Capability Demonstration - CSA Program for Increasing Space Readiness of Space Science and Technology While Training the Next Generation

摘要

Canada has a strong national strategic interest in space. Canada's future in space relies on innovation, advancement of science and technology, and future generation of highly educated and skilled space scientists and engineers. A strong Canadian space capability demonstration program is needed for maintaining Canada's leading edge in space and developing new capabilities for the future. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), in response to the needs expressed by Canadian space industry, academia, and the government, and to better prepare Canada for future mission opportunities, is in the process of developing a capability demonstration program, which includes both pre-space demonstration and space demonstration. Launching a payload onboard a satellite or space platform (e.g. ISS) is the most desirable method to demonstrate new technology, scientific approach or capability. However, there are only a limited number of opportunities on space platforms and the associated cost is usually high. Pre-space platforms (rovers, balloon, sounding rockets, and aircrafts) remain popular for the academia and industry engaging in space science and engineering to test their hardware and approaches. Although these platforms don't give the full in-space "flight heritage," they reproduce some aspects of it and are equally effective in training university students and postdoctoral fellows (PDF). The flight data obtained in the near-space environment provide preliminary scientific data and more importantly, allow identification of problem or deficiency in the experiment or prototype. All these are possible because pre-space flights are low cost and readily available. This paper discusses the needs for a capability demonstration program and its overall objectives, and provides greater details on the on-going CSA pre-space demonstration activities: stratospheric balloon flights and analogue missions, which successfully fulfilled the needs of Canadian industry and academia and government. Based on these successful programs, the CSA capability demonstration program will expand to include more platforms for pre-space demonstration such as aircrafts, UAVs, and sounding rockets, in addition to space demonstration flights.