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Sheila Fraser, Auditor General of Canada, presented her report to the House of Commons this week in which she called in to question the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) ability to implement its programs due to funding problems. These problems at CSA are not necessarily of its own making. Indeed, many of them predate the formation of the CSA. According to the Auditor General, the situation …

If former astronaut Marc Garneau has his way, Canada will soon become an important partner in several upcoming Mars missions. Garneau would also like to see Canada become a leader in several new space technology fields as well. Next Friday, Garneau, who is now President of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), will define this vision to an audience at the University of Toronto. He will …

he Canadian Space Agency announced today that Steve Maclean will fly as a Mission Specialist on STS-115 which will visit the International Space Station in 2003. “Today, Canada continues its innovation and leadership in space sciences and I congratulate Steve MacLean for being Canada’s representative on this future space mission,” said Minister Allan Rock. “The International Space Station is a beacon for excellence and a …

Dr. Marc Garneau will assume leadership of the Canadian Space Agency on November 22. Garneau replaces Mac Evans who had been President for the last seven years and has served in the Canadian Space Agency for 35 years. It was only last February that Garneau transitioned from active astronaut to the role of Executive Vice-president. Last year at this time he had been preparing for …

It seems the Canadian Space Agency is having a hard time finding engineers to fill vacancies at the Robotics Section of the Space Technologies division. An email was forwarded to Canadian space advocacy groups urging them to make it known that three specific positions were open. The open positions are as follows: Mechanics and Dynamics Engineer Mechatronics Engineer Real-Time Systems Engineer If you’re interested in …

After being delayed for nine days the first support staff and crew have made it to the NASA Haughton-Mars Project and Mars Society base camp. The base camp is located right next to Haughton Crater on Devon Island in Canada’s high Arctic. Weather in the arctic is always an issue. This year the snow melt was a little latter than usual. Combine that with fog, …

On the heels of the Canadian Space Agency’s recent announcement of a major expansion of its space exploration program comes this new announcement of opportunity. Researchers have until June 28th to submit a letter of intent for their life science experiment. Successful proposals will be flown between 2004 and 2006 and have maximum annual funding of $100,000 for up to three years. Experiments must take …

While Canada’s robot arms do their work in orbit, Canadian researchers on the ground are developing cutting edge deep space life support systems. The University of Guelph in Ontario has opened a brand new Controlled Environment Systems (CES) research facility that will eventually contain 14 hypobaric (reduced pressure) chambers. The chambers – the first of which was opened last week – will allow researchers to …

Participants at the 3rd Canadian Space Exploration Workshop (CSEW) had the happy task on Saturday of putting together a wish list of scientific objectives for a Canadian program of Mars exploration. On Friday night, Canadian Space Agency Executive Vice President Marc Garneau had surprised the space sciences community by announcing his intention to see Canada become a major player in the international Mars research scene. …