By John Cooper
CMA Management
Published: December/January 2007
The exciting potential of space exploration has held the public's attention for decades. From Jules Verne's book From the Earth to the Moon, penned more than140 years ago, to CGI-laden space movies and the real-life exploits of a manned moon landing, deep-space probes, satellites and zero-gravity experiments: space exploration is both exciting, and surprisingly commonplace. And leaps in Canadian technological know-how are now creating more home-grown opportunities for investment in space exploration.
Canada's earliest contribution to space exploration was the Alouette 1 space satellite in 1962; it followed with more satellites and garnered major attention with the Canadarm, or Remote Manipulator System, first used on the space shuttle in 1981. Twenty years later, Canadarm2, or the Mobile Servicing System, made its debut on the International Space Station.
Small scale, big support
The business of space is a demanding and sometimes volatile market for the more than 200 Canadian companies, university research institutions and not-for-profits that work with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Established in 1989 by the Canadian Space Agency Act, CSA oversees five core functions: space programs, space technologies, space science, the Canadian astronaut office and space operations. It leads the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and promotes the transfer and diffusion of space technology throughout Canadian industry, encouraging commercial exploitation of space capabilities, technology, facilities and systems.
André Vigneault, CSA's head of industrial policy, says the agency receives annual funding of $300 million. Compare this with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) annual budget of about US$16 billion and the European Space Agency's budget of $3 billion Euros and it seems pretty minor. But the workforce is much smaller: about 600 CSA workers compared to 19,000 for NASA and 1,900 employees for the 17-nation European Space Agency.
However, smaller staff and slimmer budgets don't necessarily mean lower quality. All of the Canadian companies connected with CSA are "very good at what they do," says Vigneault. Canadian companies involved in CSA-supported R&D are heavily export-focused: 50% of their revenues on average come from exports. CSA's budget is weighted toward getting money out to industry. Additionally, the research CSA conducts itself results in technology transfer to the private sector.
"Close to 65-70% of our budget is contracted out to industry, universities, research centres and companies, so that more than $200 million goes out in the form of contracts," says Vigneault. "We use a centralized tender system to evaluate projects and process and award contracts."
A challenging market
The cost of doing business in space can be mind-boggling. For instance, the International Space Station (ISS), a manned research station that is still under construction and representing a consortium of five space agencies (American, Russian, Japanese, Canadian and European) will cost an estimated $110 billion by the time it's completed in 2010. A merger of previous space stations, including Soyuz, Mir and Space Station Freedom, its construction began in 1998.
A major ISS benefit is that it offers industry a year-round, zero-gravity laboratory in which to conduct experiments and research. That's essential to finding solutions to physical challenges presented by earth-level gravity, although at least one researcher, Dr. Kamiel Gabriel of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa, cautions that "the picture [for great leaps in space science] is not as bright as some might paint it."
Gabriel has been involved with Canada's space program since 1987; he has conducted space-related research valued at more than $1 million, specializing in microgravity and the physical effect of weightlessness on materials. As well, Gabriel was shortlisted as one of the potential Canadian astronauts during the 1992 Canadian astronaut competition.
He says flatly that "70% of the experiments that flew in the last 20 years have failed," adding that the potential advances that were expected of research into optics, materials and pharmaceuticals haven't panned out as expected, so that any investment in space-related research and technology is truly a long shot. He allows, however, that materials science has shown much better results.
"We've been able to produce materials with higher quality and on a larger scale," says Gabriel. Zero gravity environments are seen as a boon to materials science because you don't get the gravity-induced separation of lighter and heavier materials that occurs in earthbound manufacturing.
Essential links
Areas where Canadian firms shine include broadcast technology. In Winnipeg, Michael Borgford, director of DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) Components for Novra Technologies Inc., talks about the role his company plays in developing a two-way data satellite network with a Montreal partner, Advantech AMT. (The company specializes in the transmission and reception of image processing data using satellite, cable and terrestrial communication links.)
"We've been working on this contract for about a year and half," says Borgford, whose five-year-old company employs 20. "For us, it's an opportunity to work closely with a Canadian company in DVB technology that focuses on forward-looking research toward the next phase in the satellite data marketplace."
Elsewhere, in a compact, 4,000-square-foot facility in Ottawa's west end, Flywheel Energy Systems Inc., a small and innovative company of four workers, is busy designing and fabricating flywheel energy storage systems and components that include rotors and high-speed permanent magnet motors and generators. Flywheels are rotating disks that are used as storage devices for kinetic energy. The research-intensive company, with annual revenues of $500,000, is a marginal player by space standards, but is doing some innovative work with CSA's support. "The Canadian Space Agency has really helped us," says Flywheel CEO Dean Flanagan. The company is working on a flywheel rotor through an agreement with Honeywell, a U.S.-based giant in aerospace technology and manufacturing. The rotor's ultimate use is in altitude control and energy storage for low earth-orbit satellites. Like most Canadian companies attached to the Canadian Space Agency, Flywheel relies on exports as well as research contracts for its bread-and-butter; Flanagan says the link to Honeywell was essential in nailing down the CSA contract.
"CSA contracts are very important as they open up new opportunities for technical development work," says Flanagan. "Understandably, our access to CSA was wholly and completely hinged on having Honeywell as a partner. We needed a link to a big company."
Room to grow
Certainly one of the biggest Canadian players on the scene is Neptec Design Group. The Ottawa-based company is a leader in space vision systems and a NASA prime contractor. Iain Christie, Neptec's director of business development, says his 16-year-old, 85-employee firm has enjoyed a long association with CSA.
"CSA has been critical in that they have supported a lot of our R&D," says Christie.
Among Neptec's innovations is a laser camera system that allows astronauts to conduct detailed visual inspections of the space shuttle's body. As well, the company's 3D Automated Rendezvous and Docking Sensor system allows astronauts to accurately manoeuvre large payloads with ease: a challenging proposition, says Christie, and akin to "trying to park a Greyhound bus in a loading bay with one-inch clearance on each side -and you're trying to do it from 60 feet away."
The Neptec systems cost "in the tens of millions of dollars to develop," although the payoff has been in the link to NASA, says Christie, adding that in the last five years the company has spent a lot of time to diversify into other markets as well.
For Canadian firms, the business of space means there's room to grow. And future initiatives for CSA include the development of new Canadian opportunities in space.
"We are entering discussions with partners to define the role of Canada in any exploration initiative," adds Vigneault. "NASA is leading the project to define this global exploration strategy - such as going back to the moon and eventually to Mars." And Canada's expertise will definitely have a place in space, whichever direction the space program takes.
John Cooper is a Whitby, Ont.-based freelance writer.