A rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope (Credit: Northrup Grumman) The Hubble Space Telescope’s impact on our understanding of the Universe and the public’s perception of space is undeniable. It is truly a revolutionary mission! But nearly three decades after it began operations, Hubble is set to be supplanted by an even grander telescope: the James Webb Space Telescope. And unlike with Hubble, this time Canada will be along for the ride! The James Webb Space Telescope is an international collaboration between the Canadian Space Agency, NASA and the European Space Agency. Unlike Hubble which was mostly sensitive to visible light, Webb will peer into the infrared universe. This 6.5m telescope, arguably one of the most complex machines ever built, will be launched into space in an Ariane 5 rocket. The telescope itself is so large that it will need to be folded up like origami to fit into the rocket. It will take about a month for Webb to reach its final destination 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth. Canada’s contributions to the Webb Telescope, the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), was delivered in a single unit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA Dr. Nathalie Ouellette Dr. Nathalie Ouellette is an astrophysicist and science communicator. Her research focuses on galaxy formation and evolution. She is a frequent contributor to space stories in the Canadian media and public outreach events. Nathalie is currently the Coordinator of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) at the Université de Montréal. She is also the JWST Outreach Scientist in Canada collaborating with the Canadian Space Agency. The Webb Telescope will be able to study alien worlds, observe the evolution of galaxies over time, help us understand the lifecycle of stars and peer further back into the Universe than ever before. The Near-Infrared Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), one of Webb’s four scientific instruments, is Canadian-made. It was designed, among other things, to study the atmospheres of exoplanets and determine if they are habitable… or even inhabited! The Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS), Webb’s guiding camera, is also part of Canada’s contribution to the mission. It will be essential in making sure that every single image taken by the telescope is clear and sharp. Webb is currently undergoing a battery of tests to make sure it will survive the extreme environments of a rocket launch space. This is especially crucial since Webb’s distant location will mean it will not be repairable. The Webb Telescope is scheduled for launch in March... Read more
ExoMars – Artist’s impression of Schiaparelli separating from Trace Gas Orbiter. Credit: European Space Agency Why are Earthlings so obsessed with Mars? They want to know whether life existed on Mars some time in the past or whether life might still exist on Mars! Of all the planets, Mars is the most Earth-like, but is still very different from the Earth. Mars is colder, drier, and has a much thinner atmosphere. However, scientists think that as we go further back in time, Mars and Earth become more similar to each other. Life arose on Earth around 3 billion years ago, and at that time Mars was much more Earth-like. What that means is that even though Mars is pretty inhospitable today, it was more hospitable in the past and so life could have arisen on Mars like it did on the Earth. An artist’s interpretation of what ancient Mars may have looked like (Ittiz via Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-3.0) Dr. Ed Cloutis is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Winnipeg. He is Director of HOSERLab, which uses laboratory equipment to reproduce the surface conditions on Mars and study how rocks and organic materials may change when exposed on the surface of Mars. He is a co-investigator on a number of present and future Mars missions. Canada may not be able to fly its own mission to Mars because that is incredibly expensive. However, Canadian scientist and engineers are involved in almost all current and future Mars missions. This allows Canada to explore Mars at a fraction of the cost of having its own mission. Canada is part of the Russian and European Space Agency ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. This is an orbiting satellite around Mars that is searching for signs of past or present life on Mars. ExoMars TGO studies the Mars atmosphere for traces of gases that are produced by life, such as methane. Canadian scientists are also using data from the ExoMars mission to study dust kicked up by dust storms that is in the atmosphere of Mars to find out whether the dust either contains biological molecules or contains compounds that are essential for life, such as boron-containing compounds. Artist impression of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) analyzing the martian atmosphere.Credit: European Space Agency Using the scientific instruments on TGO to search for evidence of life in the dust in the Martian atmosphere is difficult since the instruments were not designed for this. However, scientists are working hard to make this possible. The knowledge and experience gained by studying Martian atmospheric dust is also being applied to monitoring the health of Earth’s atmosphere from... Read more
A team of Canadian astronomers and engineers has developed a bold new concept for a Canadian flagship space telescope: CASTOR, the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and ultraviolet Research. CASTOR’s name pays tribute to Canada’s national animal, the beaver. Space astronomy is on the verge of a revolution. In the next decade, a pair of sophisticated imaging telescopes — Europe’s Euclid mission and NASA’s WFIRST mission — will survey the skies at red-optical and infrared wavelengths, hoping to unlock the secrets of Dark Energy, a mysterious form of energy that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. CASTOR has been designed to complement these by providing razor-sharp images at shorter wavelengths, in the ultraviolet and blue-optical region. Patrick Côté is an astronomer at NRC’s Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, BC. He uses both ground- and space-based telescopes — especially the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope — to study galaxies and clusters in the local universe. CASTOR would not only open a new window on the cosmos, but it would succeed the legendary Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as the world’s preeminent imaging facility at these wavelengths. Launched in 1990, HST is nearing the end of its lifetime, and astronomers worldwide will soon lose access to the razor-sharp imaging capabilities that have propelled their research to new heights and captivated the pubic in the process. Smaller, lighter and cheaper than Hubble, CASTOR would use the latest technologies to deliver images that are nearly as sharp as Hubble, but covering a field nearly one hundred times larger. Astronomers plan to use its revolutionary billion-pixel camera to image about one fifth of the entire sky, yielding the sharpest, widest and deepest view of the universe to date at these wavelengths. A team made up of nearly one hundred astronomers from across Canada and around the world has recently explored CASTOR’s research capabilities in a study sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency. The conclusion? CASTOR’s scientific potential is immense and includes not just Dark Energy, but the progenitors of gravitational wave events, supermassive black holes, the atmospheres of extra-solar planets, the search for possible dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Pluto, and much more. CASTOR will produce the deepest, widest and sharpest view of the universe in ultraviolet light, allowing astronomers to understand how galaxies form and evolve over cosmic timescales. (Left). A region of sky imaged in ultraviolet light by NASA’s GALEX telescope. (Right). Credit: Patrick Côté The proposed CASTOR space telescope in low Earth orbit. Operating high above the... Read more
Have you ever wanted to shoot lasers in space? Do you know that Canadians are doing that right now? OSIRIS-REx is a NASA-led mission that launched on September 8, 2016 and has traveled to a Near-Earth Object called Bennu, which is thought to have formed over 4.5 billion years ago, and has remained relatively unchanged since then. OSIRIS-REx reached Bennu in August 2018, and in October 2018 started a survey of the surface of the asteroid to measure its global properties, identify strange or unique features, and scan the surface for potential sites to touch down and collect material to bring back to Earth in 2023. First 3D lidar map of asteroid Bennu created by Canada’s OLA instrument. Credit: NASA/University of Arizona/Canadian Space Agency/York University/MDA Dr. Kim Tait Dr. Kim Tait is the Senior Curator of Mineralogy at the Royal Ontario Museum and a collaborator on the Canadian OLA science team. Dr. Michael Daly Dr. Michael Daly is the Canadian Science Team Lead for the OSIRIS-REx Mission and the Lead Instrument Scientist for OLA. He is the holder of the York Research Chair in Planetary Science and the Director of the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science. One of the 5 instruments on the mission was built in Canada, by MDA and Teledyne Optech, It is a laser system that is able to scan the asteroid from up to seven kilometres away called the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA). From February 12-17, 2019 OLA made more than 11 million measurements of the distance between the spacecraft and Bennu’s surface as it orbited the asteroid at less than 2 kms above the surface – the closest orbit ever achieved by spacecraft. OLA obtained these measurements by firing a laser pulse at the surface of the asteroid and measuring the amount of time it takes to bounce back to the spacecraft, creating a 3-D model of Bennu’s surface. OLA will take nearly a billion more measurements throughout 2019 to create a complete LIDAR map of a near-Earth asteroid. This information will help researchers and mission planners select the best location from which to gather a sample of the asteroid to bring back to Earth. Left: OLA’s electronics box. Right: OLA’s sensor head which holds the two lasers that fire short laser pulses and a receiver that captures the returned beam from the surface of Bennu. Credit: NASA / Goddard / Debora McCallum Close-up images of asteroid Bennu’s northern hemisphere. Wide-angle image (left) shows a 180-meter wide area with many rocks and large boulders and is obtained by the MapCam camera on OSIRIS-REx. The two images on the right are obtained by the high-resolution PolyCam camera. Credit:... Read more
Credit: CSA/NASA The Canadian government has established a new partnership with the United States for the NASA-led Lunar Gateway project. It also unveiled its latest Space Strategy, reaffirming Canada as a major spacefaring nation and sets bold visions by designating space as a “strategic national asset”. The 22-page document is embodied by three thematic points, with Imagination as the pivot to Exploration and Innovation. A reinvigorated space program merits the input of Canadian students and young professionals. Zaid Rana is an undergraduate student at Concordia University who is now working at the European Space Agency (ESA) as a Mission Operations Trainee. His work involves using machine learning applications to study the impact of radio frequency interference using ESA’s space telescopes. He has previously spent eight months at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) as an intern and is also active with the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). The Lunar Gateway project represents the next major destination for the international space community, and Canada has an important role to play. Orbiting the Moon, the station will be much farther than the International Space Station orbiting Earth. It takes on average 2.5 seconds for a round-trip signal from Earth to Moon. Away from Mother Earth, this poses new challenges requiring autonomous systems. The next generation of Canadian robotics will be driven by artificial intelligence to fulfill this role. Scientists and engineers will also gain a better understanding of the space environment and its impact on astronaut’s health. Gateway: Proposed modules and preliminary design (Credit: NASA) Junior Astronauts program by the Canadian Space Agency (Credit: CSA) Moon: A Pathway to Mars (Credit: SETI Institute) The $150M committed to the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program paves the way for scientific experiments and technology development on or around the Moon. The Strategy also calls for an update to regulatory frameworks and to strengthen commercial opportunities. With JAXA and Toyota vying for the Moon, there’s potential for others to leverage space. This sets an interesting precedence but one that is not unique – space is more accessible than ever. Perhaps Canada’s superclusters can also build synergy across the industry and with the Canadian Space Agency. “As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.” – Herman Melville,... Read more
