Canadians have contributed
to space and communications technology since
the beginning of the space race. It started
when the Avro Arrow program was cancelled
in 1959, and more than 30 Canadian engineers
went to Texas and Florida where they helped
with NASA's moon shots a decade later. Canada
became the third nation to have its own
satellite in orbit with the 1962 launch
of Alouette 1, which monitored the ionosphere.
Canada's first astronaut, Marc Garneau,
joined the crew of Challenger in 1984, and
Canadian astronauts have been participating
in space shuttle missions ever since. Canadians
have also led the world in remote sensing
since the 1972 launch of NASA's Earth Resources
Technology Satellite, designed with help
from the Canadian Advisory Committee on
Remote Sensing. This technology is used
to see the extent of deforestation on the
planet, track the effects of large projects
such as dams, improve maps and even detect
individual buildings with poor insulation.
And let's not forget Montréal-born William
Shatner, who brought Capt. James T. Kirk
and the Starship Enterprise to television.
Other Canadian space and communications
endeavours include:
- Canadarm 2, a stronger, more mobile
version of the robot arm that has operated
on space shuttle missions since the 1980s,
is an essential tool in the construction
of the International Space Station. And
Dextre, Canada's humanoid addition to
space research, is a highly advanced,
two-armed, relocatable robot for the space
station.
- A study aboard the International Space
Station, headed up by Ann Rose of the
University of British Columbia, is determining
the genetic stability, muscle growth and
development of microscopic worms in zero
gravity.The results may guide future space
research for humans.
- Canadian Arrow of London, Ont., is working
on a two-stage rocket in a bid for the
$10 million X Prize, to be awarded to
the first privately financed team to launch
a three-person spaceship into suborbital
flight and return safely to Earth. The
da Vinci Project in Toronto plans to lift
its spacecraft with a hot-air balloon
to an altitude of about 24 kilometres,
then fire the rocket's engines.
- The Canadian Space Agency will join
NASA in a landing on Mars in 2008 in a
mission to analyze the soil to document
the planet's geological history and look
for possible signs of life. Led by York
University's Allan Carswell, the team
will use laser radar to examine the planet's
atmosphere and climate.
- Since the launch of Alouette 1, Canada
has been a leader in developing satellites
for communications networks and Earth
observation. Radarsat 2, scheduled for
launch in 2005, uses radar that will allow
new applications for disaster relief and
weather forecasting.
- If a child anywhere in the world needs
a second opinion on respiratory illness,
Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children responds
via Telehealth. Video conferencing lets
staff and patients talk face-to-face,
and Internet servers speed patient data,
often permitting treatment on the spot,
even in the child's home.
- For millions of years, meteorites have
smashed into Mars and dislodged chunks
of rock into space, some of which have
eventually found their way to Earth. By
comparing Martian rock material discovered
on Earth with that examined by the Martian
Rovers, Christopher Herd of the University
of Alberta is researching the differences
in the evolution of the two planets.
- The Jarnac Comet Survey, which scans
the heavens for comets that could threaten
to crash into Earth, operates outside
Vail, Ariz., under the direction of Canadian
astronomer David Levy. He named the operation
after Jarnac Pond, near Ripon, Que., where,
as a young man living in Montréal, he
first fell in love with the stars.
- Neutrinos from the sun that constantly
bombard Earth are hard to detect, yet
they may hold answers to the "dark matter" that
makes up 95 percent of the universe. So
scientists have set about "trapping" neutrinos
at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, operating
two kilometres below the surface in Inco's
Creighton nickel mine.
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