SpaceQ Space news and analysis.
On June 2 of this year, ISED Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced that MDA would be getting a contract to “design, manufacture, test, and deliver robotics interfaces” for the Lunar Gateway. Today, MDA announced the contract was in place.
“MDA has completed Phase A, the system definition phase of this GERI ( Gateway External Robotics Interfaces) project. This new contract award covers the preliminary and detailed design of the robotic interfaces (Phases B and C), valued at $35.3 million.”
“Today’s contract announcement is the third contract awarded to MDA in conjunction with the multi-year, multi-phase $1 billion plus Canadarm3 program. MDA expects that a series of ongoing contracts will be issued in line with the major program phases and milestones.”
Mike Greenley, CEO, MDA said “Canada is renowned for its ability to deliver advanced operational robotic systems for the most demanding international space missions and MDA is hard at work to develop Canadarm3 to support hundreds of future missions to and from the International Gateway. We are incredibly proud of our partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, and we look forward to leveraging this technology and know-how into commercial space markets while creating jobs in Canada.”
The Canadian Space Agency describes the scope of the work as follows:
“The Gateway External Robotics Interfaces are fixtures that will be installed on Lunar Gateway modules and on visiting vehicles for future deep-space missions. They will allow Canadarm3 to anchor itself and move around the Gateway, and to retrieve payloads delivered on logistics vehicles and reposition them on the station. The interfaces will also supply power and data connections to the robotic elements and any attached payloads.”
