SpaceQ Space news and analysis.

Legal and military headaches are standing in the way of data-sharing for GPS, remote sensing and other types of Canadian-used space assets, according to several speakers at the Canadian Space Summit on Sunday.

Northern communities will benefit from Canada’s research into plant-based, closed life support systems that are being developed for space, according to Alan Scott, Research and Development Coordinator at COM DEV.

US based Bigelow Aerospace comes to Ottawa to remind our astronauts that they have an alternative ride to orbit and a new place to visit after the shuttle retires. Meanwhile, back in the bureaucracy, our proud Canadian military waits patiently for a new, but not terribly different, space defence policy update and in Saint-Hubert, others prefer to ignore astronauts and businesses to instead focus on …

NASA has just completed its first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes including the Great Lakes and have determined Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years as a result of climate change.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today that is has been accepted as a full member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). The committee is a forum for the coordination of activities related to the issues of man-made and natural debris in space.

As Canadians bump up their involvement in space-based earth observation, one of the pressing problems looming is how to deorbit those satellites once their missions are completed. This was one of the themes of the Earth Observation track at this past weekends Canadian Space Summit.

Date: July 17-22, 2011 Location: St. John’s, Newfoundland Web Site: http://www.agu.org/meetings/chapman/2011/ecall/ About: Despite some 50 years of space research, fundamental questions remain concerning the physics of Earth’s radiation belts and inner magnetosphere. Our ability to protect spacecraft systems from the hazardous space environment depends on our knowledge of geospace. In the last decade there has been a resurgence in radiation belt research in parallel with …

Date: July 11 -15, 2011 Location: Saint-Michel-des-Saints, QC J0K 3B0 Web Site: http://craq-astro.ca/moffat/ About: We are organizing a meeting to celebrate four decades of contributions of Professor Anthony F.J. Moffat to massive-star research. Since his first papers on open clusters in the early 70’s, Tony’s research interests have expanded in many directions to cover a multitude of aspects of massive stars. The meeting will encompass …

Date: June 19 -22, 2011 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Web Site: http://www.ptmss.com/ About: The purpose for this conference is to promote a closer relationship between the space and mining sectors. The intent is to allow mining experts to network with space scientists and engineers, to share knowledge, and to foster collaboration. The focus of the conference will be solid planet sciences. Topics will be limited to …

Date: May 30 – June 2, 2011 Location: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario Web Site: http://www.casca.ca/annual_meetings.php About: CASCA Annual Meetings are open to all interested persons (whether belonging to the Society or not) who register in attendance. Presentation of scientific papers is restricted to members or applicants for membership or temporary residents of Canada who are sponsored by a present member or other speakers …