Grants and Contributions

Advances in space-based instruments for planetary observation involve significant costs. Fortunately, suborbital balloon flights enable the development and testing of instrumentation in space-like conditions at a fraction of the cost of full-fledged orbiting space instruments.

Building on previous work, this project aims to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of adaptive optics systems in space-like conditions. Test will done on a high-resolution deformable mirror within a closed-loop adaptive optics system and a camera with passive thermal control in the stratosphere. Furthermore, data on atmospheric turbulence will be gathered in full night and at sunrise at a height of 36 to 40 km.

HiCIBaS-II is a great opportunity to maintain Canadian world-leadership in this area, while advancing knowledge and training the next generation of highly qualified personnel that the industry requires.

This research project aims to improve our understanding of the carcinogenic risk of cosmic radiation as encountered by astronauts in deep space. DNA mutations created by radiotherapy radiation on Earth will be studied. Findings will be useful not only for Canadian astronauts in deep space, but also for Canadian radiotherapy patients and radiation oncology physicians on Earth.

The proposed research approach examines the mutations caused by both sparsely and densely ionizing radiation in the DNA of human cells. It will consist in taking samples of cells, exposing them to both forms of radiation. A new technology in the form of single-cell DNA sequencing will be used to identify and compare the mutations created in each sample.

Water rock reaction, known as serpentinization, has the potential to support life on other worlds (planets and moons), by providing energy. Detecting life at sites of serpentinization on other worlds requires the ability to find serpentinization sites and detect biosignatures, i.e. select investigation sites that have present/past conditions that are/were favourable to support life.

This project aims to study life's signatures (i.e. its isotopic and molecular imprints, and its interaction with the environment) at sites of serpentinization and to contribute that knowledge to a joint international proposal whose purpose is to develop a remote sensing method for detecting habitable sites of serpentinization. This project will result in scientific knowledge of life's biosignatures at active serpentinized springs and preservation of life's biosignatures in inactive serpentinized springs, while contributing to the technological development of an algorithm for detecting serpentinized springs using machine learning and remote sensing data collected from satellites and drones.

Climate change is one of the main environmental concerns for Canadians. The largest climate uncertainty is primarily due to atmospheric water vapor, clouds and precipitations. These processes are a powerful modulator of the greenhouse effect. Currently, we have little knowledge of the global cloud properties, like ice crystal size, number concentration or their links to aerosols in cloud formation and precipitation.

The project goal is to optimize the performance of the Thin Ice Clouds in Far IR Experiment (TICFIRE) instrument from field experimentations, theoretical simulations, and data assimilation. The result will provide unprecedented accuracy on important cloud variables. In time, this work will lead us to significant improvements on weather forecasting and climate processes monitoring.

The state-of-the-art materials used for Lunar and Martian missions are designed for shorter-term missions with only limited digging or mining. The future of space exploration calls for much longer-term missions, including bases, and the possibility of space mining. This will require the development of materials and coatings that will last much longer and resist regolith abrasive wear under much more aggressive conditions of space mining.

The primary purpose of this project is to study the ability of materials and coatings to resist the abrasive wear from regolith, which is the abrasive dust found on the surface of the Moon and Mars. The main objectives are to develop a test to characterize regolith abrasive wear for common structural materials and to develop coatings to resist regolith abrasive wear. The coatings developed to resist regolith abrasive wear can be adapted to other industries in Canada that face similar aggressive conditions, such as mining, oil and gas, aerospace and hydropower.

It is a great challenge to accurately monitor the atmosphere during climate change. Although sensors and technologies have been developed for basic meteorological variables such as temperatures and humidity, their measurements remain severely lacking or inaccurate in critical regions, such as the planetary boundary and the tropopause region.

The purpose of the project is to support the development of a microwave hyper-spectral remote sensor of the atmosphere, HiSRAMS, designed for the future generation of Earth observation satellites. The main objectives are to acquire collocated high-spectral resolution microwave and infrared atmospheric radiation spectra and verify the radiometric accuracy in the measurements, and to compare microwave hyperspectral to infrared hyperspectral in terms of accuracy and information contents of atmospheric temperature and humidity retrieval.

Aerosols and clouds play a critical role in the atmosphere with links to climate, weather, and air quality. While satellite observations have provided global information, questions remain particularly considering the changing climate and the influence of human activity on the atmosphere. The Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) instrument is a prototype of a satellite sensor that takes images of volcanic plumes, forest fire smoke, stratospheric aerosols, and thin cirrus clouds in the Earth's atmosphere.

The project will continue to advance the ALI concept by taking new aerosol measurements from a stratospheric balloon. The nature of the project, including aspects of instrument design, test, flight, and data analysis, provides the opportunity for students and for the other team members to be involved with nearly all phases of the project and to experience end-to-end space science and technology training.

This projects aims to identify blood indicators for deconditioning (a state of extreme weakness) from available blood samples. Astronauts experience deconditioning when travelling between gravity environments. Similarly, bedridden patients may develop deconditioning requiring rehabilitation treatment in the hospital. The effect of microgravity on physiological systems is unclear and there is a lack of tools for early detection of deconditioning and for testing countermeasures designed at mitigating the negative effects on health. Early detection of deconditioning in microgravity through a blood molecular signature enables the early assessment of immune functions and the prevention of infection with available medication.

Our previous scientific participation in bedrest studies, an on-Earth model of microgravity, and collected blood samples from participants, provides an opportunity to complement our ongoing gene expression analyses with measures of proteins. This research project provides students with biological samples to identify biomarkers of deconditioning and to isolate the biological effects of bedrest. Findings can be applied for the early detection of deconditioning in bedridden patients from a blood sample.

Quantum communication and science tests over large distances have potential applications for secure communication, for higher efficiency super dense coding, for interfacing of future quantum sensors, and for quantum computers. In addition, foundational science will strongly benefit from tests of long-range entanglement as we probe the boundaries of quantum mechanics over ever-increasing distances, as well as at velocities and gravitational potentials not possible on ground.

The objective of this project is testing the suitability of the quantum payload and its components necessary for deep space missions, i.e. geostationary earth orbit (GEO), lunar and even further. The project team will design, build and test components of a quantum payload and verify their status for operating in relevant harsh radiation and thermal environments.

The main outcome of this research will be an advanced technology roadmap and design of the next generation of quantum payloads suitable for global quantum communication networks.

Methane has been observed in the Martian atmosphere for nearly two decades, yet key questions about the Martian methane cycle remain unanswered. On the Earth, most methane produced is biological and it is therefore a key question of the astrobiology community as to whether the Martian source, likely located deep underground, is similar.

The Martian Atmospheric Gas Evolution (MAGE) experiment will develop the science readiness level (SRL) of a potential contribution to a future landed space mission on Mars to measure the evolution of methane near the surface. It will help us to understand what is producing this gas in the present day and whether that source is biological or geological in origin.

MAGE in based on technology called Integrated Cavity-Enhanced Optical Spectroscopy (ICOS), a sensitive technique that can measure methane at very low concentrations and offers the possibility of making unprecedentedly frequent measurements at sensitivities comparable to the best current techniques.