Short Cuts: New Space Strategy Coming in June 2017, a Balanced Space Program and more

In today’s Short Cuts: Minister Bains, in remarks at the 2016 Canadian Aerospace Summit last week, said that a new space strategy will be launched next June with the new Space Advisory Board supporting the development of long term priorities for Canada’s space program. In part two of our series on the Canadian Space Policy Symposium we hear about the need for a balanced space program. The Fourth Canadian Satellite Design Challenge begins, iREx grants, Aerospace cluster and more.

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New: SpaceRef Canada is now accepting Op-Ed’s from academia, industry and those professionally involved in the space sector. If you’re interested in submitting an Op-Ed use this form or by email to [email protected].
Op-Ed’s typically run from 400 to 1,200 words, but submissions of any length will be considered. All submissions must be original, and exclusive to SpaceRef Canada. We will not consider articles that have already been published, in any form, in print or online.

New Canadian Space Strategy Coming in June 2017, SpaceRef Canada

At the recent AIAC 2016 Canadian Aerospace Space Summit Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Minister Bains in his speech said a new space strategy will be launched next June with the new Space Advisory Board supporting the development of long term priorities for Canada’s space program.
Since the new space strategy will be unveiled after the budget, does that mean the budget won’t include any new initiatives or funding for the space program? Or are there items that would presumably be in a new strategy that might be in the budget anyway?

A Balanced Space Program from the 2016 Space Policy Symposium, SpaceRef Canada

As was previously discussed in the first article in this series, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) is leading the effort on the governments Innovation Agenda. Representing ISED at the Space Policy Symposium was Sharon Irwin, Director, Space, Marine and Defence Aerospace, Defence and Marine Branch.
Irwin outlined the Six Pillars of the Innovation Agenda and how they relate to the space sector.

  1. Entrepreneurial and Creative Society
  2. Global Science Excellence
  3. World-Leading Clusters and Partnerships
  4. Grow Companies and Accelerate Clean Growth
  5. Compete in a Digital World
  6. Ease of Doing Business

Fourth Canadian Satellite Design Challenge Begins, SpaceRef

A record number of universities have signed up for the fourth Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.
The CSDC is a Canada-wide competition for teams of university students to design and build a “CubeSat” satellite, which measures 10x10x34 cm (about the size of a 2-litre carton of milk), and weighs no more than 4kg. The goal of the CSDC is to be able to launch the winning satellite in order to conduct its science research mission.

2017 Trottier Excellence Grants for Summer Interns iREx, CASCA

The institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), recently created at Université de Montréal, brings together professors, researchers and students specialized in the detection and characterization of exoplanets and low-mass objects, young stars and protoplanetary disks. They are engaged in a variety of observational, theoretical and instrumental projects. More details on the scientific programs of iREx are available on the following web site http://www.exoplanetes.umontreal.ca/

The institute is offering excellence grants at all levels (BSc, MSc, PhD and postdoctoral). At this time, iREx is calling for applications to Trottier Excellence Grants for Summer Interns. The summer internships last 4 months (May-August). They are a unique occasion for students at the BSc level to join iREx’s dynamic team and get involved in cutting-edge research in astrophysics. Interns will be able to participate actively to breakthrough scientific programs related to exoplanets and related thematic issues. The researchers who are available to supervise interns this summer are the following professors: Pierre Bastien (PB), Bjoern Benneke (BB), Nick Cowan (NC), Andrew Cumming (AC), René Doyon (RD), and David Lafrenière (DL), and the researchers Jason Rowe (JR), Loïc Albert (LA), Lison Malo (LM), Julien Rameau (JuR) and Lauren Weiss (LW). Internships in the following topics are offered.

Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) News Items

  1. Seed funding for meetings, campaigns and data-bases for 2017 is available through SCOSTEP’s VarSITI program. Guidelines for applications for this funding can be found on the VarSITI website at www.varsiti.org -> Organization.
    The deadline for applications is December 1, 2016.
  2. SCOSTEP will hold a Town Hall meeting on “Future directions for solar-terrestrial physics research”, on Monday, December 12, 2016, in San Francisco, during the Fall AGU meeting. The Town Hall meeting will take place at the Moscone West, #2011, at 18:15 – 19:15. The Town Hall meeting is part of SCOSTEP’s effort to develop community consensus in defining its future activities based on surveys of (i) current status, (ii) knowledge gap, and (iii) future directions in observations and modeling to fill the gaps. All are welcome.
    William Ward (Canadian SCOSTEP representative, [email protected])

Aerospace cluster takes off at Toronto’s Downsview Park, Skies

The federal and provincial governments combined contribution of nearly $44 million to relocate and expand Centennial College’s aerospace program at Downsview is the first step towards the creation of the Downsview aerospace hub, says the executive director of an academia-industry aerospace consortium.

Autonomous robots for planetary exploration, Canadian Space Agency

A new blog post on the Canadian Space Agency talks about autonomous rovers developed for planetary exploration but which has also found use in terrestrial mining.

Upcoming Noteworthy Events

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About Marc Boucher

Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor & publisher. He is the founder of SpaceQ Media Inc. and CEO and co-founder of SpaceRef Interactive LLC. Boucher has 20+ years working in various roles in the space industry and a total of 30 years as a technology entrepreneur including creating Maple Square, Canada's first internet directory and search engine.

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