Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

The methods by which we explore space are changing rapidly, as are the entities. Once purely the realm ofx000D
government space agencies, private industry is poised to play an ever increasing role in the exploration ofx000D
space. A key reason for this is advances in miniaturization that have allowed increasingly capable missionsx000D
with smaller spacecraft. This has opened up exciting new possibilities for the development of so-calledx000D
nanomissions, which represent affordable opportunities for participation in the global endeavor for emergingx000D
space nations, commercial enterprise and even mature space nations with constrained budgets. A majorx000D
challenge for nanorovers, i.e., platforms a few 10s kg, is the reduce payload space for scientific instruments.x000D
Indeed, the total payload could be 2 kg or less, which compares to the 80 kg of payload for science instrumentsx000D
on NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Mars. This NSERC Engage grant aims to take the first steps inx000D
characterizing different measurement approaches and operational techniques that can be achieved with a smallx000D
nanorover platform.