Science

For the fourth consecutive year, a Canadian led Mars Sample Return Simulation will begin today in preparation for a future international Mars sample return mission. The simulation brings together over 50 scientists and engineers from across Canada and international collaborators from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Anyone who has watched a science fiction movie about travelling in space knows that the weightless environment of microgravity on a space ship affects your ability to navigate and orient yourself. But in real life, the impact of microgravity on an astronaut’s brain both in space and after returning to earth has received very little scientific attention.

This week the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) issued an announcement of opportunity (AO) for researchers to participate in a stratospheric balloon flight in Alice Springs, Australia in April 2017. The AO is part of the Flight for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) program.

The Perimeter Institute published today that a team led by the Institute’s Tim Johannsen along with the University of Waterloo have demonstrated a new method for testing the theory of general relativity using black holes.

After passing over North America, a crew member aboard the International Space Station looked back at the coastline and took this photograph of one of the world’s most famous bays. The image shows the upper 54 kilometers (33 miles) of the 220 kilometer-long (140 mile) Bay of Fundy, site of the highest vertical tidal range on the planet.

Western University is home to some of Canada’s top meteor and asteroid experts and this Thursday, June 30th the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration at Western will host public lectures and other events on Asteroid Day.

On Friday, April 15, 2016 the Perimeter Institute hosted a half day conference on with the theme Inspiring Future Women in Science. One of those speakers was Natalie Panek, a Mission Systems Engineer from MDA Robotics.

Today the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development announced that the Canadian Space Agency was once again looking for astronauts, the first call for astronauts since 2008. SpaceRef first reported this yesterday as the likely announcement.

A Canadian demonstration small satellite, CLAIRE by GHGSat, is scheduled to launch on June 21 at 23:57 p.m. EDT (June 22, 03:57 GMT) on an Indian rocket as part of a secondary payload of smaller satellites to be launched. The primary payload is the Indian Cartosat 2C high-resolution earth observation developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).