MDA, a large Canada space applications company recently received seven Space Technology Development Program (STDP) contracts from the Canadian Space Agency to research and develop advanced space technology projects.
MDA is well-known in the space community for flagship projects such as the Canadarm series of robotic arms (most recently receiving a contract for Canadarm3), and the Radarsat series of Earth observation satellites that assist Canada with monitoring global warming and disaster relief (most recently deploying Radarsat Constellation). This new set of contracts will help with earlier-stage projects that could one day benefit Canadians in new ways.
“Funding from CSA through the STDP is instrumental in developing next-generation commercial space technologies, and we are grateful for the support,” MDA officials said in a statement to SpaceQ. “In the satellite communications market, for example, our competitors in Europe and the U.S. receive substantial R&D [research and development] funding from their respective government agencies, and it is extremely important that our government agencies support the Canadian industry in a similar way so that we can compete internationally.”
The act of commercializing space has received a lot of attention lately south of the border. The Trump administration requested $150 million in the last fiscal year for NASA to help commercialize the International Space Station and low Earth object platforms, but Congress only allotted $15 million. (This year’s budget is still being negotiated.) That said, NASA is moving ahead with private ventures on the ISS, including offering a slot for private modules and opening up the research facility to short-term stays by privately employed astronauts.
Commercialization is spreading to other space spheres as well. NASA’s planned Artemis moon landing will feature a suite of robotic landers and helpers under the Commercial Lunar Services Program (CLPS). In satellite servicing, a robotic refueller from Northrop Grumman linked up with an Intelsat satellite earlier this year to extend the satellite’s life. Naturally, there are also commercial opportunities in matters such as cargo shipments, microgravity experiments and myriad space-to-Earth applications (with Earth observation being just one example.)
Speaking more generally about commercial space markets, MDA officials stated that due to the early stage of the industry, it can be challenging to receive funding and recurring sales are often not enough to recover development costs.
“The funding support from CSA plays a vital role in the early development of Canadian products aimed at the commercial space market, by helping technologies get off the ground to enable what is projected to be a prosperous market in the future. This is true not only for MDA, but for all of the Canadian space industry,” officials stated.
“The CSA funding also allows us to explore breakthrough technologies at very low TRL [technology readiness levels] that accelerates the technology transfer from the research laboratories, and ultimately enables the commercialization of promising products. The funding fosters collaboration between industry and academia, which then strengthen Canada’s international position for space-related technologies.”
Beyond the commercial aspects of receiving funding, MDA said the money would allow the company to solve problems in space that are only started to be addressed by emergent markets, such as orbital debris. Early-stage sensors could eventually be deployed on NASA’s planned Gateway station, which Canada does plan to participate in, through operating autonomous vehicles and robotics that use intelligent computation or artificial intelligence.
These are advanced technologies contracts that MDA received, with the amount allocated and the office receiving the money:
Robotics Servicing System (RSS) Arm-joint Development ($935,132, Brampton, Ont.) – This will increase the TRL of a robotic arm joint for a robotic servicing system that MDA plans to use in the commercial space market. “This will support MDA in being the first to market for a commercial robotic arm, maintaining our position as a global leader in space robotics, while bringing our 40-year heritage and operational experience into the commercial space robotics market that will see significant long-term demand driven by increasing numbers of satellites and exploration activity in space,” MDA stated.
Onboard Closed-loop Tracking for Space Situational Awareness Applications ($408,312, Richmond, B.C.) – This will develop a machine learning object classification algorithm to detect and track space objects, as part of larger efforts to monitor space debris and do real-time assessment.
Advanced Antennas and Payload Technologies for Software Defined Satellites ($1 million, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que.) – This will develop antenna and payload technologies that can be configured, via software, for individual mission needs. “This development is crucial because in addition to delivering the flexible solutions that are demanded by the operators, the reconfigurability enables economies of scale through hardware standardization, ultimately helping our customers be successful by making satellites more affordable,” MDA officials stated. “For example, GEO [geosynchronous] commercial satellite communication antennas are specifically designed for each single mission due to specific coverage requirements, satellite position, etc. The same generic software-reconfigurable design would be able to support all these different missions. As we have seen through our work on constellations, a higher volume results in much lower cost and accelerated schedules. This STDP is thus paving the way towards a new level of performance, affordability and cost. One could say that with this work we will achieve the mythical ‘better, faster and cheaper’.”
Beam Hopping Technology Development for HTS Communication Systems ($1 million, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que.) – This will develop a “beam hopping technique” that will serve the broadband communication market. Beam hopping allows satellite capacity to be shared among different beams, which reduces costs for transmission.
This is a “next-wave” STDP contract MDA received, with the amount allocated and the office receiving the money:
Hemispherical Camera for Space Situational Awareness ($452,694, Kanata, Ont.) – This will develop a high-sensitivity detector for better range and resolution in orbit, to track objects in low Earth orbit.
The following are STDP feasibility studies MDA received that are expected to accelerate projects and technologies with commercial potential:
AI-Enabled Non-Cooperative Sensor Mission Validation Tool ($99,696, Kanata, Ont.) – This will use machine learning in an attempt to push forward evaluation and training systems for satellite rendezvous and proximity operations tools, through model-based tracking systems.
Large-Scale True Time Delay Optical Beamforming for RF Phased Array ($100,000, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que.) – Phased arrays are common in low Earth orbit satellite constellations, but the phase shifters currently being used are prone to a problem known as “dependent beam shaping”, which distorts the beam and reduces its bandwidth capacity. This contract will examine the feasibility of a technique to overcome this problem, called true time delay, which could also reduce the mass, size and power consumption of these arrays in orbit and make them cheaper to launch. “This contract is of great importance for MDA considering the constant demand for payload flexibility from our customers,” MDA officials stated. “It is indeed very difficult for them to figure out where their market will be in 15 years from the satellite order, and providing flexibility reduces this uncertainty and ultimately reduces the cost per sellable bit of the satellite. MDA sees beam-hopping as a very efficient flexible alternative to fully digital satellites, at a fraction of the cost and with much higher power efficiency.”
MDA officials emphasized that the contracts, taken as a whole, benefit the company in a number of ways, including bringing down non-recurring engineering costs, increasing TRL, removing risk to the customer during development, and reducing the time to the market. Other benefits include developing better and new products, since customers “do not need to invest as much to bring a product to commercialization”, along with enhancing processes to stay at the leading edge of technology development and evaluating the potential of different technologies.
Once the projects are complete, MDA officials stated these early-stage contracts will help the company do development on related technologies.
“Through these contracts, the aim is to raise the TRL in order to be incorporated into a full development program,” MDA officials stated. “However, even before the contract is completed, we will be in a position to start incorporating the concept into our proposals, where applicable, in an effort to demonstrate our credibility and readiness for providing this advanced technology. At the end of the STDP, we will have all the cards in hands to push the development to a higher TRL through a customer contract.
“Following [each] feasibility study and if the outcome is positive,” MDA officials continued in the statement, “the next step would be to prepare a development plan to design and manufacture the technology. In parallel, we would further evaluate the market for our product, engage with customers about this technology and establish a business plan to commercialize it.”