Canada In Space

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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