Science

Emily Levesque is an astronomer and Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington. She is known for her work on massive stars and using these stars to investigate galaxy formation.

On Friday, August 24th NASA hosted a media teleconference on the OSIRIS-REx mission which will return an asteroid sample to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now preparing to conduct approach maneuvers as it heads for a December 3rd rendezvous with asteroid Bennu.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? The headline reads “How Canadian technology could protect Space Force troops” and I clicked on the headline.

Canada has a vibrant astronomy community involved in ground-based and space-based astronomy programs and missions. According to my guest, Rob Thacker, we’re doing ok with ground-based astronomy programs but are failing when it comes to space-based astronomy missions.

While originally designed to last only two years, SCISAT is set to celebrate its fifteenth birthday this August. The concept for the mission came about over 20 years ago and some of the data being collected is still unique. There’s no other satellite like it, and plans to replace it are in a bureaucratic holding pattern.

For the first time since the early 70’s humanity is preparing to venture beyond low Earth orbit. In so doing we’ll have to deal with a variety of potential health problems including visual impairment.

The Canadian Space Agency has awarded three contracts to universities related to last years Space Exploration Science Maturation Study and a robotic technology contract to MDA.

This week we’re doing something a little different and unplanned. On Friday, April 6 Western University in London, Ontario held its 4th annual Space Day.

The Liberal government wanted to have a Chief Science Advisor. They found one in Dr. Mona Nemer. Now the Canadian Space Agency wants a Science Advisor who reports directly to president Sylvain Laporte.

The Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan is one of two mission concept finalists selected by NASA as part of their New Frontiers program. Professor Catherine Neish of Western’s Department of Earth Science and a core member of the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration is a co-investigator, the lone Canadian on the mission.