Grants and Contributions

Following the Announcement of Opportunity published on Nov. 9, 2020, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to work in collaboration with researchers from the University of Alberta, Université de Sherbrooke, and MacEwan University, to develop a research program addressing key scientific questions related to geology, geophysics, and prospecting. The team will use impact craters to learn more about planetary interiors and study lunar volatiles, chemical components that are important to the future of deep-space exploration.

During the Apollo program, lunar surface
operations were hampered by the effects of
fine, pervasive, highly adhesive lunar dust.
The missions have shown challenges like
obscuration of vision, clogging of
equipment, dust covering/abrasion of many
sensitive external surfaces, degradation of
seal and thermal performance. It became
clear that before extensive lunar
exploration efforts can continue, strategies
must be developed to mitigate the effects of
lunar dust.

The project aims at providing a solution to
this challenge by advancing the development
and enhancement of Integrity Testing
Laboratory's (ITL) unique cornerstone lunar
Dust Mitigation Technology for sensitive
materials of external space structures that
will be used in robotic and manned missions
for Moon exploration. One of the major tasks
in this project will include participating
in a coming Lunar mission that will allow
testing ITL samples and prototype
spectrometers in real Lunar environment
conditions. The data from this Lunar dust
exposure experiment will be evaluated and
compared to data from ground-based exposures
of similar samples in ITL's upgraded lunar
environment simulator. Another major task in
the project will see building two prototypes
of portable spectrometers for evaluation of
major thermal optical properties for use in
planetary space environments. The results
from this project will serve as a foundation
for creating greater capacity to simulate
the Moon's dusty environment for further
testing and validation on Earth of Integrity
Testing Laboratory's technologies.

Contract award to the 2018 LSRS AO.

This experiment will assess cardiovascular
deconditioning during spaceflight. We will
assess the changing cardiovascular
function throughout the duration of the
data collection windows to demonstrate the
impact of aspects such as spaceflight,
exercise, activities, sleep and mental
health state on the cardiovascular system.

Space flight is hard on the body. Low levels of gravity, exposure to radiation, increased stress – these factors affect an astronaut in ways that can lead to cardiovascular disease. Researchers are working to better understand the effects of space flight on the human body so they can find ways to keep astronauts as healthy as possible.

This grant is allocated following the AstroSat2020 directed Announcement of Opportunity. It will support the data analysis effort of Canadian guest observers with AstroSat for a project entitled ‘ASTROSAT Imaging Survey of M13 and X-Ray Outburst of the Millisecond Pulsar SAX J1808-3658.'

This grant is allocated following the AstroSat2020 directed Announcement of Opportunity. It will support the data analysis effort of Canadian guest observers with AstroSat for a project entitled ‘Measuring Feedback and Molecular Cloud Lifetime with the PHANGS-ASTROSAT Atlas.'

This grant is allocated following the AstroSat2020 directed Announcement of Opportunity. It will support the data analysis effort of Canadian guest observers with AstroSat for a project entitled ‘A FUV Survey of Virgo Cluster Galaxies.'

Current satellites capable of detecting soil moisture are well validated for low vegetation areas, however, they have less accuracy in forested regions such as the boreal forest. In this research we will perform a soil moisture measurement campaign in a boreal forest to improve soil moisture estimates from two satellite missions: NASA's SMAP and ESA's SMOS. Our improved soil moisture estimates will be used to update models used by Environment and Climate Change Canada for weather, drought and forest fire prediction.

The project will use satellite, model, and ground-based data to characterise the extent and variability of mineral dust aerosol (MDA) in the atmosphere above northern Canada, and identify the sources from which it is emitted at the surface. The impact of MDA on the radiation budget and clouds – both important components of the climate system – will be quantified, as will its contribution to air quality indicators. The project also involves validation of several Canadian-led/partnered satellite-based systems that measure aerosol and cloud properties.

The boreal biome constitutes an integral component of the climate system. Our limited quantitative understanding of coupled carbon and water fluxes hampers reliably predicting the boreal biome response to projected increases in disturbance frequency and intensity. This project will enhance the ecological realism of the boreal biome in a terrestrial biosphere model (CLASSIC). After exploring empirical relationships between microwave vegetation optical depth (VOD) and tree hydraulic traits, we will introduce a tree hydraulics scheme into CLASSIC. Next, we will use regional VOD-derived tree hydraulic traits to constrain past, present and future flux simulations with CLASSIC across the boreal biome.