’s get today’s guest. Our first guest for season 4 is NASA’s Chief Economist, Alex MacDonald.Listen in.
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This is the fourth and last episode of the SpaceQ Summer Series. In two weeks we begin our 4th season and we’re excited to bring you some great content including our interviews with today’s and future leaders from the space community.Today we have a teleconference from this past Monday where NASA discussed its early Artemis exploration plans after releasing its Lunar Exploration Program Overview earlier in the day.On the call are NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine along with; - Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate- James Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission DirectorateAfter short introductory statements the teleconference was opened up to questions from journalists. It is those questions and the answer which are well worth listening to, to gain insights into NASA’s lunar exploration plans.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher, welcome to the SpaceQ podcast.This is the third episode of the SpaceQ Summer Series which today features NASA’s Raymond Clinton Jr., Associate Director of the Science & Technology Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center.The topic is In-Space Manufacturing and Lunar Construction Technology Development at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.Dr. Clinton takes takes us on a brief journey of what's been done by NASA to date and then discusses what NASA is doing now and what the future of in-space and lunar manufacturing might be.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and welcome to the second episode of the SpaceQ Summer Series which today features cosmologist and science communicator Katie Mack.In June she published the book The End of Everything (Astrophyically Speaking). Today we’ll hear from @AstroKatie on the topic of the end of the universe from a May 6th webcast from the Perimeter Institute. While the topic might be tough to follow for those who aren’t astrophysists, Mack is a consummate science communicator and brings the topic alive so everyone can understand it.Mack is currently a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow at the Perimeter Institute and an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University.Listen in.The End of Everything (Astrophyically Speaking):https://amzn.to/3lox43B
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Last night Erin O’Toole was elected leader of the Federal Conservative Party. We’ve got an article online available to subscribers that outlines what you might expect from O’Toole and the Conservatives should they win the next election. And that election could come as early as this fall if the Liberal’s don’t win the confidence of Parliament after the Throne speech on September 23rd.As a bonus for SpaceQ podcast listeners, we have the following interview I did with O’Toole last October 3rd leading up to the 2019 Federal election.Ok, Listen in to my interview with new Conservative party leader Erin O’Toole.
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Satellite servicing is going from the realm of, I wish we could do this, to becoming a reality. That reality includes creating satellite servicing standards.There are several legacy companies looking to garner a share of the satellite servicing market along with a slew of startups. There are many issues facing all those interested in satellite servicing. To work towards technical and safety standards DARPA funded a new organization with that goal.Today, Brian Weeden, the Executive Director of the Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations, known as (CONFERS), provides an in-depth look at what their organization is doing and the challenges ahead. His talk was part of the Future-in-space Operations weekly teleconference series recorded on July 29. I should note that Brian is also the Director of Program Planning for the Secure World Foundation.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast.My guest today is Adam Keith. Adam is an independent advisor and business consultant focused on the space sector. In his 20 years in the space sector he has advised a wide range of clients including government organizations, investors and commercial actors along the value chain. He is also an Affiliate Principal Advisor at Euroconsult with specialization in Earth Observation and disruptive technologies.Today Adam and I are going to talk about the state of Earth Observation including what’s happening in Canada.
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Comet NEOWISE took astronomers somewhat by surprise. You see, comets can be very finicky with respect to how bright they get. And because the Comet became bright enough for the public to see, well, it’s a rare treat. Comet NEOWISE was discovered earlier this year on March 27. Yesterday NASA held two events to discuss the Comet. The first was geared towards a general audience and was hosted by the NASA Science Live team. So the first part of the podcast, a little over 6 minutes, is going to provide you with the basic background and information you need to enjoy viewing the Comet. Unfortunately, the Comet is only visible to those in the northern hemisphere.The second part of the podcast is a media teleconference where the media get to ask the experts their questions. You would be surprised at some of the questions and answers. The NASA experts included Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer and program executive of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, NASA Headquarters, Emily Kramer, co-investigator on the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) science team, NASA JPL and Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, University of Arizona.Listen in.
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Rick Tumlinson has always had a vision for space exploration and space development which is why he co-founded the Space Frontier Foundation in 1988.Over the years Tumlinson has worked towards making that vision a reality, and through his various endeavours has helped many a startup. In 2018 he decided to take another step by creating SpaceFund, a traditional venture capital fund, but with a modern day twist.In this weeks SpaceQ podcast, Rick Tumlinson is our guest. We’re going to be talking about Venture Capital and startups. Tumlinson is also the founder of the EarthLight Foundation and in 2012 co-founded Deep Space Industries.Today, we’ll revisit some of Tumlinson's history but focus primarily on the. SpaceFund. To use Tumlinson's words, the SpaceFund "enables the development of space by bringing Visionary investors together with brilliant entrepreneurs."The SpaceFund currently has two funds. A $1 million traditional VC fund and a more ambitious $50-$70 million fund using security tokens.
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Today we’re going to discuss India’s space exploration program with regards to the Moon and the Artemis program, as well as India’s space startup scene.My guest is Dr. Chaitanya Giri from Gateway House, Indian Council on Global Relations. I recently discovered Dr. Giri's work at Gateway House when I came across a paper he wrote on the Artemis Accords and India’s space ambitions. Dr. Giri was trained as a planetary and astromaterials scientist, and has been a Visiting Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, a Fellow at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, did a postdoctoral at the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, just a few of his past experience.
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With the recent announcement by NASA of the Artemis Accords and the White House Executive Order on space resource utilization, SpaceQ wanted to interview someone from the commercial space sector who has an interested in space resource utilization.EnterJeff Plate, CEO of Interstellar Mining. Mr. Plate is also Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at WGM, an independent Canadian firm of geological and mining consultants.
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With the COVID-19 virus becoming a global pandemic I wanted to talk to people within the space community about how their organizations are coping and also get a little personal and talk about, well life at home. So today my guest are Bachar Elzein, CEO and CTO and Neil Woodcock, COO, of Reaction Dynamics, a Montreal based startup that is planning to offer dedicated satellite launch services.
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With the COVID-19 virus becoming a global pandemic I wanted to talk to people within the space community about how their organizations are coping, and also get a little personal and talk about life at home. So today my guest is Geoff Languedoc, the Executive Director of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute. CASI as it’s known, is a not-for-profit scientific and technical organization that traces its roots back to 1954. It became the formal organization it is today in 1962 with the merger of the Toronto based Canadian Astronautical Society and the Montreal-based Astronautical Society of Canada. This put the organization squarely at the forefront of the new space age. Today the organization serves a diverse membership across Canada and hosts some important annual conferences that brings the community together.Listen in.The Show- Like the show? Support the show:www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=4270364- Email your thoughts, comments, and questions to:podcast AT spaceq.ca- Follow us on Twitter:twitter.com/canadainspace- Subscribe to the SpaceQ Short Cuts Newsletter:eepurl.com/cTNNpf
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If you're opening up New Space markets, albeit in the failing Soviet Union, and then Russia, and different parts of the US government either support you or don't, how do you classify your work? After all, you're being asked to transition a communist state to, in part, a capital state with a new venture.Today on Terranauts you'll hear that story from someone who could have been labelled the "clandestine" Terranaut at the time.The Show- Like the show? Support the show:https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=4270364- Email your thoughts, comments, and questions to: podcast AT spaceq.ca- Follow us on Twitter:https://twitter.com/canadainspace- Subscribe to the SpaceQ Short Cuts Newsletter:http://eepurl.com/cTNNpf
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COVID-19 is leaving no aspect of our lives untouched including at universities where students and professors have had to adapt to our new reality.To better understand how COVID-19 is affected different parts of the space community SpaceQ has been talking to and interviewing people.Today my guest on the SpaceQ podcast is with someone from the academic world who teaches students and runs a research lab.That professor is Philip Ferguson from the University of Manitoba where he's the NSERC / Magellan Aerospace Industrial Research Chair in Satellite Engineering. Ferguson teaches undergrad and grad courses and manages a satellite engineering lab. He’s also married, has two children, two dogs and lives outside of Winnipeg on a hobby farm.The interview isn't just about the academic life of Ferguson and his students. COVID-19 is affecting every part of our lives. So we get a little personal with our interview. Listen in.
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This is the 13th episode of Terranauts and it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission. So naturally Iain provides a unique and insightful look at the mission. He also concludes the Stan Rogers story which was mentioned in the last episode. Oh, and did I mention there's some singing?Listen in.
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Today we have a special guest, he’s the new CEO of MDA. Ok, well the new CEO is none other than Mike Greenley who was the Group President of MDA until yesterday. Why the change in titles? Yesterday Northern Private Capital completed the acquisition of MDA from Maxar Technologies. MDA is now a Canadian owned company after paying Maxar $1 billion Canadian to acquire the 51 year old company.Mike and discuss the deal, what it means for MDA, its future and we also touch on the important topics of today such as COVID-19 and the bankruptcy of OneWeb.Listen in.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is a very serious global health crisis which is, and will, continue to have an economic impact, including on the space sector.To discuss the economic impact the Satellite Canada Innovation Network, or SatCan, is hosting a free virtual Town Hall on Thursday, April 9 at 11:00 am Eastern time. It's an opportunity for space industry professionals and stakeholders to have a candid discussion about the current and future state of the space industry in the challenging era of COVID-19.SatCan has asked that you consider these questions before attending. What state is your company in now? What has been the first-hand impact of the crisis on you so far? What are you most worried about? What would you like to see in the next month, 3 months, and 6 months that would make a positive difference to you?* Is there anything that you think the community can help you with today?You visit the SatCan website at https://satellitecanada.org to register.The SpaceQ podcast will be published this Thursday as usual.
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Host Iain Christie takes you through Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center during the 90's with the first part of a new series, Tales from Mission Control.
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Today we’ve got a special episode with Canadian space exploration historian Chris Gainor.This past week Gainor was a guest on the Future in Space Operations teleconference. The topic of Gainor's talk was Hubble Space Telescope’s Contributions to Servicing Spacecraft On Orbit. For anyone interested in on-orbit spacecraft servicing, Gainor's research which will soon be published as a NASA Special Publication book and should be essential reading. The Hubble Space Telescope wasn’t designed to be serviced, and yet when critical problems arose, new techniques and plans were conceived which led to multiple servicing missions. The hard lessons learned in the servicing of Hubble shouldn’t be forgotten.Listen in.
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Hi I'm Marc Boucher of SpaceQ. Today we're simultaneously publishing our Terranauts podcast here on the SpaceQ channel and the Terranauts channel. We're doing this because some of you might not be familiar with Terranauts yet. In this new episode of Terranauts, host Iain Christie speaks with Gord Rigby and Alan Thompson of MDA about everything you might want to know about the RADARSAT program through the years and Synthetic Aperture Radar.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast.My guest today is Michael Graham the CEO of Space Simulation Services of Ottawa Corporation. More on the name in the interview. Space Simulation Services is an Ottawa based startup offering testing services for aerospace organizations with a particular focus on small satellites. A Canadian Space Agency report on the space sector recently identified satellite testing services as need in Canada to help speed-up the time it takes to get to market. This is where Graham’s company comes in. Listen in.
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The Canadian Space Agency departmental plan, aka its budget, will be released no later than early April. Today we provide a big picture look at the budget during the current fiscal year and preview next fiscal years.
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On February 10, 2020 NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine presented the State of NASA. In his speech he briefly discussed the the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The mention provides a good seque into today's podcast.Today we have special presentation. On January 8, 2020 Chris Culbert,Manager of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program was a guest at the weekly Future in Space Operations teleconference.He provided an update on the program and towards the end of thepresentation spent some time talking about the lessons learned in thefirst year.Listen in.
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Canadian space startups are starting to gain more attention as venture capital, in and out of Canada, take notice. Case in point is SkyWatch which announced at the start of the year it had closed a Series A round valued at US$7.5M, CAN$10M. My guest today is James Slifierz, the CEO of SkyWatch. Slifierzs’ and his colleagues original idea of aggregating open source satellite data from NASA observatories won them the global prize in NASA’s space apps challenge in 2014. The company has since pivoted focusing on open source and commercial Earth observation data. Slifierzs' estimates there are about 375 active Earth observation satellites of which his company is already getting data from 225 of them. If data is the new oil, is SkyWatch a potential unicorn?A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.Listen in to my conversation with James Slifierz.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast.This week my guest is Stephane Germain the founder and CEO of GHGSat. GHGSat is a Montreal based global emissions monitoring company. They’ve developed novel technology and a proprietary platform that uses data from sensors on their small satellite Claire and from airplanes. Soon they’ll have their second and third satellites launched as they hope to build out a small satellite constellation in low Earth orbit.Last week they were in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum having been invited as a Technology Pioneer.I caught up with Germain on his return to Montreal. He provided an update on the company and his thoughts on the World Economic Forum.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast.Today we’ve got a special episode for you. On Sunday, January 19 SpaceX performed the Crew Dragon in-flight abort test. By all accounts, and from what I saw, it was a successful test. This means the next launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, Demo Mission 2, will carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.As you’ll hear, there’s still more to do before that launch happens. That launch could be as early as this spring, but is more likely to slip into the summer. But make no mistake about it, this was the final major flight milestone that needed to be accomplished before America begins launching astronauts on American rockets from American soil for the first time since 2011, nine years ago.And it won’t just be SpaceX launching astronauts to the ISS. Although Boeing's recent launch of its Starliner spacecraft didn’t go according to plan, and included, what some have characterized as an embarrassing timing issue, the Starliner spacecraft will follow SpaceX and launch astronauts to the ISS.And that America will be back to launching astronauts on American rockets this year is a very big deal. Not just for what it means for NASA, but for what it means to the commercial sector and in particular SpaceX.When Elon Musk started SpaceX his long term goal was to send humans to Mars. With Crew Dragon about to carry its first astronauts into space, making that dream become a reality is very much closer. And while NASA is the first customer you can bet there will be other customers and that SpaceX, which has its own astronauts, will eventually be sending them on their own private missions. And let’s not forget about Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire who is paying SpaceX to send him around the moon. That mission could happen before NASA returns to the moon with the Artemis program.But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. I invite you to listen in now to the Crew Dragon in-flight abort test post-launch news conference held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The participants were NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Kathy Lueders, manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program and the two NASA astronauts that will be on the next launch, Bob Behknen and Doug Hurley.
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This summer four missions will launch to Mars setting up an extraordinary year for the exploration of the red planet.My guest this week on the SpaceQ podcast is Chris Carberry, the CEO of Explore Mars, a not-for-profit that engages stakeholders in an effort to make a Humans to Mars mission a reality.The organizations holds a variety of events to engage stakeholders including its annual Humans to Mars Summit in Washington every May.Today, Chris will get us caught up on what the organization is doing, the status of a future human mission to Mars, and we’ll talk about the exciting year 2020 will be for Mars.The four missions are NASA’s Mars 2020 rover which includes the first ever helicopter, China’s HX-1 mission which consists of an orbiter and small rover, the European Space Agency's ExoMars lander and rover which has Russia and Canada participation, and lastly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is sending an orbiter on what they’re calling the Hope Mars Mission. The Japanese are providing the launch for the UAE mission.By my count that’s two new orbiters around Mars, three new rovers, a lander and a helicopter. They join 6 operational orbiters, 4 American, 1 European and 1 Indian, along with 1 rover that’s operational, that being NASA’s Curiosity rover.Listen in.Explore Marshttps://www.exploremars.org/
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Happy New Year, this is the first SpaceQ podcast of 2020 and the last in our three part Winter Series from other creators. Today our podcast is from the Perimeter Institute and features Elizabeth Tasker in a live public lecture from November 6, 2019. Her lecture is titled "Home away from home, the hunt for habitable planets." Tasker is a British astrophysicist, science writer and an Associate Professor at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.As you’ll hear, Tasker is a very good science communicator. In this lecture, she takes a very complicated topic, the hunt for exoplanets, and in particular habitable worlds, and provides the listener with a true appreciation of what we know and don’t know, how we search and where we might find life. I was enlightened by her lecture, and I think you will be as well.Listen in.
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Welcome to the second of 3 podcasts for our annual Winter Series. As with our Summer Series, we’ll be bringing you recent important news updates and talks on topics we think you’ll find interesting from other creators. Our regular interviews will resume on January 14th.On December 4th NASA announced the first results from the Parker Solar Probe mission. The mission is a first of its kind with the probe flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft before. It’s a risky mission, but with rich scientific rewards expected. And in this news conference, the principal investigators confirm some long thought theories about our star, but also reveal some new mysteries.The seven year mission continues, and just five days ago the spacecraft successfully completed its second flyby of Venus. NASA says the spacecraft used Venus to slow itself down, approaching the planet at a distance of about 3,009 km (1,870 miles) from Venus’s surface during the second gravity assist of the mission. This gravity assist maneuver adjusted Parker Solar Probe’s trajectory to set it up for its fourth orbit around the Sun, or perihelion, which will occur on January 29. Listen in.Time line:0:00 - Intro2:52 - Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington5:16 - Stuart Bale, principal investigator of the FIELDS instrument at the University of California, Berkeley9:21 - Justin Kasper, principal investigator of the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) instrument at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor15:19 - Russ Howard, principal investigator of the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington21:04 - David McComas, principal investigator of the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISOIS) instrument at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey28:04 - Questions and Answers
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In our first SpaceQ podcast episode of our annual Winter Series we're featuring a Future In-Space Operations teleconference on Maxar's Power and Propulsion Element for the Lunar Gateway.Our annual Winter Series podcast special runs for three weeks during the holiday and features important news updates or talks on topics we think you’ll find interesting from other creators. Our regular interviews will resume on January 14th.In this episode Scott Tilley and Ty Lee of Maxar Technologies discuss a critical Lunar Gateway technology, the Power and Propulsion Element, being developed for NASA.The Power and Propulsion Element is the first element in NASA’s Lunar orbiting Gateway which will form the basis of a sustainable human return to the moon and beyond. It's an important program for Maxar which could lead to years of sales to both NASA and potential future commercial customers. The program is currently in Preliminary Design Phase with the first demonstration element to be launched in 2022.Link to the presentation: https://spaceq.ca/podcast-maxars-power-and-propulsion-element-for-the-lunar-gateway/Listen in.
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This is our last interview of the year before we start our annual 3 week Winter Series podcasts where we feature lectures or news events from other creators. We’ll be back with a new interview on January 14.Ok, my guest this week is Chad English who is an Industrial Technology Advisor for the Industrial Research Assistance Program at the National Research Council. I ran into Chad at the recent Canadian Space Summit where he was a speaker in the “I have 50Mbps! Now what?” session. That session focused on the coming broadband internet to rural and remote locations via Low Earth Orbit satellite constellations like the one Canada's Telesat is trying to build. Other companies looking to this marketplace include OneWeb, SpaceX and others.Chad and I discuss what LEO satellite constellations will mean to those people living in rural and remote communities along with new business opportunities that will be available.Listen in.
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This weeks podcast is another live recording from the Canadian Space Summit. The speaker is Rob Postma, Vice President and Head of Governmental Export, Space Systems, Airbus.As you’ll hear Rob say, this talk, titled, Airbus 50 years pioneering progress, is meant to provide a picture of what Airbus has accomplished but more importantly what it’s planning.Listen in.
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This weeks podcast is a live recording from the Canadian Space Summit. The opening keynote speaker for the conference was Sergy Mummert, Senior Vice President, Global Cloud & Strategic Partnerships, SES Networks.While the focus of the talk is on SES Networks with an emphasis on the how they’re building a Cloud-Optimized Satellite Ecosystem and their O3b Medium Earth Orbit constellation, it’s important to note why they were a key sponsor to the conference.While SES has been doing business in Canada for many years, including owning a majority stake in Ciel Satellite Group, they're now opening a new Canadian office with the aim of having a greater presence in Canada. They’ve hired their first Canadian employee, John Clarke, an industry veteran, as their Senior Sales Director.Listen in.
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Today we’re doing something a little different. On this episode I’m going to provide a recap of last weeks Canadian Space Summit. Listen in.
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Today our guest is Jessica West of Project Ploughshares, the editor of the 2019 Space Security Index. The index, in its 16th edition, looks at the global space sector to track trends in the use of outer space from a sustainability perspective.The 2019 index covers the 2018 calendar year and includes the following data from the report. "Space activity is flourishing. In 2018, 71 countries owned satellites. Seventy-two national space agencies spent a combined $70 billion. Eleven new agencies were created or announced. Some of the 2,062 active satellites saved 2,700 lives. The satellite industry earned $277 billion, while startups secured $3 billion in private investment.”The new report contains positive developments, but clearly shows more work needs to be done.Listen in.
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Jupiter's moon Europa appears to have a salt water ocean. This excites scientists at it opens up the possibility there may be life. The Europa Clipper mission will try to gather more evidence to substantiate the theory.Europa has fascinated us since Galileo discovered it in 1610. In popular science fiction, Sir Arthur C. Clarke made it the centre piece of his novel 2010: Odyssey Two which was published in 1982. Odyssey Two was a follow-up to the original and classic 1968 movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick.This weeks SpaceQ podcast is the last of our coverage from the recent international Astronautical Congress in Washington. It is plenary 6, Europa Clipper: Making a Mission to Understand Our Place in the Universe.Europa is slightly smaller than the Earth’s moon but scientist think it could have twice as much ocean water as the Earth! Today’s podcast will provide insight into Europa and NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. It should also be noted that the European Space Agency is also sending a mission to Europa, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission.It is hoped that one day we’ll send a lander to the surface of Europa.The panel is moderated by Dipak Srinivasan, Europa Clipper Telecommunications Manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.The panelists include:7:03 - Robert (Bob) Pappalardo, Europa Clipper Project Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.15:39 - Karen Kirby, Europa Clipper Deputy Project System Engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.22:12 - Jennifer Dooley, Europa Clipper Project Systems Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.30:19 - Thomas Magner, Manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.38:16 - And Bill Nye, The Planetary Society.We’ve edited the recording to keep the podcast within a reasonable length.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. We have a special podcast from the recent International Astronautical Congress in Washington, the Heads of Emerging Agencies plenary.This a new plenary session at the IAC. And while we’re accustomed to a plenary featuring the heads of legacy national space agencies from the US, Russia, Japan, India, Europe, China and Canada, it’s only in the past few years that the voices of emerging space nations are starting to reach a global audience.This panel offers the listener an opportunity to learn about programs from some of the emerging space nations along with their thoughts on a host of issues facing all nations.In this panel you’ll hear from space leaders from the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Thailand, Brazil and Angola.The panel is moderated by Pontsho Maruping, Chair of the Scientific and Technical Committee, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), South Africa.The panelists include: Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director General, UAE Space Agency (UAESA),United Arab Emirates. Valanathan Munsami, CEO, South African National Space Agency (SANSA), South Africa. Anond Snidvongs, Executive Director, Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand. Carlos Augusto Teixeira de Moura, President, Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), Brazil.* Zolana Rui Joao, General Manager, National Space Program Management Office (GGPEN), Angola.We’ve edited the recording removing individual introductions to keep the podcast within a reasonable length.Listen in.Panel timeline:Panel introduction - 3:11United Arab Emirates introduction - 4:44South Africa introduction - 8:34Thailand introduction - 11:17Brazil introduction - 15:09Angola introduction - 18:36Panel discussion - 21:50
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This week we have a special podcast from the International Astronautical Congress in Washington that discusses a very important topic: The Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space: Advancing the Space Economy and Sustaining Space Industry Through Solutions to Space Security Issue.The panel is moderated by Fatih Ozmen, Owner and CEO, Sierra Nevada Corporation.The panelists include:- Jean-Loïc Galle, President and CEO, Thales Alenia Space,- Daniel S. Goldberg, President and CEO, Telesat- Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Space, The Luxembourg Government- Kay Sears, Vice President and General Manager, Lockheed Martin- Scott Pace,Executive Director, National Space CouncilWe’ve edited the recording removing individual introductions to keep the podcast within a reasonable length.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. This weeks podcast has two segments. The first is an interview with Launch Canada’s Adam Trumpour who provides an update on the Launch Canada Challenge. Of note, and subsequent to this interview, Adam told SpaceQ that the November event had to be postponed as not all the approvals could be done in time.In the second segment I speak with Lawrence Reeves the founder and leader of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge which engages students from universities across Canada.I’ll point out that both Launch Canada and the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge are not-for profits that did not start with government, nor do they get government funding, though the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge does get in-kind government contributions and Launch Canada is likely going to get in-kind government contributions.Listen in.- Adam Trumpour, Launch Canada (Starts at 2:03)http://www.launchcanada.org/- Lawrence Reeves, Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (Starts at 13:35)http://www.csdcms.ca/
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Hi everyone. Now that SpaceQ is publishing two podcasts, Terranauts and the original SpaceQ podcast, we’re going to change our scheduling starting this week. We just released episode 2 of Terranauts today with host Iain Christie talking with Canadian space pioneer Mac Evans. Terranauts will now published every other Thursday, for now. The original SpaceQ podcast is moving to Tuesday’s with the next episode dropping on Tuesday, October 22. As with SpaceQ, Terranauts is available on Apple Podcasts and other podcast services and apps.Thanks, and see you next Tuesday for another episode of SpaceQ!
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This weeks podcast has two segments. The first is my short interview with Conservative Party MP Erin O’Toole from the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada’s Election 2019 All Candidates Town Hall in Toronto that was held on October 3rd. As you’ll hear, Mr. O’Toole was forthcoming in discussing key issues of interest to the space community. Comments from other candidates are in my story on our website. A link to the story will be in the show notes.The second segment of today’s podcast was recorded on Monday, October 7 at Western University where the new Institute for Earth and Space Exploration was officially launched. The segment includes a brief comment from Western’s new president, Alan Shepard, no relation folks, and former Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave Williams. The comments are followed by an interview with the new Director of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, Dr. Gordon Osinski.Segment 11:33 - Conservative Party MP Erin O'TooleSegment 28:10 - Alan Shepard, president, Western University8:45 - Astronaut Dave Williams9:58 - Dr. Gordon OsinskiRelated stories:A Conservative Government Would Likely Proceed with Canada’s Commitment to the Lunar Gateway http://spaceq.ca/a-conservative-government-would-likely-proceed-with-canadas-commitment-to-the-lunar-gateway/Western University Launches Institute for Earth and Space Exploration With Aim to be a Global Leader in Space Research and Traininghttp://www.spaceq.ca/western-university-launches-institute-for-earth-and-space-exploration-with-aim-to-be-a-global-leader-in-space-research-and-training/Listen in.
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Terranauts is a new podcast from SpaceQ. This week we're launching the first episode on the SpaceQ channel however you can now find Terranauts on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Soundcloud and your favourite podcast app. Ian Christie is the host of Terranauts. When most people think about space they think of astronauts, names like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Chris Hadfield are familiar to an awful lot of people. But for every astronaut that makes it to space there are legions of smart, dedicated, and interesting people who plan, design, build and operate the mission, spacecraft and instruments that make up the space program. Terranauts is about those people. The ones that go to space all the time, without ever leaving the planet. I hope you'll join me to hear about their stories.Today's guest is GHGSat founder and president Stephane Germain.Listen in.
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My guest today is Aram Daniel Kerkonian, a lawyer with Ardaker Space Consultants and the co-author of the government mandated 2017 independent review of the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act.Today we’re going to be talking about the opportunity a federal election presents for the space community in seeking changes to existing regulations and what new regulations, and possibly even new legislation, could come from the next government.You might think is dry stuff, on the contrary. For anyone working in the business of space, or new companies to the space sector, this is an important topic and time. Why? Because the space sector is rapidly evolving and the government needs to adapt to those changes so that Canadian businesses can remain competitive on a global scale. It also has a direct impact on whether foreign investors see Canada as a place to do business.Recently SpaceQ Intel, a new division within SpaceQ hosted a one day roundtable that brought together government and industry. For the most part, government was in listen mode due to the elections being called. It was an opportunity for industry to express their thoughts on current regulations and any changes that might be needed along with any new potential legislation that should be contemplated. For government it was an opportunity to see what, if any consensus would come from industry. This in turn will help the civil service in advising a new government and those incoming ministers of departments with a space mandateToday Aram and I will discuss election 2019 and the opportunities it presents for regulatory reform.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. My guest today is Grant Bonin, Chief Engineer, Space Systems at Rocket Lab. Grant is making his second appearance on the SpaceQ podcast. The last time was in the spring of 2018 when he was the Chief Technology Officer at Deep Space Industries.In today’s podcast we find out more about Grant's departure from Deep Space Industries and his current activities at Rocket Lab including their new Photon small satellite initiative.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast.Today is the second part of our two part series focusing on the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit with a focus on the International Space Station and other potential commercial habitats. My guest as in the first episode last week is Adrian Mangiuca, the Commerce Director at NanoRacks. NanoRacks describes themselves as both the largest commercial user and private investor on the International Space Station with customers from over 30 nations.Recently NanoRacks released a NASA commissioned study titled An In-Orbit Commercial Space Station Habitat Development Enabling Cost-Effective and Sustainable U.S. Presence in Low-Earth Orbit. NanoRacks partnered with 14 other organizations to create the 170 page report.In my conversation with Adrian we go over some of the key findings of the report and delve into what the real world LEO space station habitat marketplace is.As we start the second episode Adrian just answered the question of how the marketplace will react to other foreign entities, be it commercial or state, enter the LEO marketplace. Now he answer the question of why the ISS should be the “final government owned and operated space station in Low Earth Orbit” as stated in the report.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the first episode of season 3 of the SpaceQ podcast. We’ve got an exciting season planned where we’ll interview the people pushing the boundaries of the space economy, making discoveries in space science, observing the Earth to better understanding our planet and manage our resources, and so much more.Later this month we’re also be launching our new pop-up podcast Terranauts hosted by Iain Christie. Iain’s first interview will be with Stephane Germain, the CEO of GHGSat. If you haven’t listened to my interview with Iain about Terranauts it’s available in our feed.The SpaceQ and Terranauts podcasts are partially advertiser supported but that revenue isn’t enough for a viable business. That’s why it’s really important to us that you support us through Patreon. And starting this fall we’re going to provide subscriber only content available to our patrons on Patreon. To support SpaceQ please make your monthly pledge at https://patreon.com/spaceq. Ok, now on to today’s podcast.Today we’re focusing on the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit with a focus on the International Space Station and other potential commercial habitats. This is the first part of a two part series and my guest is Adrian Mangiuca, the Commerce Director at NanoRacks. NanoRacks describes themselves as both the largest commercial user and private investor on the International Space Station with customers from over 30 nations. Recently NanoRacks released a NASA commissioned study titled An In-Orbit Commercial Space Station Habitat Development Enabling Cost-Effective and Sustainable U.S. Presence in Low-Earth Orbit. NanoRacks partnered with 14 other organizations to create the 170 page report.In my conversation with Adrian we go over some of the key findings of the report and delve into what the real world LEO space station habitat marketplace is.Listen in.
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This week we have the final episode in this years Summer Series podcast where we feature three compelling talks from other creators.Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. In this weeks Summer Series podcast we hear from Stephanie Thomas who will speak on "Direct Fusion Drive for Rapid Deep Space Propulsion." Thomas is Vice President of Princeton Satellite Systems.This talk was featured on the May 29 Future In-Space Operations weekly teleconference. The slides are available with the podcast on our website:
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. Welcome to the second episode in this years Summer Series where we feature three compelling talks from other creators.In this weeks episode we hear from Jennifer Fogarty who will speak on "The Human System: Protecting Human Health and Performance to Enable Deep Space Exploration.” Dr. Fogarty is NASA's Human Research Program Chief Scientist.This talk was featured on the August 14 Future In-Space Operations weekly teleconference. The slides are available with the podcast on our website with the URL link in the show description.Podcast and slides on our website;https://spaceq.ca/the-human-system-for-deep-space-exploration-summer-series-podcast/Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. Welcome to first episode in this years Summer Series where we feature three compelling talks from other creators.In this weeks episode we hear from George Sowers who will speak on "Mining the Moon for Fun and Profit.” Dr. Sowers is a Professor of Practice at the Colorado School of Mines who works on the world’s first and only graduate program in Space Resources.This talk was featured in the mid-June Future In-Space Operations weekly teleconference. The slides are available with the podcast on our website from the link below.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. What happens when you bring Iain Christie and Marc Boucher together? Well, naturally they’re both going to want to talk, a lot.One of the outcomes of that June meeting was the idea to start a new podcast. That podcast idea is now Terranauts, which will join the SpaceQ family in September.Ok, so what is Terranauts going to be about? Well…How do you inspire the next generation of workers in the space sector? One way is to tell the compelling stories of those people who are firmly rooted here on Earth, unlikely to ever fly into space. We call these people Terranauts. They are 99.9% of the workforce, a vast majority of which you rarely hear about. Their contributions are essential to our knowledge of space and its use to benefit humanity.Today, in introducing Terranauts, I’m going to turn the tables on the host of the new SpaceQ pop-up podcast, Iain Christie, and interview him. Iain’s first episode will air in September.Listen in.
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This week we have our final special recording from the recent Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute ASTRO 2019 conference in Laval, Quebec. In this podcast you’ll hear from Dr. Sarah Gallagher who splits her time between Western University where she’s professor studying black holes and the Canadian Space Agency where she became the first Science Advisor to the President.In this after dinner talk, Dr. Gallagher spoke on the topic of leveraging science for innovation. Today’s recording includes both her talk and an interesting Q&A session moderated by CASI Executive Director Geoff Languedoc.You can follow Dr. Gallagher on Twitter at @scgQuasar.Listen In.- The Q&A starts at 28:23
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This week we have another special recording from the recent Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute ASTRO 2019 conference in Laval, Quebec. In this podcast you’ll hear from start-ups and veterans on how to scale up your space business. The panel was moderated by Christine Tovee of CATx Technology who is also a member of the Canadian government appointed Space Advisory Board. The panelists included startups QEYNet and its CEO Cordell Grant, Reaction Dynamics CEO Bachar Elzein, GHGSat’s CEO Stephane Germain whose company qualifies as a startup through Stephane has been in the business a long time and also serves on the Space Advisory Board. Lastly, Daniel Schulten of MDA was the big company representative on the panel. He is however leading MDA's new LaunchPad initiative which aims accelerate and grow partnerships from small and medium businesses and academia in Canada. Listen In.
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This week we’re featuring a Future in Space Operations teleconference with former NASA historian Roger Launius who spoke about his new book "Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings.”A we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission it’s important to look back at the time of the Apollo program in the 60’s and early 70’s to better understand the motivations of the Apollo program and what was happening in the world at that time. Launius provides that unique view. Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. This week we have another special recording from the recent Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute ASTRO 2019 conference in Laval, Quebec. In this podcast, the topic is Commercial Lunar Exploration. The panel was divided into two sections, presentations by each panelist followed by a moderated question and answer session. We will post the video of the presentations when it's available, but the focus for this podcast is the excellent Q&A discussion.The panel was moderated by Jan Clarence Dee a Space Consultant at Euroconsult. The panelists were Erick Dupuis, Director, Space Exploration Development, Canadian Space Agency; Michele Faragali, CTO, Mission Control Space Services; and John Walker, VP Lunar Surface Operations, ispace Inc.Note that subsequent to this talk and later in the conference Erick Dupuis announced that the Treasury Board of Canada had approved the requested $150 million over five years for the Canadian Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program. Listen In.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. This week we have another special recording from the recent Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute ASTRO 2019 conference in Laval, Quebec. In this podcast we hear from BGen Kevin Whale, Director General and Joint Force Component Commander for Space, RCAF who talked about Delivering The Space Objectives of Canada’s Defence Policy. Some of the interesting points you’ll hear include that Canada should consider creating a National Space Council similar to what the US has. As well, it was clear by his remarks that Canada needs a national launch capability. It’s not something the RCAF will do, but if there’s a commercial provider operating in Canada, the RCAF will seriously consider using that service. And to make that point, General Whale said he would like responsive capability, meaning if they need to launch something fast, an option is available commercially in Canada. BGen. Whale’s presentation is available on our website.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. This past week we were at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute ASTRO 2019 conference in Laval, Quebec. The theme was “Space for Business”.One of the plenary sessions we recorded and present here is the speech of Canadian Space Agency president Sylvain Laporte. It is a very different speech from what he said a year ago at this conference when the government had yet again rejected the space plan as proposed. While the listener will come away feeling good about Canada’s space program, as they should compared to a year ago, we’ve added some context to the speech in an article we’ve posted to the SpaceQ website. Listen in.Related story - Don’t Let Go Canada and Changes at the Canadian Space Agency Resulted in Government Funding Commitment;https://sqm.me/2LstPIQASTRO 2019 stories on SpaceQ;https://sqm.me/2Jbkqmd
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If you're a serial entrepreneur and you want to start a New Space company, what type of business should you start? Well, how about Gas Stations in Space?In this weeks SpaceQ podcast we're featuring a Future in Space Operations weekly teleconference from earlier this year with Daniel Faber, CEO of startup Orbit Fab.Daniel, an Australian who become a Canadian citizen, was most recently the CEO of Deep Space Industries which he helped build, and which reached $10 million in revenues before he left.It was during his time at Deep Space Industries that he saw an opportunity in the on-orbit servicing market. Why not build gas stations in different orbits so that satellites can fill up on fuel.Listen in
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My guest today is Adam Gilmour the founder and CEO of Gilmour Space Technologies, an Australian startup building launch vehicles, starting with a small satellite launcher. Adam’s career as a managing director at CITI Bank was going just fine until Elon Musk came along with his ideas on how to lower the cost of sending payloads to space. Musk inspired Adam so much so that he left his nice job at CITI Bank to start his own rocket company. Now the company is about to launch its first suborbital rocket followed by plans to test a follow-on orbital launch vehicle. His story is one of perseverance, lot’s of hard work and with no guarantee of success.Listen in.
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My guest today is Steve Iris, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission Manager at the Canadian Space Agency. Today we’ll be discussing the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, its primary uses and benefits to Canadians and the international community. RCM is a $1.2B mission follow-on to the very successful RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 satellites.The RADARSAT Constellation Mission is a trio of synthetic aperture radar satellites that will be used for maritime surveillance, disaster management and ecosystem monitoring. The trio of satellites are currently scheduled to launch on Wednesday, June 12 at 10:17 a.m. EDT on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California. The mission has been 15 years in the making.Listen in.
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My guest today on the SpaceQ podcast is former Canadian astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk who was recently hired back by the CSA on a contract basis to help with their efforts in defining Canada’s potential role in healthcare in deep space.Canadian Healthcare in Deep Space: Advancing our country’s leadership in autonomous care in space and on Earth report. Credit: Canadian Space Agency.Dr. Thirsk went on two missions in space, including a long duration stay on the International Space Station in 2009.Prior to rejoining the agency, Dr. Thrisk was part of an expert group tasked by the CSA to look at the potential Canadian healthcare and biomedical roles for Deep Space Human Spaceflight. In March the expert groups report was released in hard copy. The report is called Canadian Healthcare in Deep Space: Advancing our country’s leadership in autonomous care in space and on Earth. The report is not yet available online but SpaceQ did receive a hard copy. Dr. Thirsk and I discuss the recommendations of that report while also discussing other related medical issues here on Earth, and even the distant possibility of human colonies on other worlds or on human made O’Neil type colonies.Listen in.
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My guest today is Mike Gold, Vice President, Regulatory and Policy at Maxar Technologies. For this podcast we’re going to talk to Mike about his other role. That of Chair of NASA’s Advisory Council Regulatory and Policy Issues Committee.The committee was created in the summer of 2018 to look at how NASA could further commercialize its activities. Mike is one of 15 members, mostly from industry, that meet several times a year including with NASA’s other Advisory Council committees.Committee members include long time space players such as Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin to new space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin to name a few. In its first meeting last November the committee published its first observations, findings, and recommendations. The committee tackled a board range of ideas from export controls, intellectual property, supporting space-based commercial development, private sector habitats, logos, advertising, astronaut endorsements and space research.Listen in.
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On Monday, May 13, NASA contacted the media on short notice late in the afternoon saying a teleconference was being scheduled for the early evening. Scheduling a teleconference in the evening is not something NASA normally does. Whatever the substance of the call, it must be important. As it turns out the call with media was to outline a budget amendment for the Fiscal Year 2020 to provide additional funds to the Trump administration newly mandated plan for NASA to land U.S. astronauts on the moon in 2024 instead of 2028. The call with the details would in of itself be important, but at the end of the teleconference, after answering questions from the media, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine added a little something that would put the call into the NASA history books. Bridenstine announced that NASA had selected the name Artemis for the human return to the moon program. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and the name of NASA’s famed 60’s moon program which saw humans land on the moon for the first time in 1969. Now 50 years later, the Artemis Program will be an international effort, though led by the US, that plans to create the infrastructure for a permanent moon base at the south pole. Listen in.The NASA Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Amendment documents are available here:https://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
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Today we’re featuring a Future In-Space Operation teleconference with Steve Clarke from the NASA headquarters where he is the Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Steve spoke about NASA’s Exploration Campaign Overview providing an update on the program and where it’s headed. The teleconference was held on April 17th after the Trump administration had mandated that NASA put Americans on the moon within 5 years.The presentation mentioned in the podcast is available on the SpaceQ website.Listen in.
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On April 12 Western University held its annual Space Day. One of the more interesting events was a panel discussion on Space Resources: The Next Frontier in Exploration.The discussion was moderated by Mellisa Battler, a Western grad and current Chief Science Officer at Mission Control Space Services. The panelists were a diverse group including;-Michael Winter, a lawyer and a Market Conduct Investigator, London Life Insurance Company - Holly Johnson, President’s Business Manager, MDA- Mike Villeneuve, Director Central Canada Division, Geological Survey of Canada- Neil Banerjee, Industrial Research Chair in Advanced Mineral Exploration, Western University- Tim Haltigin, Senior Mission Scientist - Planetary Exploration, Canadian Space Agency- Charles Nyabeze, Vice-President Business Development, Centre for Excellence in Mining InnovationIt was a fascinating discussion on how we’ll use resources we find in space to what companies in this area should consider as they execute the longer term goal of enabling use of these resources.Listen in.
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Today we’re featuring a panel discussion recorded at the Perimeter Institute on March 8th for International Women’s Day. The Inspiring Future Women in Science panelists included:- Moderator Kelly Foyle, Perimeter Outreach Scientist- Kona Williams, a Forensic Pathologist and Coroner- Shirley Tang, Nanotechnology Scientist- Camille Mitchell, Architect- Daniela Roeper, Mechanical Engineer.Listen in.
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When NASA's Mars 2020 spacecraft launches it will include a helicopter designed to fly only on Mars and will be the first time ever an aircraft will fly on another planetary body.In today's SpaceQ podcast were featuring a Future in Space Operation teleconference with Håvard Grip from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Håvard spoke about the NASA Mars 2020 mission which will includes both a rover and helicopter.The Mars 2020 rover is similar to the Curiosity rover whose mission is ongoing, but will have some different instrumentation. The Mars helicopter that will accompany the rover is quite small weighing only 1.8 kilograms and is about 60 cm in width, though from blade tip to tip it is 1.2 meters.The helicopter is battery powered and is recharged by a solar array. Flights will be short, lasting no more than 90 seconds flying to a height of about 5 meters. The helicopter has a camera. It will fly ahead of the rover to survey the local terrain and transmit the data it collects once it returns and lands at a safe location nearby the rover. It will not takeoff and land on the rover itself after the rover has landed on Mars.You can download the presentation from our website.http://spaceq.ca/the-first-aircraft-to-fly-on-another-planet-will-be-a-mars-helicopter/Listen in.
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My guest this week is Aram Daniel Kerkonian. Aram is an expert in space law and policy, a licensed Ontario lawyer and the Chief Legal Consultant of Ardaker Space Consultants. Aram is currently pursuing his doctorate in space law at McGill University's Institute of Air and Space Law, focusing on Canada's regulatory framework related to space.Today we’re going to discuss Canada’s new Space Strategy focusing in part on regulatory frameworks and how updating them will help Canada’s space sector, especially the fast changing commercial space sector. We’ll touch on space mining, ground stations, rocket launches and more. Recently Aram wrote an opinion related to the new Space Strategy.Listen in.Aram Kerkonian recent opinion on SpaceQ:- Finally, a New Canadian Space Strategy – But Wait, What do we do With This?http://spaceq.ca/opinion-finally-a-new-canadian-space-strategy-but-wait-what-do-we-do-with-this/
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My guests this week are Matt Kozlov, a Managing Director at Techstars and Van Espahbodi, co-founder and managing partner at Starburst. Together they are leading a new Los Angeles based accelerator, the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator. Applications are now being accepted with a deadline of April 7 for the first cohort.The accelerator is notable in that its partners include NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and Israel Aerospace Industries.My conversation starts with Matt as Van was delayed. Van joins in around the 10 minute mark.Listen in.
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My guest this week is Marina Mississian, Senior Director Space Payloads at Honeywell Aerospace. In 2015 Honeywell announced it was acquiring Cambridge, Ontario based COM DEV. It seemed to be a good move on Honeywell’s part at the time, but by 2017 the market that COM DEV served, primarily the GEO Communication satellite market, had imploded with GEO satellite orders down by almost 75%. Honeywell reacted by right-sizing the COM DEV assets, laying off nearly half the staff. Since then the company has been reinventing itself. Recently they announced a new Greenhouse Incubator to be based in Ottawa.In my conversation with Marina, we discuss the events of the past few years, how Honeywell has reimagined its Canadian space operations, what the Greenhouse Incubator will do, and how the company plans to move forward.Listen in.
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Investment in space startups by angels and the venture community is growing at a rapid rate according to Space Angels, and that bodes well for the future of the commercial space sector.My guest this week on the SpaceQ Podcast is Chad Anderson, CEO of Space Angels.If you’re a startup then chances are you’ve heard of Space Angels. The financial services company was started in 2007 but it wasn’t until around 2014 that the marketplace was ready for the investment community to make some serious forays into the space sector beyond a company like SpaceX.Typical investment by Space Angels is anywhere from $500,000 to $1.5 million. The company has invested over $30 million to date and this may surprise you, many of their investments are outside the US.In its recently released 2018 fourth quarter report, Space Angels said that US$2.97B in equity capital was invested in space companies globally in 2018 and that number is set to grow even larger in 2019.Listen in.
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Today’s podcast is all about the moon. I’ll first share some of my thoughts on recent developments with respect to the exploration of the moon by the global space community. Then we have an interview with Pierre-Alexis Joumel, a co-founder of the Moon Race.My interview this week is about the Moon Race competition. The competition is a global initiative founded by Airbus and its international partners including Blue Origin, and is aimed demonstration key technologies required for the sustainable exploration of the moon. The race consist of challenges in four parallel technology streams. If you’re a small or medium business who are interested in getting your technologies demonstrated on the moon then this initiative just might be for you.Listen in.Show notes:- 0:18 Start of my introduction and thoughts surrounding the recent developments on the exploration of the moon.- 7:08 Introduction to my guest.- 7:59 Guest interview.
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This podcast was to have aired last week, however the announcement by the Prime Minister of Canada that his government was committing of over $2 billion that will see Canada participate in the NASA led Lunar Gateway program along with funding for new technologies related to the moon meant that we bumped the podcast a week. In its place we had an interview with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Minister Bains who oversees the Canadian Space Agency.Now, events are unfolding again with a big announcement expected this week, likely tomorrow, news that SpaceQ broke. That announcement is the long expected new Canadian space strategy.It’s important to note we only know a portion of what will be in the new Space Strategy, that being the moon as the highest funded priority. And for this podcast, one of the interesting topics we’ll be keeping an eye going forward is the growing interest at the Provincial level in supporting the space program.With the current events in mind we’ve decided to publish this podcast today as opposed to our regular Thursday. Why? The news tomorrow will have have an effect on the topic being discussed. This podcast was recorded on February 13.My guest this week is the Honourable Jean Charest, a former federal Cabinet minister, Leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party, and former Liberal Premier of Quebec. Mr. Charest was hired by the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada to chair the Vision 2025: Beyond our Imagination initiative.That initiative was launched last October to start a new dialogue between industry, government, the public, and other stakeholders. Mr. Charest and the AIAC have held engagement days in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver and at the time of this conservation, in Halifax on February 13. Mr. Charest has also held private meetings including with ISED Minister Bains and several Provincial ministers and leaders.At the end of the consultations a report will be issued which the AIAC will use leading up to the federal election this fall.On a programming note, in the coming weeks our guest will include Chad Anderson of Space Angels, Pierre-Alexis Joumel, the Moon Race and Marina Mississian, Honeywell.Listen in.
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This is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. Today the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, committed the country to a path that will see Canadian technology and astronauts go to the moon.Canada will participate in the NASA led Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway program and is also funding a new Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program.Shortly after the announcement was made I spoke with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Bains who shared his thoughts on the announcement.Listen in.
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MDA has been in business for 50 years now, which is no small achievement, and it’s not easy to keep a company growing for a long period of time.In today's SpaceQ podcast I speak with Mike Greenley, Group President of MDA.It’s been nearly a year since Mike was last on the show, and today we’ll discuss MDA celebrating its 50th anniversary this month and the changes at MDA and parent company Maxar since Mike joined the company last year.Companies go through quiet periods, and occasionally turbulent periods. This past year has been a somewhat turbulent period for parent company Maxar. The stock price has plummeted. The GEO satellite communication market hasn’t recovered and now some SSL assets are up for sale. A short seller attacked the company, the company lost its flagship WorldView-4 satellite, and now there are some shareholder lawsuits which could cause some additional problems. These are some hefty issues to deal with. With relative ease, Mike discusses these issues.There's also been another change at MDA, a subtle one, but one which we touched on when Mike joined the company last year. As a share of the overall MDA business, the defence portfolio is in the minority, but it is growing. And contracts from the Canadian Surface Combatant Program which will add upwards of 200 jobs, demonstrate how MDA is once again adapting its business model.Listen in.
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My guest this week is rocket expert Adam Trumpour. By day, Adam is a mild mannered engineer for Pratt & Whitney, by night he works on rockets and helps mentor students interested in rocketry. One of his latest endeavours is student focused Launch Canada Challenge. He’s also involved the $1M dollar Base 11 Space Challenge. Today Adam provides us an update on both projects.Listen in.
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My guest this week is Sara Spangelo, co-founder and CEO of Swarm Technologies. The company is noteworthy for its innovation in developing a communication satellite 1/4 the size of a traditional CubeSat, which is 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm. To put it another way, and as my guest put it, the size of a grilled cheese sandwich.The company wants to build and launch 150 of these pico satellites, called SpaceBees, to create a global network to allow Internet of Things devices such as sensors in a farmers field to send small amounts of data back to servers for processing. Currently the company has 7 experimental satellites in orbit.Swarm is less than two years old and it's gotten more attention than perhaps they would have wanted. Last year could have been a company killing year for a startup as they ran afoul of the Federal Communication Commission when they not only launched 4 of their satellites without an FCC license, they also performed unauthorized weather balloon-to-ground station tests and unauthorized tests of satellite and ground station equipment.They settled with the FCC, paying a whopping $900,000 fine and they recently closed their Series A round of financing for $25M. The company wants to put past mistakes behind them and build the company out with its innovative technologies.
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This weeks guest on the SpaceQ podcast is Philip Berthiaume the CEO of SpaceHorizon, a Canadian based launch services company operating out of Ottawa.The company has ambitious plans to become the first orbital launch provider in Canada.Earlier this month, the company announced it was going to resell launch services from other companies while at the same time it moves forward with developing its own fleet of rockets.Having just completed the conceptual design stage, the company’s first launch vehicle, called Launch Vehicle 1 or LV1, is planned as a small satellite launcher with an estimated development cost of $50 million.The company currently doesn’t have the resources to fully fund the development of the rocket and will be reaching out to investors mid-year.Philip says they eventually want to launch from Canada, but that they don’t necessarily want to build their own spaceport. They would rather be the user of a facility that someone else builds, such as Maritime Launch Services.Philip provides more insight into the company and its plans then they’ve revealed publicly to date.Listen in.
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My guest today is Vinny Capezzuto, the Chief Technology Officer of Aireon.Aireon started as a partnership between Iridium and Air Navigation Service Provider NAV Canada. From its founding in 2012 to today the partnership added several other Air Navigation Service Providers including ENAV from Italy, NATS from the UK, Naviair from Denmark and Irelands IAA.Aireon has hosted Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers built into each of the 66 satellites in the Iridium NEXT constellation which had its last batch of satellites successfully launched earlier this month by SpaceX.Aireon’s space-based ADS-B will for the first time in history provide global data to track airplanes in real time. At present only 30% of the Earth is covered, primarily land area. When the system is fully operational later this year, the roughly 70% of the Earth, primarily oceanic and remote areas, that didn’t have ADS-B receiver coverage, will now be covered. For the aviation industry this is a game changer. In emergency situations having real-time situational awareness of what’s happening to a plane will be available. As well, knowing the precise location of aircraft will lead to other benefits including reducing pilot response time to weather events, reducing the required separation gaps between aircraft, and addressing navigational errors before they become large issues. For the airlines, it should mean cost savings as planes will should be able to fly more efficient routes saving on time and fuel.As you’ll hear from Vinny, he provides historical context to what their new service means, as well as explaining the technology advances, and briefly discussing the business case.Listen in.
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Most Canadians have little concept of how vast the arctic really is, think of an area larger than Europe and you'll start to get an appreciation of the scale of the area Canada needs to protect.My guest for this weeks SpaceQ podcast is Colonel (Retired) Pierre Leblanc, principal at Arctic Security Consultants.Colonel Leblanc has spent over 20 years working on Arctic security issues including commanding Canadian Forces Northern Area for an extended five year period. During that time he had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Arctic, including formal visits to Alaska and Greenland.He is the founder of the Canadian Government Arctic Security Interdepartmental Working Group, an advisory body which comprises 11 federal departments.Today we’ll be talking about arctic security and space.I'll note that at the end of the podcast I asked Colonel Leblanc what book he had recently read that might of interest to our listeners. He suggested China and the Age of Strategic Rivalry which was produced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and was the product from one of their academic outreach workshops. You can download the book from the SpaceQ website in our story: The Arctic Security and Space Podcast.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. Welcome to the third and final episode of our three part Winter Series.Anyone familiar with the XPrize, and in particular the ANSARI and Google Lunar XPrize’s, will be familiar with today’s speaker. In this recent Talks at Google recorded on December 11 , 2018, the speaker is Peter Diamandis who discussed Exploring Exponential Technologies. While the talk itself is not targeted specifically at the space community, it does discuss technologies related to space. The broader ideas discussed are useful for anyone interested in innovation. Diamandis spends about 15 minutes talking to the audience before doing a fireside chat with Jack Hidary, Director of AI and Quantum at X, X being formerly known as Google X.For those who are not familiar with Peter Diamandis, he is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPrize Foundation, the world's leading large-scale incentive competition that produced, among others, the ANSARI XPrize which directly led to the founding of Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, the Spaceship Company and many other companies. He is also the Executive Founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels on growing technologies and also a co-Founder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies.An academic, entrepreneur, and an author, Diamandis holds a degree in Molecular Genetics and Aerospace Engineering from MIT and a Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School. He has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital and education and has published two books, "Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think" and "BOLD: How to go Big, Create Wealth & Impact the World.” Listen in…
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Happy New Year and welcome to the second episode of our three part Winter Series talks.In this episode we hear from MDA’s Paul Fulford on Canadian Deep Space Exploration Robotics for Improved Capability, Utilization, and Flexibility on a Cislunar Habitat. The talk is introduced by Daniel Rey of the Canadian Space Agency who also provides the conclusion. The talk was part of NASA’s Future in Space Operations weekly teleconference series from mid-2018. NASA has invited Canada to participate in its next big space program, a return to the moon as part of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway program. While many in the Canadian space community support this effort, including the Canadian Space Agency, and though it is likely that Canada will participate, that final decision has yet to be announced by the government.It’s clear from the current administration in the White House and leaders at NASA that the time to return to the moon is now. And it won’t be just government going, the U.S. is pushing the commercial sector to be a partner and to invest their money as well. For Canada, being a part of the program means a seat at the table in what happens at the moon. Canada is looking to contribute robotic arms, lunar rovers, AI software, medical knowledge and equipment, and likely other technologies.You’ll want to listen to the whole talk to understand how important robotics are to the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway program, how the concept has evolved, and how much how we’ll rely on robotics.The presentation visuals are available in the story that accompanies this episode on spaceq.ca.Listen in.
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In the first of our three part Podcast Winter Series we’ll be bringing you important news updates and talks on topics we think you’ll find interesting. Our regular interviews will resume on January 17th where we’ll discuss Canada’s Arctic with a focus on security and space.This week we have a news update from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which features the first ever sounds of Martian winds. The sounds were recorded by NASA’s InSight lander 10 days after it safely landed on the Red planet.The panelists you’ll hear from are; Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Thomas Pike, Short Period Seismometer Science Lead, Imperial College, London; Don Banfield, Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS) Science Lead, Cornell University; and Lori Glaze, Acting Director of Planetary Science, NASA HQ.A link to the supporting visuals is available in the story that accompanies this episode on spaceq.ca. Listen in...
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Today’s SpaceQ podcast is panel discussion from the recent Canadian Science Policy Conference. The panel, titled "How Canada Can Create a Sustainable National Space Infrastructure” was organized by Michelle Mendes of the Space Advisory Board and features members of the Space Advisory Board. Each panel member discussed a specific area for the theme and were very articulate in getting their point across.The panel was moderated by:(2:21) Dr. David Kendall, Past Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The panelists;(6:16) Kate Howells, Global Community Outreach Manager and National Coordinator for Canada, The Planetary Society(12:18) Dr. Gordon Osinski, NSERC/MDA/Canadian Space Agency Industrial Research Chair in Planetary Geology, Western University(21:41)Dr. Michael Pley, President, Pley Consulting Inc.(29:35) Dr. Lucy Stojak, Executive Director, Mosaic(43:07) Short questions and answer session.I would like to thank to Canadian Space Policy Centre for providing us this audio recording.Listen in.
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The first results are in from the OSIRIS-REx mission and they couldn't please researchers more. Asteroid Bennu is everything they had hoped it would be based on the data obtained so far. It has also provided a few surprises.The topic of today’s SpaceQ podcast is the NASA led OSIRIS-REx mission with its ongoing multi-year mission to rendezvous, examine and sample asteroid Bennu. The acronym OSIRIS-REx stands for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer mission.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched on September 8th, 2016. Canada is participating in the mission by providing the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter or OLA, which will create a 3-D map of asteroid Bennu’s shape along with helping with navigation. The mission will continue until March 2021 when the spacecraft will return to Earth arriving 2 1/2 years later in September 2023. At that point the sample return capsule will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and land in Utah where it will be collected and analyzed by researchers, including in Canada.The official rendezvous occurred on December 3rd. Leading up to the rendezvous several instruments on the spacecraft have already been analyzing the asteroid.Today’s episode has two segments. In the first I speak Dr. Michael Daly a professor at York University who is the principal Investigator of the Canadian Science Team. The second segment features the first results as discussed on Monday, December 10th at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.- Segment 1: Dr. Michael Dalystarts at 2:53.- Segment 2: OSIRIS-REx news conference starts at 15:06.Listen in.
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This weeks podcast consists of three short interviews recorded at the Canadian Space Summit in Ottawa on November 28 and 29.Segment 1 (03:47) - In the first segment I spoke with Ryan Anderson, a co-founder of the Satellite Canada Innovation Network, known as SatCan. It was just over a year ago that I last spoke with Ryan in episode 22 about the new SatCan project. Since then, the organization tried unsuccessfully to be a part of the governments Supercluster program. However, the concept has is not dead and the founders diligently worked towards their goals and just prior to this weeks summit did announce that they had received some funding from the government. Ryan provides an update on what’s happening at SatCan.Segment 2 (18:42) - In the second segment I spoke with Professor Gordon Osinski from Western University’s Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration about a new national educational and public outreach initiative called Space Matters.Segment 3 (29:36) - In the last I ask SkyWatch co-founder and CEO James Slifierz on his initial thoughts of the news that Amazon had just announced a new service called Ground Station that could disrupt the current ground station model. Surprising many, the ground station offering, through Amazon’s Web Services, has Lockheed Martin as a partner. Currently available in preview mode for selected clients, the service has two ground stations managed by Lockheed Martin with an additional 10 to be added. Initial customers include Maxar’s DigitalGlobe, Spire, BlackSky, Capella Space, Open Cosmos and HawkEye 360. Ironically Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon stands to benefit in a way many might not have thought of. Each year, according to Bezos, he sells some of his shares in Amazon to fund one of his other ventures, Blue Origin. It’s been reported he’s sold over a billion dollars of shares at various times. Now, thanks to this new AWS Ground Station offering, and in a roundabout way, those customers, using that service, will in part, it seems be helping Bezos fund the development of Blue Origin.Listen in.
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My special guest this week is William “Mac" Evans. Mac, as most people refer to him, is a thirty plus year veteran of the Canadian space program and in 2016 became a member of the order of Canada. He helped create the Canadian Space Agency, negotiated Canada’s participation in the International Space Station Program and was the longest serving president of the Canadian Space Agency.Today we’ll be talking about some of the history of Canada’s space program to better understand how we got to where we are today. We’ll also discuss space strategy and planning and what direction Mac thinks the program should take.
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My guest today is freelance reporter Elizabeth Howell. Elizabeth is a contributor to SpaceQ along with writing for several other publications. She’s also a journalism instructor at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and La Cite collégiale. Elizabeth will be heading to the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next week to cover the launch of Expedition 58 to the International Space Station. Onboard will be Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques who will be on a six month mission. That’s one of the topics we’ll discuss this week.We’ll also discus last weeks Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa that featured prominent cabinet ministers including Transportation Minister Marc Garneau and ISED Minister Navdeep Bains. Also at the summit and key to what did or didn’t transpire, was NASA’s administrator Jim Bridenstine.Listen in.- SpaceQ special: David Saint-Jacques mission. Don't miss a single news story, video or breathtaking image.http://www.spaceq.ca/tag/david-saint-jacques/
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Space debris is an issue that's not going away. In fact, it will get worse before it might get better. For Astroscale, an Asian startup based in Singapore and Japan, that spells business opportunity while doing humanity a favour.Astroscale has raised $102M US to date for its business case which is to help in the removal of orbital debris through the provision of End of Life and Active Debris Removal services.The company isn’t going to clean all of the debris that plagues us today, but it is taking steps to build a company that could be positioned to make an impact on future debris and possibly existing debris.Astroscale was founded in 2013 by Nobu Okada, a tech entrepreneur with no experience in the space sector. He wanted to bring his start-up mentality to the space sector and address the problem of orbital space debris.The company is working to get its first mission, ELSA-d, consisting of two spacecraft, a Chaser (~150 kg) and a Target (~20 kg), launched by 2020. According to Astroscale "the chaser is equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic capture mechanism, while the target has a docking plate which enables it to be captured. The Chaser will repeatedly release and capture the Target in a series of technical demonstrations proving the capability to find and capture debris. Demonstrations include target search, target inspection, target rendezvous, and both non-tumbling and tumbling capture. ELSA-d is operated from the National In-orbit Servicing Control Centre Facility in Harwell, UK, which is being developed by Astroscale as a key part of the ground segment."My guest today to talk about Astroscale and its plans is Chris Blackerby, the Chief Operating Officer of Astroscale.
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Today’s podcast is a panel discussion from the recent Canadian Global Affairs Institute Ready for Launch, Preparing Canada for a Future in Space conference held in Ottawa.Officially the panel was called the Canadian Space Industry Leaders, but I’m calling it the Power Panel, as it featured David O’Connor of Magellan Aerospace, Mike Greenley of MDA, Marina Mississian of Honeywell and Dan Goldberg of Telesat. Indeed, a power panel representative of Canada’s largest space companies. Moderated by Charity Weeden, the panelists discussed the current state of the Canadian Space Program, what they think should be included in the next Space Strategy, and what they think of governments support. Magellan’s David O’Connor went as far as saying “our government has failed the country with the way its handled the space program.”
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. My guest this week is Professor Chris Herd from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta. We’re going to be talking about the Canadian Space Agency Space Exploration Workshop held in late 2016 and the subsequent lengthy report which was recently released.The report forms the basis of what Canada is likely to do in the next 10 years in space exploration.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special episode of the SpaceQ podcast.This recording is from the Canadian Global Affairs Institute's Ready for Launch - Preparing Canada for a Future in Space conference, which was held in Ottawa on October 16, 2018.In this recording, a Fireside Chat: The New Space Age, the CBC’s Bob McDonald interviews Kenneth Hodgkins, the Director for the Office of space and Advanced Technology of the U.S. Department of State.In it, the discussion centers on the commercialization of space including how Canada is being considered an emerging launching state.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher of SpaceQ and this is an episode of Short Takes. Short Takes are short interviews or short speeches with leaders in the space sector.This recording is from Friday, October 19, 2018 at the Montreal Space Symposium. In it Adam Trumpour announces the newly created Canada Rocket Innovation Challenge.Listen in.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher of SpaceQ and this is an episode of Short Takes. Short Takes are short interviews or short speeches with leaders in the space sector.Last week the Canadian Global Affairs Institute hosted a one day conference, Ready for Launch - Preparing Canada for a Future in Space.The title is ironic when you consider that Minister of Transportation Marc Garneau, a former astronaut and president of the Canadian Space Agency, openly stated that Canada has been a serious space player until now. Listen in.
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The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) is a global network for students and young professionals looking to have a greater presence in Canada.Leading the charge are Zaid Rana, a systems engineer at Concordia University, and Chantelle Dubois, an engineering student at the University of Manitoba.In this weeks SpaceQ podcast we’ll be discussing what the SGAC is, what it does for students and young professionals globally, and what the organization is planning in Canada.Listen in.Link: https://spacegeneration.org/
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher of SpaceQ and this is an episode of Short Takes. Short Takes are short interviews with leaders in the space sector.Earlier this week the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada announced a new initiative called Vision 2025: Beyond our Imagination. It is, in their words "an industry-led initiative to start a new dialogue between industry, government, the public, and other stakeholders that will chart a course for Canada’s future in the international aerospace sector.” Hired to lead this initiative is Jean Charest, a former federal Cabinet minister, Leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party, Québec Liberal Party leader and former premier of Quebec.SpaceQ had an opportunity to speak with Jim Quick, President and CEO of the AIAC, on this new initiative and the hiring of Mr. Charest.
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GHGSat is on a roll having raised more funds and looks to pad its lead in the commercial monitoring of global emissions from small satellites.Recently GHGSat announced it had raised US$10M in a Series A2 financing. The funds bring to $20M GHGSat has raised to date, including funds from the Alberta and federal governments.It’s also been over two years now that GHGSat’s first satellite, Claire, was launched. In that time a lot has changed politically, especially when talking about carbon taxes. What hasn’t changed is the need to monitor global emissions. And this week the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also issued a dire warning.My guest this week on the SpaceQ podcast is Stephane Germain, CEO of GHGSat. Stephane is also a member of the Space Advisory Board and he’ll provide us a brief update on the Advisory Board’s activities.As you’ll hear from Stephane, regardless of the political climate, monitoring global emissions by commercial companies like his isn’t going away, in fact, the business case and businesses in this space segment are getting ready to take-off.
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My guest this week is Professor Gordon Osinski, Director of the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration at Western University. Today we’ll be talking about water on Mars and the history of water discoveries on the Red Planet. As well, is there liquid water on Mars today? It’s a question that we haven’t decided with any certainty even though we’ve found evidence that suggest water flowed in the past on Mars. As well the Martian polar caps contain water ice. However unlike Earths polar caps, the Martian polar caps are a combination of water ice and carbon dioxide ice. Recently though there was news that there may a lake of water under the surface of the Martian south polar cap. Is this really the case? And what are the implications for human exploration should it be verified that there’s liquid water on Mars today?
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Kleos Space is looking to build a satellite constellation that will collect radio transmissions data that is currently hidden from detection for commercial and government civil and defence clients.The company has signed GomSpace to build the constellation of 20 satellites, with the first set of up to three nanosatellites ready for launch by mid-2019. Last week the company announced that Rocket Labs had been contracted as their launch provider.Kleos a fascinating startup. It's founders are British, but decided to base the business in Luxembourg and then go public in Australia. The company has already won contracts and has begun to build its new Data as a Service (DaaS) platform called Guardian ABI (Activity Based Intelligence).It's part of a new breed of small satellite startups looking to build itself a place in the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) market space by taking advantage of commercial off the shelf products, placing those sensors on nanosatellites and building a new data platform.Listen in as I talk with Andy Bowyer, co-founder and CEO of Kleos Space.
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My guest today is Professor Sarah Gallagher, Canada’s new Science Advisor to the president of the Canadian Space Agency. In this interview Sarah provides more detail on her new position as well as sharing her thoughts on Canada’s space program and the news that a Japanese private citizen has purchased all the seats on a SpaceX spacecraft to go to the moon and back.
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Today we’re going to hear from Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques. At 48, Saint-Jacques will start his first and possibly only mission to the International Space Station in late December. Saint-Jacques is the rare astronaut that is qualified in four disciplines. He has an engineering physics degree and PhD in Astrophysics, is a licensed doctor and has a commercial pilot license. That last skill will come in handy when on December 19 (Eastern time), already December 20 in Kazakhstan, he’ll co-pilot the Soyuz spacecraft as it launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station. And it’s no small feat to co-pilot the Soyuz. Chris Hadfield set the precedent and translated the pilots training manual from Russian to English. For Saint-Jacques though, he also speaks Russian. Once on orbit he’ll work for six months on the ISS spending 50% of his time working with the other astronauts to keep the space station in top operating condition. The other 50% of his time will be doing a lot of research including some important medical experiments that are aimed at benefiting humans on Earth.On September 6th Saint-Jacques took time from his busy training schedule to talk to the media. This included a press conference followed by a very brief one-on-one interviews with the media. SpaceQ had the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking to Saint-Jacques. That Q&A presented here is preceded by his introductory remarks at the new conference and is followed by questions from the media.
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My guest today is Alex MacDonald, Senior Economic Advisor in the Office of the Administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington. I’ll note that Alex is appearing in a personal capacity and not representing NASA in this interview.Alex is recognized as an expert on the economic history of American space exploration and contemporary private sector space activities. He was previously the founding program executive of NASA's Emerging Space Office and is the author and editor of a number of NASA reports including Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, Public-Private Partnerships for Space Capability Development, and Economic Development of Low-Earth Orbit.Alex, who is Canadian, received his undergraduate degree in economics from Queen's University, his master's degree in economics from the University of British Columbia, and was a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford where he obtained his doctorate on the long-run economic history of American space exploration. In today’s episode we’ll talk about Alex’s work at NASA as an economist and the book he published last year, The Long Space Age.
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Last week part two of our our three part podcast Summer Series was on the Future of Nuclear Powered Space Exploration which will one day increase our ability to explore the solar system. This week In episode 3, the topic is Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species.Our Summer Series features recent important talks on topics we think you’ll find interesting. Our regular interviews will resume the first week in September.The speaker this week is SpaceX founder Elon Musk. In this talk at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide just about a year ago, Musk discusses the long-term technical challenges that need to be solved to support the creation of a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on Mars. It's not a project that SpaceX can do alone. To build a sustaining human presence on Mars will require the collaboration of industry, government and the scientific community.Listen in...
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a SpaceQ podcast special. On Friday, August 24th NASA hosted a media teleconference on the OSIRIS-REx mission which will return an asteroid sample to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now preparing to conduct approach maneuvers as it heads for a December 3rd rendezvous with asteroid Bennu.Canada is participating in the mission by providing the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter or OLA as its called. The OLA instrument will create a critical 3-D map of asteroid Bennu’s shape as well as assisting with spacecraft navigation.Listen in as NASA provides and update and answers journalist questions. The slides and video for this event are linked from out story on SpaceQ. For more information on Canada’s participation, I would direct to you Episode 23 of the SpaceQ podcast where I interviewed Mike Daly from York University.
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Last week we began our our three part podcast Summer Series with a talk on the Parker Solar Probe which is on its way to touch the sun, a first for humanity. In episode 2, the topic is the Future of Nuclear Powered Space Travel and the the Kilopower Project.Our Podcast Summer Series features recent important talks on topics we think you’ll find interesting. Our regular interviews will resume the first week in September.The speaker this week is Patrick McClure of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. McClure is the Project Lead for Kilopower Project which is an effort being conducted with NASA. The lecture was presented at the National Atomic Testing Museum earlier this year.The Kilopower project is a near-term technology effort to develop preliminary concepts and technologies that could be used for an affordable fission nuclear power system to enable long-duration stays on planetary surfaces.
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In the first of a three part Podcast Summer Series we’ll be bringing you recent talks on topics we think are important and that you’ll find interesting. Our regular interviews will resume in September.This week, and only days after the launch, we have a talk from earlier this year from the South by Southwest Music Festival. The topic, NASA's Parker Solar Probe. The speakers are Project Scientist Nicola Fox and Lead Thermal Protection System Engineer Elizabeth Congdon, both from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.According to NASA the "historic Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds. Parker Solar Probe will travel through the Sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star."As you’ll hear, the story of this mission started 60 years ago. It’s a fascinating story and for the first time humanity will send a spacecraft that will touch the sun. Listen in…NASA Parker Solar Probehttps://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe
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My guest this week is David Haight, Chief Economist at the Canadian Space Agency.Before starting at the Canadian Space Agency in November of 2015, David worked at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, or ISED, first as a Senior Policy Analyst, Policy and Sector Services Branch, and then as Manager in the Analytics and Sector Intelligence, Automotive and Transportation Industries Branch.Today we’ll be talking about the recently released Patents in Space report from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office which the Canadian Space Agency participated in. As well, we’ll discuss the recently released annual Canadian State of the Space Sector report for 2016.Links:- A Canadian Intellectual Property Office Patent Report Indicates a Potential Advantage for the Canadian Space Sectorhttp://www.spaceq.ca/a-canadian-intellectual-property-office-patent-report-indicates-a-potential-advantage-for-the-canadian-space-sector/- The Canadian Space Economy Remains Flat But Opportunity Aboundshttp://www.spaceq.ca/the-canadian-space-economy-remains-flat-but-opportunity-abounds/
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. If you like what we do, please support us on Patreon at https://patreon.com/spaceq. We need your support to make this weekly show. My guest this week is Tory Bruno the president and CEO of United Launch Alliance or as it’s commonly called ULA. Tory joined ULA from Lockheed Martin in August 2014 with a mission to evolve the company in an increasingly competitive market where competitor SpaceX was nipping at their heels to garner a portion of the very lucrative military launch business. In his four years at the helm of the company, he’s had to make many changes, including downsizing the company, making the Atlas V more competitive by dropping the price by as much as 37%, developing plans for a next generation rocket named Vulcan and more.As you’ll hear from Tory, there’s also been some culture change and innovation in reusability isn’t just what SpaceX does. Importantly to ULA, their next rocket, Vulcan, will feature the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, or ACES upper stage, that the company is betting heavily on.Read the story that goes with this podcast:http://spaceq.ca/ula-betting-big-on-new-vulcan-rocket-for-future-business/
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On July 1st Australia’s Space Agency started operations. It’s an important milestone for the country as they look to space to help drive economic growth with an eye to tripling their share of the global space market by 2030.My guests on this weeks SpaceQ podcast are today are Kirby Ikin and Bill Barrett of Sydney based Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants. Kirby is the Managing Director of APAC while Bill is Senior Vice President. Both have extensive experience working in the industry and have worked with Australia’s government over the years to promote and grow its space industry. Kirby also serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Space Society.Both Kirby and Bill provide insights as to how Australia lost it’s space agency in the late 90’s for economic reasons, only to see it rebooted now for economic reasons.It turns out Australia’s space industry is stronger than even the government realized, and now with bipartisan support, the country is charting a new course to take advantage of Australia’s strengths. That course includes developing a national strategic plan for the country.
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This week our guest is Jeffrey Osborne, Co-founder & Vice President of Business Development at Toronto based Kepler Communications.Kepler is developing next-generation satellite communication technologies for the Machine to Machine and Internet of Things satellite market with the goal of launching a constellation of 140 satellites for that developing marketplace. To date they’ve launched one of three demonstration satellites. Another will launch this summer followed by another in mid-2019.Today, Jeffrey and I talked about the news this week that they had partnered with Satellite Applications Catapult, a UK company created by the government Innovate UK program to drive economic growth through the exploitation of space. Catapult will help Kepler expand their operations into the UK and Europe. We also discussed their application with the US FCC to get a spectrum license for their satellites as well as a recent contract with the Canadian Space Agency and their experience launching with China.
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This week my guest is astrophysicist Rob Thacker, a Professor at Saint Mary’s University. Rob is also the new president of the Canadian Astronomical Society, a society of professional astronomers. He also co-hosts the CBC Nova Scotia radio show, the Sound of Science, is also a guest on News 1310’s Ottawa Today show and a guest on Science Ship on Rogers TV. Our topic this week is Canadian astronomy missions and a recent independent report that offered mix results on the Canadian Space Agency’s space astronomy and planetary missions programs. The lack of funding was one of the issues the report mentioned. Also of note, the Canadian Space Agency’s Departmental Plan for 2018-19, basically the agency’s blueprint of what it will do in this current fiscal year, has no funding for any new astronomy missions.
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Our topic this week is Canada’s long term planning in the mining sector, specifically the ongoing consultation for the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan which recently included a consultation session on space mining.I have two guests to discuss this topic. In the first segment I speak with Glenn Mason, Assistant Deputy Minister, Lands and Minerals Sector from the Department of Natural Resources.In the second segment I spoke Michelle Ash, Chief Innovation Officer at traditional mining giant, Barrick Gold.For those interested in the space industry’s take on space mining, I will direct you to episode 38 from March in which I spoke with Dale Boucher.Show timing notes:Introduction - 00:16Guest 1: Glenn Mason - 01:16Guest 2: Michelle Ash - 20:44If you like what we do please support on a Patreon;https://www.patreon.com/spaceqPlease visit SpaceQ for the latest space news:https://spaceq.ca
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. This is a special podcast in that it is our 50th, and marks one year since I started the show.I want to thank our growing audience who have contributed to having our podcasts played 20,000 times so far.To keep this show going we need your continued support. For those who are not yet supporting us through our crowdfunding site on Patreon, I would ask that you consider supporting us now. The address is https://www.patreon.com/spaceqMy guest this week is Philip Ferguson, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Manitoba, a position he started last fall. Phil was also was recently named as the NSERC / Magellan Aerospace Industrial Research Chair in Satellite Engineering at the university.As you’ll hear, Phil has had a pretty eventful career working in industry before settling in at the University of Manitoba last fall. He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at MIT and has worked on the International Space Station's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator program, commonly referred to as Dextre, Canada’s first microsatellite MOST, NEOSSat, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission and drones.Along the way he’s worked at MDA, Dynacon, Microsat Systems Canada Inc., Magellan Aerospace and PrecisionHawk.In our conversation you’ll hear how Phil is helping in trying to make the University of Manitoba a Small Satellite Innovation Hub.
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Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Sylvain Laporte surprised the audience at the CASI ASTRO 18 conference with his talk. Expecting an update on CSA activities, the audience listened attentively when Laporte addressed "the elephant in the room."That elephant is the budget where the Liberals didn't address a new space strategy or address the budgetary problems in a meaningful way.Listen to Mr. Laporte's full speech in this weeks podcast and read our story here:http://spaceq.ca/the-message-the-canadian-space-agency-is-moving-on/
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. In this podcast recorded at the CASI ASTRO 18 conference in Quebec City, you’ll hear from Jacques Giroux, Business Development Manager, Space & Defence Systems at ABB. Jacques is also the incoming president of CASI, the organizers of the conference.ABB is large Swiss multinational company with 135,000 employee and revenues of $34.3B in 2017. ABB has about 4,000 employees in Canada but less than 5% of those work in its space segment which is headquartered in Quebec City. And while the space segment is a very small portion of the overall company, it is an important segment as you’ll hear. It’s even possible you might not have heard of their efforts in Canada. That’s primarily because most of their work is exported. In particularly, they are known for their weather satellite sensors which are being used today on European and U.S. satellites. Some of that technology was developed and leveraged from past investments the Canadian government made in science satellites, like SciSat.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. In this podcast from the CASI ASTRO 18 conference in Quebec City, you’ll hear from Dr. Lucy Stojak, Chair of the government appointed Space Advisory Board. Dr. Stojak was the CASI 2018 Turnbull Lecturer and provided a review of the activities of the Space Advisory Board to date along with their planned future activities.For more podcasts and stories from CASI ASTRO 18, go to http://spaceq.ca/tag/astro-2018.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. In this podcast from the CASI ASTRO 18 conference in Quebec City, you’ll hear from stakeholders on their Perspective of the Future of Canada’s Space Sector. The moderator for this discussion is Jacques Giroux of ABB who is also the incoming president of CASI. The panelists in order of who you’ll her from are; Sylvain Laporte, president of the Canadian Space Agency, Mike Greenley, president of MDA, Ewan Reid, president and CEO of Mission Control Space Services and Kaley Walker of the University of Toronto.For more podcasts and stories from CASI ASTRO 18 go to spaceq.ca/tag/astro-2018.The story that accompanies this podcast is available here:https://sqm.me/2INfBhI
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. In this podcast from the CASI ASTRO 18 conference in Quebec City, you’ll hear an in-depth discussion of Canada’s current military space component, its capabilities and what the future holds. The moderator for this discussion is Jacques Giroux of ABB who is also the incoming president of CASI. The panelists in order of who you’ll here from, are; Brigadier-General Kevin G. Whale, Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Marchetti and Colonel Cameron Stoltz.The presentation referenced during the talk is available from our website. For more podcasts and stories from CASI ASTRO 18, go to spaceq.ca/tag/astro-2018.
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. In this podcast recorded at the CASI ASTRO 18 conference in Quebec City, you’ll hear from Brigadier-General Kevin G. Whale, Director General & Component Commander - Space.Canada’s military space component is set to grow significantly going forward both in terms of personnel and capability. General Whale provide a status update on the space component he leads, and tell explain how our defence forces are preparing for the challenges of the future.CASI ASTRO 18 Storieshttp://spaceq.ca/tag/astro-2018/
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Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. In this podcast from the CASI ASTRO 18 conference in Quebec City, you’ll hear an update from four Canadian Space Agency Director Generals including and in order of their speaking, Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, Director General Space Science and Technology, Eric Laliberte, Director General Space Utilization, Gilles Leclerc, Director General Space Exploration and Mary Preville, Director General, Policy.The presentation used for this panel is available on our website at spaceq.ca/podcast. For all our stories from CASI ASTRO 18 go to spaceq.ca/tag/astro-2018.
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My guest this week is Joe Cassady and today we’re going to talk about the 2018 Humans to Mars Report which was released last week at the Humans to Mars Summit. The report reinforces a notional date of 2033 for the first Humans to Mars mission. There also seems to be a convergence happening within the Mars community, both within government and the commercial sector, that the pieces needed to make a mission happen by 2033 can be ready.Joe is the Executive Vice President and a Director at Explore Mars who published the report and organized the annual summit. I should note that his day job though, is that of Executive Director, Space at Aerojet Rocketdyne.
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My guest this week is Rafael Jorda Siquier, CEO of Open Cosmos.Rafael and some of his colleagues had an idea 10 years ago to make space more accessible. To bring that idea to fruition took many years of schooling and then working in the industry. The result was the creation of Open Cosmos, a company dedicated to providing inexpensive space missions using small satellites in low earth orbit an eventually beyond low earth orbit. Not content to just build satellites, they offer an end-to-end service. From the satellite, to procuring the launch, arranging ground station access for data, and even making sure all the proper paperwork for whatever regulatory needs, are in place. The story of how Open Cosmos came to be, its philosophy, mission and success to date, are one all entrepreneurs and those wanting to create a new space company should hear.
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My guest this week is David Kendall, the Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.David is a faculty member of the International Space University and was a Senior Executive at the Canadian Space Agency during his long career. While trained as a scientist, David has become an important leading expert on global space policy and law. Today we’re going to first discuss the current state of space policy in Canada followed by the global perspective.
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My guest this week is Kate Howells. Kate works at the Planetary Society as their Global Community Outreach Manager. In her role as Outreach Manager she has built up and manages a global network of volunteers who do educational outreach in their communities and develops volunteer activities that support the Planetary Society's goals and strategic vision.She is also a member of the government of Canada’s Space Advisory Board. In this interview we talk about the Planetary Society and its growth in Canada, space advocacy in Canada and her role as a member of the Space Advisory Board.
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Three months into his new job as the Group President of MDA in Canada and Mike Greenley is very busy shaping the 49 year old company to the realities of today, including ways to spur growth in a tough domestic market.MDA, once the parent company of several business units in the U.S., is now one of four business units in the larger U.S. based Maxar Technologies which it created. The other business units are SSL, DigitalGlobe and Radiant Solutions.Being a player in the the defence and space sector in the U.S. brings unique challenges due to security issues. To grow the company MDA became Maxar.Greenley assumed his new role on January 15 of this year. Greenley is an industry veteran having worked 22 years at companies such as Greenley & Associates (his own company), CAE, General Dynamics and most recently L3 Technologies in Burlington, Ontario where he was Sector President.In this wide ranging interview, we discuss some of the changes Greenley has made since he came on board and the challenges in growing the business in Canada.
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This week we’re doing something a little different and unplanned. On Friday, April 6 Western University in London, Ontario held its 4th annual Space Day.Western University is one of the leading planetary sciences universities in Canada, if not the best. The keynote speaker was former Canadian astronaut, Dr. Dave Williams.Williams first flew on two space shuttle missions, STS-90 in April of 1998 and then again on STS-118 in August 2007. He holds the Canadian cumulative long duration record for spacewalks. He is also the writer of several children books including, Go for Liftoff, To Burp or Not to Burp and this fall will have his first adult book published, Defying Limits: My Life as an Astronaut, Doctor, and Explorer.Williams is an excellent speaker and story teller. For that reason we decided to share his unedited speech in this weeks podcast. Enjoy.
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My guest this week is Lucy Stojak who is the Director of the School on Management of Creativity and Innovation at HEC Montréal. Lucy is also the Chair of the Space Advisory Board.It was just about a year ago that ISED Minister Bains announced the then 10 member Space Advisory Board. Last summer an additional member was added, Kate Howells, to represent the advocacy segment. I will note that that Board members are not employees of the government, serve on a voluntary basis and are not paid. All members work either in academia, industry, research, not-for-profit or in the case of Kate Howells, public outreach and advocacy. It’s been a very busy year for the Board so let me quickly recap it. According to the government when it announced in October 2016 that it was forming a new Space Advisory Board, the board would "advise the Government of Canada on long-term objectives for space and to engage with Canadians.”As soon as the Board was announced last April it began a cross-Canada in-person stakeholder consultation by invitation, though if you asked to participate, as I did, you could participate. This was followed by two virtual events titled Canada’s Youth and Next Generation Space Leaders and the North and Canada’s Future in Space. All these events were wrapped up by May 19. Over 180 people participated in person or online. Afterwards the Board wrote a report titled Consultations on Canada’s Future in Space: What We Heard which summarized what they had heard from stakeholders during the consultations. While the report was written quickly according to sources who spoke to SpaceQ, it was not released until mid-August.The report had two recommendations from issues they categorized in six themes. The two top level recommendations were to Designate space as a national strategic asset and what the Future role of the Space Advisory Board would be. The detail though was in the six themes. Those themes were;1. Designating space as a National Strategic Asset 2. Strengthen world-class Canadian capabilities3. Adopting new policies and regulations to capitalize on technological advances4. Continuity of policies and sustainable funding5. Outreach and educational activities to inspire and prepare Canadians6. An urgent call to actionToday Lucy and I will discuss the results of the consultation, budget 2018 and where the space advisory board goes from here.
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My guests this week are two members of the AlbertSat team, Callie Lissinna and Logan Fairgrieve-Park.AlbertaSat is a student group started in 2010 made up of about 50 undergraduate and graduate students. The group was started as a result of the creation of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. The Canada wide competition encourages university students from different study areas to form a team to develop and build a nanosatellite, or CubeSat. It’s not just for science and technology students though, marketing, communication, financial and project management skillsets are also needed.Callie is the Deputy Project Manager and Logan is the Science Team Lead and the Attitude Determination and Control System Team Lead. Both are undergrad students at the university of Alberta.Callie, Logan and I discussed AlbertSat, its projects and their view of their future prospects of working in Canada in the space sector.
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This week our guest is Dale Boucher, CEO of Deltion Innovations. Deltion is one of the leading proponents for space mining and has worked with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA and others.Some of the questions Dale answers include:How is Deltion involved in space mining?Will Canada participate on a mission to test mining equipment on the moon or elsewhere?How mature or immature is the technology? Is anyone working on heavy mining machinery needed for the moon?Do we know where to begin mining operations on the moon?Are nations like Canada, a leader in mining, working on policy frameworks for mining on the moon or elsewhere?
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My guest this week is Grant Bonin, Chief Technology Officer of Deep Space Industries.Deep Space Industries is a five year old privately held company spacecraft technology with a long term plan of mining asteroids that has adapted its business for the long game.At the time the company launched, some people wondered if the idea was crazy. It’s not, but it is hard, and It’s a long game. Deep Space industries (DSI) is still here and apparently has adapted its business plan to meet the challenge and has been working on developing technologies needed for its long term goals but which have commercial appeal now allowing them to generate revenue streams now.Since the company was formed they've sparsely released information. Last year when Daniel Faber, the CEO at the time, left the company, he said not too long afterwards that he was proud of having led the company to sales in the area of $10 million in 2016. That was really the first public acknowledgement of any sales volume.With DSI's products, most notably Comet, its water-based SmallSat propulsion system set to fly on four customer satellites this year, the company is slowly emerging from the shadows. As well, the company will be shortly announcing its first Series A funding meant to accelerate their Mission 1, a technology demonstration spacecraft which they hope to launch to a near-earth asteroid in 2020.This week they also announced that they've sold another Comet propulsion system to Astro Digital. According to Grant, that's the 34th propulsion unit they've sold.Listen to the podcast for a complete update on DSI's activities.
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My guest this week is Hassan Khan, CEO of Quantius and TodaQ.Is the Canadian venture capitalist landscape light years behind in understanding the space ecosystem in comparison with their U.S. counterparts? Will blockchain technology be as transformative as the Internet has been? These questions are answered in this weeks SpaceQ podcast.If you have a new space company or are staring one, then this podcast is one you won't want to miss. The same is true if you want a better understanding of blockchain technology and some of its uses for the space sector.Today Hassan and I will discuss two topics, venture funding and blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. We start talking about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency staring at the 31:34 mark.Quantius is an alternative lender with a unique capability to collateralize intangible assets for innovative enterprises in Canada and the United States. TodaQ Financial is a mobile financial services marketplace responsible for issuing, distribution and adoption of the Toda Note, a USD-backed digital currency for knowledge-based businesses globally requiring transaction efficiency and liquidity for growth.No matter how you describe both companies, it’s clear that Hassan is and has been doing some innovative ventures. Before starting these two ventures Hassan was with McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. And before that he spent 13 years in the Canadian Armed Forces working in various Information technology areas, leaving as a Major.
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My guest this week is Michael Simpson, the Executive Director of the Secure Word Foundation, a U.S. based not-for-profit and former President of the International Space University.Michael was the opening keynote speaker at the recent Canadian SmallSat Symposium. His speech was on the sustainability of space. We explore that topic further.
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My guest this week is Mike Safyan, Senior Director, Launch and Global Ground Station Networks at Planet. Planet, previously known as Planet Labs, is an Earth Observation company which has launched a fleet over 200 satellites to monitor the Earth. This podcast was recorded at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium which was held last week in Toronto.Planet has become the largest operator of satellites in orbit with 148 active imaging satellites. It should be noted though, unlike the large school bus size satellites in geosynchronous orbit, nearly all of Planet’s satellites are microsatellites weighing in at under 100kg and roughly the size of a microwave oven and are in low earth orbit.Mike and I discussed recent news at Planet with an eye to the future, along with a discussion on their ongoing ground station problem in Canada which led them to announce at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium that they were going to pull out their ground stations in Inuvik after June 1 if they’re licensing issues aren’t resolved by Global Affairs Canada.The story and video that accompany this podcast is available at this link: http://www.spaceq.ca/planet-and-ksat-threaten-to-pull-ground-assets-out-of-canada/
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My guest this week is Adam Trumpour. Adam is a concept designer at Pratt & Whitney Canada by day, and a rocket developer by night.He develops liquid propellant rocket engines, occasionally consults on the subject and mentors student rocketry groups. Today we’re going to talk about launch vehicles, with an emphasis on small launch vehicles.
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On February 5, 2018, the day before the first attempt by SpaceX to launch the Falcon Heavy on its maiden flight, Elon Musk held a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center to answer questions from reporters. Here is the unedited Q&A.The launch window opens up at 1:30 p.m. EST and extends to 4:30 p.m. Currently the weather is favourable with a 80% probability of good launch conditions. Our listeners can watch the SpaceX webcast on SpaceRef and SpaceQ.Links:- Webcast http://spaceq.ca/spacex-live/ or http://spaceref.com/live/spacex-webcast.html
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My guest this week is Chris Gebhardt, Assistant Managing Editor of NASASpaceflight.com. Chris and I talked about SpaceX, specifically the upcoming maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.The launch is scheduled for Tuesday, February 6 and this podcast was recorded the Sunday before. The launch window opens up at 1:30 p.m. EST and extends to 4:30 p.m. Currently the weather is favourable with a 80% probability of good launch conditions. Our listeners can watch the SpaceX webcast on SpaceRef and SpaceQ.Links:- NASA Spaceflight https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/- Chris Gebhardt on Twitter https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF- Webcast http://spaceq.ca/spacex-live/ or http://spaceref.com/live/spacex-webcast.html
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On this weeks podcast my guest is James Slifierz, CEO of SkyWatch. James got his start in winning the NASA global SpaceApps Challenge in 2014. He then went on to create SkyWatch to take that initial software idea and develop it into a commercial product. In 2016 his company took the lead in organizing the SpaceApps Challenge for the Waterloo Region. Last year they brought on board the Canadian Space Agency as a partner. Today SkyWatch announced that after a little over 3 1/2 years after winning NASA’s global SpaceApps Challenge and starting the company, they've closed their seed financing, raising US$3.2M.
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My guest this week is Pekka Larila, Chief Financial Officer and co-founder of ICEYE.ICEYE is a Finnish company with offices in Poland and the U.S. that bills itself as having the first Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, satellite in a microsatellite form weighing in at less than 100kg.By comparison traditional SART satellites are much larger needing a lot of power to accomplish their mission. The well known Canadian RADARSAT-2 satellite weighs in at 2200kg and the next-generation RADARSAT Constellation Mission satellites each weigh in at 1400kg.ICEYE is looking to disrupt the traditional Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite market.
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My guest this week is Chris Carberry, the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars.Explore Mars is a non-profit that brings aerospace business leaders together with government entities, mediating and facilitating the direct flow of information, and was incorporated in February 2010. Prior to working at Explore Mars, Chris was the Executive Director of the Mars Society for almost two years.In today's show we discussed the ongoing effort for a human mission to Mars and how Explore Mars is bringing organizations together around the world to achieve that goal.
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Happy New Year and welcome to the first SpaceQ podcast of 2018. My guest this week is Andrew Jones, a journalist based in Finland who follows China's space program. He writes for gbtimes.com, and has written guest blogs for the Planetary Society as well for SpaceNews.In this weeks podcast Andrew and I are going to delve into China's space program which has set an ambitious schedule of possibly launching more than 40 rockets this year.
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This week on the SpaceQ podcast we're doing something a little different. Instead of interviewing a guest we decided to playback a speech we recorded from the recent Canadian Space Summit held in Ottawa by Canadian Space Agency president Sylvain Laporte. In this speech, Mr. Laporte discusses what he calls “key messages” of the space program from the governments perspective.Please note that this is the last podcast of the year and we’ll return with a new show on Thursday, January 11. From the growing team at SpaceQ, we wish you and your families all the best this holiday season and a Happy New Year.
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My guest this week is Michelle Mendes, the Executive Director and President of the Canadian Space Commerce Association.The Canadian Space Commerce Association is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2007 that describes itself as the national association for the space sector, representing industry, academia, professionals, young entrepreneurs and students. Michelle is also a member of the independent Space Advisory Board created by the government to provide ongoing input on Canada’s space sector.Today we’ll be talking about satellites, in particular how technology and miniaturization of components has allowed researchers and companies to build much smaller and less costly satellites for a variety of tasks including earth observation. We’re using these small satellites for farming, monitoring our climate, disaster response, ship tracking and more.Next February 13 -15 in Toronto the Association will be holding its second Canadian SmallSat Symposium. The first conference was held in February 2016 and was sold out. The Association is hoping to attract upwards of 400 people for the coming event.
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My guest this week is Larry Reeves, the founder of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. At the recent Canadian Space Society Space Summit I ran into Larry and asked him if he would like to be a guest on the show to talk about this program and provide an update on the current competition.The CSDC is a Canada-wide competition for teams of university students, undergraduate and graduate, to design and build a small satellite. To be clear, this is a competition where the students create their own team at their respective university. It is not a university led program. They do get some guidance from professors at their institutions. Students must also raise funds to build their satellites.The CSDC is in its 4th competition having completed 3 previous competitions since its inception in 2011. Larry and a core group of volunteers manage the CSDC in their spare time with some support from industry and the Canadian Space Agency. Larry’s day job is that of an engineer at the Earth Observation company UrtheCast.
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Today’s show was recorded at the Canadian Space Society’s annual Space Summit in Ottawa on November 21st. Among the keynote speakers invited by the Canadian Space Society are usually two from outside Canada.I spoke with Dr. Kazuya Yoshida of Tohoku University in Japan.Dr. Yoshida is also a Director and Chief Technology Officer of iSpace, a Japanese New Space startup with ambitions to use the moons resources, water to start, to develop a lunar economic base. iSpace also manages the Japanese Google Lunar X Prize entry, Hakuto.Dr. Yoshida is a robotics expert and has served as the Director of the Centre of Robotics for Extreme and Uncertain Environments at Tohoku University. He has worked for many years on Japanese robotic missions including the asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa. The technology and rovers developed at his lab at Tohoku University have also been used in disaster response.Dr. Yoshida and his colleagues at Tohoku University are also developing what he calls “Cliff Hanger” and “Rock Climber” robotic machines designed for future asteroid exploration and which could also be used on the moon.Dr. Yoshida and his colleagues have developed a rich knowledge base in microsatellite and rover technology development.As you’ll hear, iSpace is looking beyond the Google Lunar X Prize and will announce its first round of equity venture funding in the near future.
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Today on SpaceQ I’ll be talking with Dr. Michael Daly, Associate Professor at York University. We’ll be talking about the international, though NASA led, Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer mission, or as it’s commonly called, OSIRIS-REx.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Bennu next August where it will conduct a series of science investigations including returning a sample to Earth to be analyzed. NASA says the mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched on September 8, 2016. Canada is participating in the mission by providing the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter or OLA, which will create a 3-D map of asteroid Bennu’s shape along with helping with navigation.Dr. Daly is the principal Investigator of the Canadian Science Team. York University’s Planetary Exploration Instrumentation Laboratory is the lead university for the Canadian OLA instrument contribution. While York University is taking the OLA instrumentation lead, other Canadian contributors include the University of Calgary, the University of British Columbia, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum.The mission to asteroid Bennu will continue until March 2021 when the spacecraft will return to Earth arriving 2 1/2 years later in September 2023. At that point the sample return capsule will return to Utah where it will be collected and analyzed.
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My guest is Ryan Anderson. It’s Ryan’s second time on the show having been my guest on Episode 8. Ryan’s back to provide an update on the Satellite Canada Innovation Network which wasn’t selected as a finalist by the government in the Innovation Superclusters Initiative.No matter, Satellite Canada is moving forward anyway. Ryan will also talk about next weeks Canadian Space Summit in Ottawa, for which he’s the chair.
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Maritime Launch Services is targeting May 1, 2018 to break ground and begin construction on Canada's first commercial spaceport which would be based in Nova Scotia.On Friday, November 3, 2017 I interviewed Maritime Launch Services (MLS) CEO Steve Matier. As you'll hear in the podcast they are in the "final closing" of their Series A financing and already working on the next round. As Matier points out, this is a commercial project with no funding coming from either the Canadian or Ukrainian governments.What was once just an idea is getting closer to reality, but there's much more work yet to be done.
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Dr. Robert Zee is the only director the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace has known since its inception in 1998. Over the years SFL has been an innovator in the field of small satellites and without question can be regarded as one of its pioneers. Robert is my guest on this weeks podcast.What started as an idea has involved into a educational powerhouse in the small satellite field. SFL has produced engineers that have gone on to be part of startups such as Deep Space Industries. Along the way they also turned their original idea into a business. A business that is growing. Today, SFL employs over 50 people and they have 18 satellites to their credit that have been launched to orbit that are performing well. Currently they have 15 satellites in development and that number is increasing. In my wide ranging interview with Robert you'll learn a little of SFL's history, their innovations, future plans and some of the challenges they face as small satellites go beyond low earth orbit.
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Today on SpaceQ my guest is Jeff Manber, CEO of NanoRacks. Jeff has a degree in neuroscience and started his career in media, so how did he become the successful space entrepreneur that he is today? That story and others are part of this candid interview.Some of the topics we discuss:- Jeff's background and ability to work internationally where others have problems- Russia's commercial space program in the 90's and today- Making the Mir Space Station commercial- Tourists in space, Lance Bass and Astro Mom- How they manage to take 580 payloads to the International Space Station and launch nearly 200 satellites- How the company was funded, future funding and advice for entrepreneurs- A future NanoRacks space station?- Working in Canada
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Today on SpaceQ I’ll be talking with Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat. Telesat is a leading global satellite operator based in Ottawa. Dan’s been the Chief Executive at Telesat since 2006. Before working at Telesat he had been CEO at SES New Skies. And for those with long memories, Dan was also Associate General Counsel and Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs at PanAmSat.Telesat is charting a new course in developing a low earth orbit constellation of satellites, 117 of them plus spares. For a company with 15 active geostationary satellites in orbit, funding, designing, building and deploying over a hundred more, albeit much smaller satellites, is a challenging prospect.Telesat isn’t the only company vying to develop a small satellite constellation in low earth orbit. Competitors include OneWeb, who appear to be making good progress having recently brought online their factory production in France and a new manufacturing facility in Florida being built.Telesat though has at least one advantage over its competitors. Notably, in the next two months their going go launch their first two prototype satellites.I spoke to Dan about the constellation, the space advisory board and Canada’s space future, their two new GEO satellites to be launched next year, Telstar Vantage 18 and 19, and what Telstar 19 will mean for Canada’s north.
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Today on SpaceQ I’m going to discuss the Montreal Space Symposium in two segments which were recorded at the conference on Thursday, October 5th.The Montreal Space Symposium is a new conference that was conceived of and organized by students. In the span of just over two months seven people from different universities pooled their efforts to organize this two day conference. The organizers brought together 12 student associations from Montreal, what they are now calling the Montreal Student Space Associations. Because they kept their costs low and managed to raise the funds they needed from the associations, registration was free and they confirmed 400 registrations with approximately 300 attending the keynote. Their 47 speakers included a sizeable contingent from the Canadian Space Agency, university professors, a handful from industry, one from the Military and of course the students themselves.In the first segment I spoke with three of the organizers, Sandro Papais who is an engineering major at McGill University, Ali Lougerstay is also an engineer major, though from Concordia University, and Jan Clarence Dee who recently graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and who now works at the Canadian Space Agency as a junior systems engineer.In the second segment I spoke to Canadian Space Agency president Sylvain Laporte shortly after he delivered the keynote speech at the Montreal Space Symposium. In my discussion with Mr. Laporte, we spoke about the conference and also touched on some of the recent developments at the Canadian Space Agency.
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Today I have the pleasure of having Keith Cowing as my guest. Keith is my business partner, having co-founded SpaceRef with me 18 years ago.Before we worked together Keith was the founder of NASA Watch 20 years ago. Keith edits NASA Watch, SpaceRef and the Astrobiology websites on a daily basis.Today we’re going to talk about Jim Bridenstine nomination as NASA Administrator by the Trump administration, last weeks update by Elon Musk on the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System and Lockheed Martin’s Mars Base Camp concept.
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My guest today is Matt Bamsey a Research Associate at the DLR, the German Space Agency. Matt is Canadian and was one of the 17 finalists in the Canadian Space Agency astronaut recruitment campaign. Before joining the DLR in 2013, Matt had been a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Florida and the University of Guelph where he received his PhD in Environmental Biology. He had also previously worked at the Canadian Space Agency.I first met Matt at the Haughton Mars Crater on Devon Island when he was a student intern at the Canadian Space Agency and a undergrad at Carleton University. My company SpaceRef had donated a greenhouse, what became known as the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse, to the Haughton Mars Project. The greenhouse shell was built by myself, my business partner Keith Cowing, and many others at the Haughton Mars Project. Matt, who was working with the greenhouse science project lead, Alain Berinstein of the Canadian Space Agency, helped install the equipment and cultivate the crops.Matt is now working on the EDEN ISS Consortium project at the DLR. The EDEN ISS project is a ground demonstration of plant cultivation technologies for safe food production in space. The ground demonstration includes an advanced greenhouse that will be shipped to Antarctic in the second week of October where it will arrive in mid-December. Matt will be part of the first team to setup the greenhouse at the German Neumayer Station III.
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My guest today is Ewan Reid, founder of Mission Control Space Services (MCSS), a new company offering a variety of services including their Autonomous Soil Assessment System used to help rovers safely explore the surface of the moon and Mars. As well, MCSS has launched an educational program, Mission Control Academy.Ewan discussed their programs, the companies philosophy and offered a glimpse of their future products.
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In this weeks podcast we spoke with Stephane Germain, CEO of GHGSat. GHGSat is an early stage company based in Montreal looking to become the global reference for remote sensing of greenhouse and air quality gas emissions from industrial sites.To accomplish their goal GHGSat is using their patented technology in a sensor placed on a small satellite. Their first satellite, a demonstration satellite called Claire, has just completed its first year in orbit, proving out the technology, though there were some issues.Those issues are being addressed according to Germain, with design changes to be implemented in the next two satellites. The next two satellites will be launched withing two years as part of a planned small satellite constellation.Aside from the commercial market they hope to dominate, GHGSat is also working with the Department of National Defence in determining how their technology can help the military. I also learned that GHGSat will have a ground station online later this year at the government's Inuvik Satellite Station Facility.As the only commercial company in this segment with a satellite on-orbit, GHGSat has an advantage on its competitors, an advantage it intends to capitalize on.
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Canada hasn't had a National Space Policy since 1974. Currently the government is looking to announce a new Space Strategy this fall. Recently the Space Advisory Board released its report after concluding consultations with stakeholders. On today's show we'll get insights on space policy from Graham Gibbs.Graham joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1988 and spent 22 years in Washington where he first served as the Head of the Canadian Space Agency office at the NASA Space Station Freedom Program Office in Reston, Virginia between 1988 and 1993. He then became Canada's Counsellor for Space Affairs from the Canadian Space Agency at the Canadian Embassy.While representing the Canadian Space Programing in Washington, Graham was involved in several multinational initiatives. These included: (a) the International Space Station Program, including the negotiations to bring Russia into the partnership in which he was Head of the Agency-level negotiating team and Deputy-Head of the government level delegation; (b) a member of the Canadian Delegation led by Environment Canada for the creation of the international Group on Earth Observations; (c) and a core member of the Canadian Space Agency Delegation in the development by fourteen space agencies, of The Global Exploration Strategy and the resulting International Space Exploration Coordination Group.Graham returned to Canada in August 2010 to take up the position of Senior Policy Advisor in the Canadian Space Agency Ottawa Government Liaison Office until his retirement in 2012.
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On Canada’s 150th Birthday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced Canada’s two newest astronaut recruits. It was a life changing day for them. For Lieutenant-Colonel Joshua Kutryk, it’s a day he won’t soon forget.Its been almost 8 weeks since Joshua was introduced to the public. And this week he’s going back to basic training, that is, astronaut basic training, where over the next two years he’ll learn the basics skills needed to be certified an astronaut.For the Fort Saskatchewan native, going to Houston is a big deal. It’s the home of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the human spaceflight program. It’s also a very big city, the 4th largest in the United States. Joshua grew on a farm in eastern Alberta and still loves the peaceful nature of his home. But now he’ll need to adjust to the big city, though he’ll be busy most of the time training.Earlier this week I had the opportunity to ask Joshua a few questions before his training starts in earnest.
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"We're on a cliff." That's how Don Osborne, President of MDA's Information Systems in Canada, described the current status in Canada without a new space strategy in place. But before you get too alarmed, Osborne did say he's optimistic that the government is listening, which suggests that a new meaningful space strategy is forthcoming.In the tenth episode of the SpaceQ podcast I spoke with Don Osborne, President of MDA's Information Systems Group. Osborne's role is to manage MDA's operations in Canada, reporting to CEO Howard Lance, who is based in San Francisco.In my wide ranging interview, Osborne and I discussed MDA's operations from coast to coast before transitioning to specific issues. Those issues included growth opportunities, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, workforce issues if the government doesn't enact a new space strategy without new programs, Artificial Intelligence and space, UAV's, Canadian defence procurement, the moon, Mars and other topics.Osborne sees growth for MDA in Canada, in part driven by exports of communication and satellite subsystems out of Montreal, defence procurement and with the acquisition of DigitalGlobe. Where he's concerned is with civil procurement and the lack of a national space strategy.
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In this episode I welcome back Wayne Ellis, a space and defence consultant with AppSpace Solutions of Winnipeg, and a past president of the Canadian Space Society.In today's show, Wayne and I discussed some of the notable current events and touched on the ongoing debate of Moon vs Mars, and what the government provides in the way of of infrastructure and imagination leadership.Here are the topics for today's show:- Moon vs Mars (0:41 - 11:44)- SmallSats and Big Data (11:45 - 21:33)- More water on Moon? (21:34 - 27:05)- The latest Canadian Space Agency call for ideas (27:06 - 35:18)- Canadian trade agreements and the space industry (35:19 - 40:27)- The SEDS Canada Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge (40:28 - 45:45)
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In episode 8 of the SpaceQ podcast our guest is Ryan Anderson the lead organizer of Satellite Canada, an organization created to compete for a piece of the governments new $950 million Innovation Superclusters Initiative.Recently the government announced its Innovation Superclusters Initiative where it would invest $950 million in up to five superclusters. Each supercluster will be funded in the amount of $150-$250 million and selected organizations must match the federal funding.After the government made its announcement Ryan began an effort to create a satellite supercluster called Satellite Canada. Ryan recently submitted Satellite Canada’s letter of interest. In doing so he received 39 letters of support from organizations across Canada and commitments of $328 million from those organizations. That’s quite an achievement, and today I’ll discuss with Ryan how he managed to get the space community to work together on this initiative and what’s next.
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Moon Express has raised $45 million(US), built hardware, tested some of it, and gotten the FAA and other government agencies to approve of its first commercial mission to the moon, and in less than a year might have its first spacecraft on the moon.In this episode of the SpaceQ podcast Bob Richards, CEO and co-founder of Moon Express talks about the latest news from the company, including how lunar samples they return could be worth tens of millions, possibly even hundreds of millions. If true, and if Moon Express can return those samples, then an important part of their business plan will have been accomplished and a new commercial frontier will have been opened up.Bob Richards is well known within the space community having been a co-founder of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, the Space Generation Foundation, the International Space University and Singularity University. Before founding Moon Express, Bob was also a founder of Odyssey Moon in 2006, the first registered team in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Bob’s past experience, including with Odyssey Moon, led him to move to the U.S. to pursue his dream of creating a commercial space company dedicated to opening up the Moon’s resources to benefit humanity. In 2010 Moon Express was created and Bob’s new company entered the Google Lunar XPRIZE and subsequently won $1.25 million in milestone prizes including the $1 million Landing Prize and $250,000 for the Imaging Prize.
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The latest SpaceQ podcast is out and this week we're doing something a little different. My guest is Wayne Ellis, a space and defence consultant with AppSpace Solutions of Winnipeg who was also a past president of the Canadian Space Society.Instead of an interview, Wayne and I discussed some of the notable current events including Canada's new astronauts and the value of the astronaut program, the Space Advisory Board space strategy consultation, the government's Innovation Superclusters Initiative, space and the new defence policy, satellite servicing and the reconstituted U.S. National Space Council.
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My guest today is Jim Cantrell, CEO and founder of Vector Space Systems.Vector Space Systems may be a company that’s only a year old, but it's built on a strong heritage of individuals, hardware and they recently closed their Series A round of founding with Sequoia Capital for $21 million.They are building a family of launch vehicles and a small satellite constellation to become the Amazon Web Services in the sky. They are entering a market space where there is a shortage of small satellite launch capacity and if they can get their launch vehicles operational in the time frame they’ve set out, they have an opportunity to capture some of the small satellite launch market.
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My guest today is Peter Visscher, Chief Technology Officer at Ontario Drive and Gear.Ontario Drive and Gear is not your typical space company. In fact, for most of its 55 year history, Ontario Drive and Gear had nothing to do with space, that is until 2008. And still today, this New Hamburg based business, just west of Kitchener-Waterloo, is still primarily known for developing gears and transmission systems as well as their ARGO all terrain vehicles.How they got involved in the space sector is part of the story we’ll hear today. The other part of the story is how this company has turned that involvement into a new commercial line of XTreme terrain robotics, or XTR, and how their robotic mobility platform might be roving the surface of the moon in the not too distant future.
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My guest today is Jessica West who is the Project Manager for the annual Space Security Index published by Project Ploughshares.The Space Security Index tracks developments and activities related to four indicators of the security of outer space - environmental sustainability, access to and use of space, technologies for space security, and space governance - to capture long-term changes.Today, we’ll discuss several topics from the latest Space Security Index including space debris, commercial space, space-based military systems and other important issues. As well, we'll touch on the recent release of Canada’s new Defence policy.
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On January 14th of this year, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched the first 10 satellites of the Iridium Next satellite constellation. Shortly, another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch with the next 10 satellites in the constellation to be deployed.Ahead of the scheduled launch, Aireon CEO Don Thoma participated in a media briefing. Here are his comments on the progress Aireon has been making.
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My guest for episode 2 is Aram Kerkonian, a lawyer from Ontario, studying a masters in law and a research assistant of the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University and the co-author of the recently completed Independent Review of the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act.The department of Global Affairs Canada tasked the Institute of Air and Space Law to complete the independent review, the second by the Institute, the first having been completed in 2012.As part of its recommendations the report states Canada should implement a new General Outer Space Act. I discussed that issue and others related to the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act that are important to the space community and Canadians, even if most aren't aware of it.You can learn more about the report on SpaceQ at http://spaceq.ca/independent-review-remote-sensing-space-systems-act/
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Welcome to episode 1 of the SpaceQ podcast. Our guest for the show is Sylvain Laporte, the president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).Mr. Laporte joined SpaceQ via telephone on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, 2017. Since this was the first interview we've ever conducted with Mr. Laporte, we discussed a variety of topics including the current astronaut selection initiative, the CSA's budget, a policy issue, the upcoming RADARSAT Constellation Mission, climate change, space commercialization, the CSA's education and public outreach efforts and some of the concepts for missions beyond low Earth orbit including a possible Canadian effort at the moon.
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Short Take is a feature of SpaceQ where we take excerpts from a longer interview and embed them into the article on our website at https://spaceq.ca.In today's Short Take I asked Steve Oldham, Senior Vice President, Strategic Business Development at SSL, for a comment on the new lawsuit SSL filed versus Orbital ATK regarding the data breach on a NASA server. Steve didn't hold back with his comment.Read the story: https://spaceq.ca/is-the-data-breach-by-orbital-atk-of-ssl-data-on-a-nasa-server-corporate-espionage/
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Short Take is a feature of SpaceQ where we take excerpts from a longer interview and embed them into the article on our website at http://spaceq.ca.In today’s Short Take I spoke with Mike Safyan and Rachel Holm of Planet Labs.Planet Labs is an earth observation company who see growth opportunities in Canada. In mid-2015 they acquired Blackbridge of Lethbridge, Alberta and their RapidEye constellation of 5 satellites. They also hope to open a ground station in Inuvik sometime this year.Here's the link to the story: https://spaceq.ca/planet-labs-sees-growth-opportunity-in-canada/
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Short Take is a new feature to SpaceQ where we take excerpts from a longer interview and embed them into the article on our website at spaceq.ca. In today’s Short Take I spoke with John Isella, of Maritime Launch Services who are looking to open a Spaceport in Nova Scotia for a medium class satellite launch service.Here's the link to the story: https://spaceq.ca/maritime-launch-services-to-decide-on-nova-scotia-spaceport-in-march/
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