The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) issued a Call for Ideas (CFI) on August 29, 2024 related to science and technology small payloads for space missions.

There is no fixed end to this CFI and the CSA describes it as a “continuous open application,” though an initial first cut-off date is set for September the 23, 2024. The CFI is open to Canadian universities who are developing small space payloads.

The CSA states that while the CFI is continuously open, “there are specific cut-off dates for specific opportunities. Please consult this page regularly to find out about open opportunities.”

By way of an introduction the CSA said, “This is an Invitation to Canadian universities to submit ideas for science and technology development-related payloads, dedicated for small space missions. The CSA will gather your valuable input to create a pool of space payload ideas for various initiatives to meet future mission needs.”

“Recent trends have shown that developing smaller spacecrafts, such as nanosats and miniaturizing technologies, greatly increases the capacity to access space to perform low-Earth orbit missions and to provide a low-cost option for deep space exploration, up to the Moon, Mars, and even further, as the technologies progress.”

The CSA did provide some specific criteria for ideas that they are open to related to expected available opportunities.

Innovation and feasibility
Commercial, strategic and technological relevance
Performance outcomes and impacts
Direct or indirect business opportunity for the Canadian industry

And they provided a list of ideas they are “especially interested in.”

Earth observation capabilities
AI-enabled space systems
Astronomy and planetary science investigation
Future secure communications using disruptive innovations in space
Climate change data using space-based assets
Space debris mitigation technology
Technology for the reduction of light pollution and electromagnetic emissions
Remote medicine and health care
Generic spacecraft technology (e.g. propulsion, power, etc.)

The first opportunity

The first opportunity is for the Educational CubeSat Open source (ECO-I) pilot initiative.

The CSA says the ECO-1 “is a pilot initiative developed under the Space Science and Technology Directorate. It proposes a complete end-to-end mission on a 6U CubeSat platform, from pre-project phase to satellite operations, including payload development and launch. The main goal is to provide recurrent CubeSat platform missions for the future needs of the government of Canada and academic (ECO-II, III, IV…) with ECO-I as its first pilot iteration. The intention is to make the technical documents available, during and after the project, to academia and industry as open source.”

The closing date for the ECO-1 initiative is September 23, 2024.

It appears as though this is a great opportunity for university teams to put forward some of their ideas and get payloads in space.