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The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has announced the 1st Canadian Workshop on Orbital Debris to be held June 21-22 at the Canadian Space Agency conference centre in St-Hubert. The announcement follows the announcement last fall that the CSA became a full member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC).
The two day workshop will include invited speakers from IADC and NASA, followed by plenary sessions in line with the IADC Working Groups:
– Monitoring and Measurement of Orbital Debris: to gain information on man-made objects in near-Earth space; characterization and modeling of debris around the Earth; and the storage and timely access of data by electronic means.
– Protection: to assess the effects of OD damage; to evaluate the design and technology of spacecraft shielding against space debris; and associated test methods (including hypervelocity tests).
– Mitigation: the study of measures to avoid collisions with debris, reduce (or remove) debris, avoid the creation of space debris or reduce the hazards created by space debris.
– Regulation: to assess Canadian and international measures to regulate on the creation of debris and the safe disposal of space assets; and to consider other methods of national co-operation in relation to space debris.
Canada has two satellites preparing to launch which will help in monitoring orbital objects. The first, which is scheduled for launch on India’s PSLV-C20 launcher in Q2 of next year, is NEOSSAT. NEOSSAT or Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite which will detect and track asteroids as well as satellites. It is funded by Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The second satellite is Sapphire a project of the Department of Defence’s Directorate Space Development (D Space D). The Sapphire satellite will perform surveillance of objects in deep space, from 6,000 to 40,000 km, and provide timely relevant and accurate tracking data on Earth-orbiting objects in space. Sapphire is also schedule to launch on India’s PSLV-C20 launcher.
