Christian Sallaberger’s company, Canadensys Aerospace Corp., has designed a rover that can withstand lunar night temperatures of -200 C.Angela Lewis
Fifty years after Neil Armstrong’s historic moonwalk, global space agencies are preparing for the next great leap: a new era of lunar exploration that pushes the limits of science and technology.
The moon not only represents an important future outpost on humanity’s journey onward to Mars, but also exciting technological challenges and areas of scientific importance.
As early as next year, for example, space agencies could learn more about whether the permanently shadowed areas of the moon hold the pockets of “water ice” in its craters that scientists have long theorized about.
The goal isn’t to drink it, but to split the water-ice into its components to understand the elements that exist on the surface of the moon, and to potentially extract materials.
The mission, which will send a small and extremely rugged rover to the dark side of the moon, is the first ever to be led by Canada. For the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) it has a secondary goal of proving out a host of cutting-edge homegrown technologies on one of the most unforgiving landscapes in the solar system.
The rover will carry radiation sensors built by Bubble Technology Industries in Chalk River, Ont. – crucial for identifying water-ice – guidance technology from Sherbrooke, Que.-based NGC Aerospace, and more.
And then there’s the rover itself: designed by Bolton, Ont.-based Canadensys Aerospace Corp., it was built to withstand lunar night temperatures of roughly -200 C, jagged and sticky moon sand called regolith that can wear down rover wheels, and significant radiation doses from the nearby Van Allen radiation belt.
Christian Sallaberger, Canadensys’s president and chief executive officer, says the rover represents a significant technological feat. “If you can design something that’s able to operate on the lunar surface and survive the lunar night, you’re pretty much bulletproof anywhere else.”
Canadian-developed technologies are poised to play crucial roles in these missions. In the next few years, NASA and partner agencies, including the CSA, are expected to launch the Lunar Gateway, the first space station near the moon, as part of NASA’s Artemis program; on it will be a sophisticated space robotics system, the Canadarm3, designed by Brampton, Ont.-based MDA Space Ltd.
A rendering of the Lunar Gateway, which will be assembled with the Canadian-made Canadarm3 – lighter, smaller and faster-moving than its predecessors, the Canadarm and Canadarm2.Courtesy NASA
Martin Bergeron, director of space exploration development at the CSA, says the moon “has become a bit more commercially accessible; we don’t have to spend a fraction of the national budget to go.”
The CSA is also responsible for delivering a lunar utility vehicle for Artemis, which it is currently soliciting proposals for, that will be used to move cargo, transport astronauts and aid them in scientific tasks. Canadian technology has also already gone to the moon on two commercial launches this year.
If you can design something that’s able to operate on the lunar surface and survive the lunar night, you’re pretty much bulletproof anywhere else.
— Christian Sallaberger, CEO, Canadensys Aerospace Corp.
The Canadarm3 will help assemble the Gateway and unload visiting spacecraft, and is lighter, smaller and faster-moving than its predecessors, the Canadarm and Canadarm2, both of which were designed by MDA Space.
CEO Mike Greenley says the Canadarm3′s biggest evolution over its predecessors is its control system. MDA is incorporating advancements in artificial intelligence, automation and 3D-vision to allow the arm to operate largely independently, self-detach sections for repair inside the space station and map surrounding objects in real-time.
“The Lunar Gateway is 400,000 kilometres away from Earth, so it’s much, much further away [than the International Space Station], it has much longer communication times for the signals going back and forth from our control centre and the Gateway. As a result, we won’t be able to talk to it all the time,” Mr. Greenley says. “We have to be able to have the robotics system be smarter and allow it to be able to do tasks autonomously.”
Mr. Sallaberger says Canadensys’s rover also had to overcome the communications challenge. The company built an optical system that compresses images and video to transmit them efficiently back to Earth, where they will be downloaded in high resolution.
The effectiveness of these technologies is likely to have implications for the future of exploration deeper into space, Mr. Sallaberger says. They’re also establishing Canadian aerospace companies as go-to partners for commercial space exploration companies, international space agencies, and even organizations looking for ultra-rugged equipment meant for operating on Earth or in low-Earth orbit.
That’s thanks to decades of funding and procurement by the CSA, which helped to build and advance the aerospace industry. Billions of dollars of government investment have helped Canadian space tech companies maintain their lead in robotics, and build up expertise in guidance, cameras, sensors and rover technologies, and more.
The federal government’s recent Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), announced in the 2019 budget, gave the CSA access to up to $150-million over five years to support space technology development. Mr. Bergeron says, to date, the agency has awarded funds to 58 organizations.
“These programs have a very far reach. … Many companies go to space not necessarily because it’s commercially feasible but because it can showcase their ability,” says Mr. Bergeron. “You’re part of an elite club that’s capable of demonstrating you have such a mastery of technology that you’re able to do something almost no one has done yet.”
Mr. Sallaberger says Canadensys has been approached by prospective space mining companies and the Australian Space Agency about designing lunar rovers, and has also commercialized avionics, camera and onboard computer technologies for commercial space flights.
MDA Space, meanwhile, has launched a commercial line of robotics offerings based on its work on the Canadarm3.
“They will be standard robotics building blocks we can click together in different ways to give commercial customers proven control systems and robotics solutions,” says Mr. Greenley.