Grants and Contributions

This project will contribute to the Arctic POlar Night EXperiment (PONEX) campaign, which is a sub-orbital component of the Canadian Space Agency’s High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds (HAWC) mission. PONEX will involve a coordinated ground-based and aircraft field campaign in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, in January 2026 and will be the first such campaign to employ aircraft during polar night. This project will support two trainees, who will participate in the deployment, operation, and data analysis of two of the ground-based instruments: a scanning Doppler Lidar and a Water Vapour Lidar, both provided by Environment and Climate Change Canada. These instruments will measure vertical wind profiles, cloud base heights, planetary boundary layer heights, aerosol backscatter profiles, and water Docusign Envelope ID: F463D985-E1B1-4924-AD6E-88066E1BE7B5 vapour profiles. These measurements, in combination with other PONEX ground-based and aircraft datasets, will be used to undertake science investigations in support of the HAWC scientific objectives.

CTA is a non-profit of Canada with expertise in semi-active suspensions systems and advanced engineering for mobility. This project’s objective is to deliver an innovative damper design for wheeled extraterrestrial vehicles, using friction that can be modulated. This system replaces traditional fluid based damper elements that are not well suited for the harsh condition of space exploration. By using algorithms to modulate friction in real-time as a function of inputs such as speed, the system can improve the mobility of rovers, allow operation at faster speeds and improve systems lifespan. The project includes detailed design, manufacturing and characterization of a damper prototype in a laboratory. The disruptive technology could position Canada as a leader in advanced rover mobility, filling an important technological gap that overly complicated smart suspensions seem to overlook.

The HAWC satellite mission, currently under development, plans to place into orbit three Canadian atmospheric observation instruments, including TICFIRE, a radiometer designed to capture radiances emitted toward space in the thermal infrared and far-infrared. One of the first steps in processing TICFIRE data will be to classify the observed atmospheric scenes, which may consist of clear sky, aerosols, ice clouds, liquid clouds, or mixed-phase clouds. Measurements collected during the PONEX campaign by the FIRR-2 instrument, a precursor to TICFIRE, will be used to develop and evaluate artificial intelligence algorithms for atmospheric scene classification. This type of algorithm, which allows for the consideration of a wide range of variables affecting infrared emissions, is currently being considered in several satellite missions as a replacement for traditional classification approaches based on threshold systems using a limited number of variables.

The Polestar payload aims to address outstanding questions on the mechanism of space anemia. Polestar will test three key hypotheses: 1. Older red blood cells (RBC) are preferentially destroyed in space; 2. Space can induce a shift from adult to fetal hemoglobin; and 3. Space induces RBC morphological changes, causing RBC dysfunction. Using blood and air samples collected from the SpaceX Polaris Dawn five-day mission, Polestar will measure the effect of high-altitude space and space radiation on space hemolysis in four astronauts compared to four age-related and sex-matched ground controls. Polestar will investigate the subpopulation of hemolyzed RBCs, hemoglobin gene-switching, and RBC anomalies, using state-of-the-art methods often applied for the first time to space samples. Polestar leverages private space missions to speed up critical space life science advances.

Observations of cloud shapes and motions can constrain different processes that contribute to the weather on Mars, many of which also operate on the Earth. Observing the motions and variations in the quantity of dust in the atmosphere with height and location within Gale can provide a better understanding atmospheric mixing close to the surface driven by solar heating. These particles affect the amount of ultraviolet radiation within the crater, therefore, studying UV at Gale provides more detail on the seasonal cycle and the nature of Martian dust and cloud at the scale of individual particles. Lastly, this improved understanding of weather may help explain observed variations in the amount of methane and whether the source of that methane is small and local, or is carried into the crater from a larger, distant source.

Sustainable surface transportation of large elements (e.g. cargo, crew, etc.) over large distances on the Moon requires the use of traction drive systems. The specific combination of large cargo elements, challenging terrain (e.g. large slopes, abrasive regolith), and extended life in both vacuum and the extreme Lunar temperature environment exceed the capabilities of existing state-of-the-art terrestrial traction drive systems. MDA Space is proposing to develop a traction drive system to meet the demanding mission requirements of known and forecast Lunar rovers. Key market differentiators will be a traction drive system exhibiting high speed and torque capabilities, and a long life with no maintenance intervention, which can withstand the challenging Lunar night and regolith environments. Potential customers include the Lunar Utility Vehicle, NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), the European Lunar Polar Sample Return (LPSR) mission, and potentially pressurized rover missions.

This project aims to develop an AI-powered online platform using high-resolution satellite imagery to rapidly detect and monitor leafy spurge, a highly invasive plant threatening Canada's agriculture and biodiversity, mapping populations and tracking changes over time to support decision-making.

This project aims to map climate strongholds for migratory birds in Canada and their links to U.S. and Latin American sites, then uses satellite data and Indigenous knowledge to assess conditions breeding climate strongholds in the Hudson Bay Lowlands and connected nonbreeding areas.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.