Grants and Contributions

In this study of 60-days head down bed rest, artificial gravity generated on a large centrifuge, and exercise training will be introduced to determine their effectiveness. Changes in blood volume and regulatory hormones will be followed to assess their contribution to loss of cardiovascular fitness.

This project provides a rare opportunity to investigate simultaneous changes within the heart, blood vessels and skeleton in both men and women that volunteer to spend 60-days in bed, mimicking the reduced physical demands required of humans during spaceflight.

Immersive 3D 360° technology will transform
the way the general public will experience
space exploration. It will make it possible
for people of all ages, anywhere on Earth to
come on board and experience space as if
they were there via a multitude of immersive
formats. The capture of high quality 3D 360°
images can also be used as source material
in support of teaching and scientific
research.

The purpose of the project is to increase
the maturity of immersive virtual reality
(VR) camera technology for Moon missions by
eliminating key risks related to bandwidth
and embedded processing. The main objective
of this project is to develop a VR platform
validated in laboratory that can support
high-quality productions while compatible
with moon mission architectures (CLPS,
Gateway, Orion, Artemis) and lunar
environment. This project constitutes a step
forward the creation of a lunar media
infrastructure in order to produce premium
content distributed across all media
ecosystem of the return of humankind on the
moon and of the future of space exploration.

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 Manitoba and McGill University, to use miniaturized seismometers and gravimeters to develop new models of the Moon's structure. The team will conduct high resolution studies of the lunar subsurface while strengthening Canada's talent pool in space by training eight postgraduate researchers.

Space agencies, research institutes and private organizations are looking for commercial landing services in order to reach sites of interest on the Moon. Because of their poorly known local topography, such sites are potentially hazardous for landing. These landing systems will require to be equipped with high-accuracy navigation systems to accurately reach their target and Hazard Detection and Avoidance (HDA) systems to detect and avoid any surface hazards at touchdown. There is currently no readily available commercial systems to answer this need.

The “Relative Navigation and Hazard Detection & Avoidance Integration for Commercial Landers” project aims at filling this need by developing a fully integrated and low-cost HDA system composed of a Lidar sensor, a camera sensor, an inertial measurement unit and an embedded processing unit where optical navigation and HDA functions are integrated. This innovative system will allow the reduction of the overall Moon landing system costs and bring more Canadian technology and know-how on the Moon.

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.'