Top Canadian Space Officials Share Implications of Artemis 2

Last week, much of the fanfare surrounding Artemis 2 focused on Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – and rightly so, as Hansen is a highly qualified individual well-deserving of this special mission seat.

Hansen will fly around the Moon no earlier than November 2024 with a crew of three NASA astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch) in the first mission to go out there since Apollo 17’s landing in December 1972.

But what should not be neglected is the Canadian space policy that got Hansen his seat. Back in 2019, the Canadian government committed to funding Canadarm3, as part of a $2.05 billion set of funding for lunar activities. Canadarm3 (built by MDA) will service NASA’s Gateway space station at the moon later in the 2020s, while a series of payloads also funded in 2019 will bring Canadian work to the surface under the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) Lunar Accelerator Exploration Program (LEAP.)

To be sure, Canada has always been a player in space – its years of studies of the upper atmosphere drew praise back in the days of the 1967 Chapman Report that set out early Canadian space policy, and Canada was the third nation to send a satellite aloft with Alouette in 1962. Canadarm technology was included as an essential part of the space shuttle program.

Of course, Canadarm2 and Dextre continue to play key maintenance and robotics roles aboard the International Space Station. The CSA receives a 2.3% share of ISS activities, roughly a flight every six years along with associated science, as a result of its robotics contribution.

But weeks ago, Canada deepened its work in the space sector even further – which is supremely important as our exports-focused country is looking to get involved with the quickly growing cislunar exploration sector.

All told, Budget 2023 included $2.5 billion in funding: that’s $1.1 billion to extend Canada’s participation in ISS until 2030, alongside other partners; $76.5 million for Gateway science across eight years that will presumably support the future Canadian astronaut mission there; $1.2 billion over 13 years to create a lunar utility vehicle; and $150 million over five years to extend LEAP.

The benefits of such moon exploration for Canadians more generally will include testing equipment and payloads in remote environments, artificial intelligence, and “advancing our understanding of radiation and human health,” according to CSA president Lisa Campbell in an exclusive SpaceQ interview obtained April 2.

“We need space more than ever now. We’re one species on a fragile planet. It inspires young people,” added Campbell, who then spoke to some of the specific benefits about the new funding for CSA. A previously announced mini-rover, set to fly in 2026, will “help with the hunt for water ice,” which will allow for in-situ resource utilization to reduce shipments from Earth while Canadarm3 will not only maintain Gateway, but will be part of a set of “reliable improvements” for robotic arms in extreme or remote environments.

Canada is also a cooperating member of the European Space Agency  (ESA) and in November, the CSA tweeted that it had participated in the European Union’s Ministerial Council meeting Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 “to have access to opportunities in the European market.” Campbell told SpaceQ that the CSA continues to “see the benefit to our interests because Canada’s space industry is export-oriented” with regard to the ESA membership.

Notably, however, the Canadian government elected last year not to renew a space-related section of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the EU after no Canadian organization was able to access contracts covered by the agreement. You can read more about what happened in this SpaceQ report from last year.

Of course, funding in Canadian space is not only for the CSA. As such, SpaceQ additionally asked François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry of Canada responsible for CSA, how government departments might deepen or enhance their relationship with CSA alongside the new moon funding. This is what he had to say about it, in an interview on April 2 just hours before Hansen’s mission announcement:

“I would think so,” Champagne said. “There’s a lot of things that that we can do from space. Climate change, for example, is front and centre and in the mind of all Canadians. There’s forest fires, and we have RADARSAT [to monitor them], for example. That technology is helping to help prevent and prepare for natural disasters.”

RADARSAT is the long-running MDA series of satellites that monitor Earth in synthetic aperture radar; the active ones include RADARSAT2 (launched in 2007) and the trio RADARSAT Constellation Mission launched in 2009. Both MDA and the CSA are looking to successor satellites and systems for future Earth observation needs, and Champagne also pointed to applications across government that may increase with the new funding.

“For example, I think in Nunavut, I saw where someone had developed a map, which uses imagery from satellites,” Champagne said. “They can see ice melting or where they could be some dangers for example, for people who go in different part of woods. This is coupled with Indigenous knowledge in terms of being able to identify herds of caribou, for example. We’re really bringing space technology to the service of people.” Artemis 2’s applications may also extend to yet another program of CSA: its ongoing Deep Space Healthcare Challenge and Deep Space Food Challenge, both of which are expected to announce winners in 2024. It will be interesting to see how much more funding is available for space initiatives in the wake of Artemis 2, as Canada has said openly it is hoping for a surface mission and it has two unflown active astronauts besides Hansen: Jenni-Sidey Gibbons and Joshua Kutryk, who were both hired in 2017.