Grants and Contributions

The purpose of this project is to address main challenges in the areas of dynamics and simulation of mechanical systems with applications to robotic systems, contact dynamics, vehicles and machines. The additional funding will enhance the project and extend the work to space robotic systems and address additional objectives. These additional objectives include the development of methods and tools for AI-assisted space robotic contact tasks using the redundancies of robotic arms, and the modelling and analysis of complex space robotic end-effector mechanisms and space robotic contact. The expected results will further strengthen these sectors and will generate the basis for new business opportunities and contribute to the creation of new jobs.

Applicants with a design for a remote healthcare technology concept were invited to apply to the Challenge. After competing in Stage 2 of the Challenge as a semi-finalist, the recipient was selected as a finalist for a $350,000 cash prize.

Balloon-borne visible and near-UV telescopes can achieve a resolution over a wide field
much better than can be achieved on the ground, and comparable only with space telescopes. The resolution achievable with visible light astronomical telescopes from the ground is limited by random refraction of light by the turbulent atmosphere to ~0.5” in the best conditions. Conversely, stratospheric balloon-borne telescopes, operating above 99.5% of the Earth’s atmosphere, avoid atmospheric distortions present in ground-based telescopes. The capability of the instrument to be developed by this project will be unmatched in the blue and near-UV by any current or planned observatory.

This project will provide exceptional training for students in the development and operation of complex instruments in a space-like environment. The GigaBIT observatory will take images with detail comparable to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, but with a much higher sensitivity. With the development of that unique capability, Canada has the opportunity to lead the next great sky survey, with a suite of unmatched abilities: an angular resolution better than the Euclid space telescope, with depths several magnitudes deeper than its deep survey, while operating in the near UV.

The Pandora Mission is low-cost space telescope designed measure the composition of distant transiting planets. The Pandora payload has the unique capability of measuring precision photometry simultaneously with near-infrared spectroscopy that will enable scientists to disentangle stellar activity from the subtle signature of a planetary atmosphere.

With a launch date of March 2025, the Pandora mission represents a new class of low-cost space mission that will achieve out-of-this-world science.

This project’s purpose is to educate, train and actively engage as many students (college, bachelors, masters and doctorate) as possible in STEM and in particular, space technology and science. The mechanism to achieve this STEM engagement is the opportunity to design, build, assemble, integrate, test and launch a 3U CubeSat (small satellite) into low-Earth orbit. The goal is to collect the scientific data and analyze it to develop tools and insight to monitor and study climate change. The scientific objective is to analyze the multispectral camera imagery to assess how well harmful algal blooms could be detected with onboard machine learning models and whether tree events could be monitored well in-orbit.

Killick-2 is a project proposed by Memorial University (MUN) for the Canadian Space Agency CUBICS initiative. The MUN team proposes a 3U CubeSat called Killick-2 containing a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Reflectometry payload to measure ocean parameters from space. The applications proposed for Killick-2 are sea ice detection and concentration estimation and ocean dynamic parameters (wind and wave). The Killick-2 supervisory team will select a mission development team from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and will consist of lead researchers in postgraduate studies and an engineering team consisting of undergraduate electrical and mechanical engineering students. The postgraduate team will lead the GNSS-R payload development, while the undergraduate team will lead the satellite bus development. The undergraduate design team will be composed primarily junior and senior students. The Killick-2 project has significant benefits to Canada in the context of development of highly qualified personnel (HQPs) in space systems and earth observation. Furthermore, Killick-2 will gather a significant GNSS-R dataset that will be useful for the understanding the impacts of climate change.

The RADSAT-SK2 project’s main purpose is to enable Saskatchewan post-secondary students to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to participate in the Canadian aerospace industry, while contributing to scientific research in space technologies. A major goal of the project is to bring together the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina under the common effort of demonstrating and evaluating the effectiveness of new radiation mitigating technologies for computer hardware in space, engaging students in unique hands-on learning, and educating the public about Canada's and Saskatchewan's contributions to STEM. Images from the camera installed on the satellite will be shared publicly as part of an advocacy campaign to spark more interest in space exploration, Earth observation, and climate science.

This is a grant to support the study with AstroSat of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), NGC 205 and five other nearby galaxies by combining UVIT and Hubble Space Telescope observations. The grant will also support the study with AstroSat of the X-ray binary source Her X-1 and investigate the structure of its accretion disk.

This grant will fund a project dedicated to UVIT imaging of a sample of nearby galaxies with the goal of measuring radiative heating and study how the absorbed light can disrupt star formation and even slow down or halt galaxy evolution.

This grant will fund a study by UVIT aboard AstroSat of the ultraviolet light emitted by a sample of low surface brightness spiral galaxies, combined with data from other telescopes to understand the current and past properties of these enigmatic galaxies.