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At the International Astronautical Congress held in Toronto last fall Canada and Israel signed an updated agreement on cooperation in space. This week the Canadian Space Agency released a request for proposals for a concept studies towards a Canada-Israel Space Mission (CISM).
Background from the Canadian Space Agency
During the International Astronautical Conference (IAC) in Toronto in September 2014, a renewed MOU for Canada-Israel Space Cooperation was signed by the Heads of the CSA and the ISA and witnessed by Industry Canada Minister James Moore and MK Jacob Perry, Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology. With this renewed MOU, CSA and ISA committed to carry out a joint study on a space mission concept that will be of mutual benefit to both countries. The key criteria for the selection process will be innovation and commercial potential. Taking into consideration of financial capability of both CSA and ISA, the selected mission shall be accommodated on a 50-kg class satellite or on a hosted payload platform. Since then, a joint CSA-ISA working group (WG) was created and extensive discussions have taken place. The WG agreed upon areas of priority to both countries:
– Novel technique for maritime object localization;
– Broadband telecommunications payloads with advanced on-board processing capability.A
An initial list of technologies that enable such mission concepts and that are of interest to industries of both countries has been identified:
– Long-wave Infrared Camera;
– Digital communications payload;
– Formation flying technology;
– Satellite bus;
– Software Defined Radio (SDR);
– On-board propulsion system.
Contract and Funding
Proposals are due by February 16, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. EST. The CSA along with the Israeli Space Agency (ISA) will select up to two proposals with work to begin in early March and last five months. The value of each contract is set at a maximum of $300,000.
– Concept Study for a Canada-Israel Space Mission (CISM) (9F064-20140724)
