Canada In Space

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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