Canada’s space program may not have a huge budget, but it does have one thing other countries don’t: a spot aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon.
“I think it’s a really cool reflection of the longstanding partnership between Canada and the United States,” said Chris Hadfield, who joined NASA on three missions to orbit, performed the first spacewalk by a Canadian astronaut and commanded the International Space Station before retiring.
Mr. Hansen, 47, paid tribute to American leadership and the work of Canadian scientists, engineers, military and government after his presentation at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday.
“All of our leadership, working together under a vision,” which he said went “step by step.” Those efforts, he said, “add to this moment where a Canadian goes to the moon through our international partnership, and that’s glorious.”
The Canadian Space Agency has secured Mr. Hansen’s place in 2020 through an agreement with NASA. Canada has committed to providing a robotic arm called Canadarm3 for Gateway, an American-led outpost orbiting the moon.
Canada was the first country to support Gateway in 2019, building on its experience with robotic weapons like the Canadarm2, which have been used by astronauts on the International Space Station since 2011. The next generation of the robotic system, Canadaarm 3you’ll use artificial intelligence to automate tasks such as moving tools around a Gateway site and making repairs.
This complex feat of engineering will be bolstered by part of the C$2.5 billion announced in the federal budget last week. Approximately $1.1 billion of that money will support the country’s presence on the International Space Station through 2023. The government is also allocating $1.2 billion for a lunar utility vehicle to help astronauts on the moon.
However, government spending lags behind other countries.
“Canada has always punched above its weight when you look at the relatively small space budget we have,” said Gordon Osinski, a planetary geologist at Western University in London, Ontario, who trains potential Artemis astronauts in geology.
Mr Hadfield said Canada’s ties to the US space program go back decades, to the launch of the Canadian Alouette 1 satellite on a US rocket. Canada was the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to get a satellite into orbit.
The Canadian Space Force employs more than 10,000 people. About a third of companies in the sector reported challenges recruiting for skilled positions, but saw bustling business despite an 11 percent drop in revenue from government-funded projects in 2019, according to the Canadian Space Agency. a report.
Some of the companies making waves in this sector are fairly new. Canadensys Aerospace Corporation, founded in 2013, was recently awarded the contract to build Canada’s first Moon pirate It can be launched as soon as 2026.
Dr. Osinski, who is also the principal investigator for the rover mission, said he was “very excited” about Monday’s announcement.
“I think out of all the countries on Earth, we’re going to have a Canadian aboard Artemis II,” he said, noting that Canada would be only the second country to send a person into deep space. “It’s a great day.”
Kenneth Chang Contribute to the preparation of reports.
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