Spaceq

If you're a serial entrepreneur and you want to start a New Space company, what type of business should you start? Well, how about Gas Stations in Space?In this weeks SpaceQ podcast we're featuring a Future in Space Operations weekly teleconference from earlier this year with Daniel Faber, CEO of startup Orbit Fab.Daniel, an Australian who become a Canadian citizen, was most recently the CEO of Deep Space Industries which he helped build, and which reached $10 million in revenues before he left.It was during his time at Deep Space Industries that he saw an opportunity in the on-orbit servicing market. Why not build gas stations in different orbits so that satellites can fill up on fuel.Listen in See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest today is Adam Gilmour the founder and CEO of Gilmour Space Technologies, an Australian startup building launch vehicles, starting with a small satellite launcher. Adam’s career as a managing director at CITI Bank was going just fine until Elon Musk came along with his ideas on how to lower the cost of sending payloads to space. Musk inspired Adam so much so that he left his nice job at CITI Bank to start his own rocket company. Now the company is about to launch its first suborbital rocket followed by plans to test a follow-on orbital launch vehicle. His story is one of perseverance, lot’s of hard work and with no guarantee of success.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest today is Steve Iris, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission Manager at the Canadian Space Agency. Today we’ll be discussing the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, its primary uses and benefits to Canadians and the international community. RCM is a $1.2B mission follow-on to the very successful RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 satellites.The RADARSAT Constellation Mission is a trio of synthetic aperture radar satellites that will be used for maritime surveillance, disaster management and ecosystem monitoring. The trio of satellites are currently scheduled to launch on Wednesday, June 12 at 10:17 a.m. EDT on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California. The mission has been 15 years in the making.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest today on the SpaceQ podcast is former Canadian astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk who was recently hired back by the CSA on a contract basis to help with their efforts in defining Canada’s potential role in healthcare in deep space.Canadian Healthcare in Deep Space: Advancing our country’s leadership in autonomous care in space and on Earth report. Credit: Canadian Space Agency.Dr. Thirsk went on two missions in space, including a long duration stay on the International Space Station in 2009.Prior to rejoining the agency, Dr. Thrisk was part of an expert group tasked by the CSA to look at the potential Canadian healthcare and biomedical roles for Deep Space Human Spaceflight. In March the expert groups report was released in hard copy. The report is called Canadian Healthcare in Deep Space: Advancing our country’s leadership in autonomous care in space and on Earth. The report is not yet available online but SpaceQ did receive a hard copy. Dr. Thirsk and I discuss the recommendations of that report while al

My guest today is Mike Gold, Vice President, Regulatory and Policy at Maxar Technologies. For this podcast we’re going to talk to Mike about his other role. That of Chair of NASA’s Advisory Council Regulatory and Policy Issues Committee.The committee was created in the summer of 2018 to look at how NASA could further commercialize its activities. Mike is one of 15 members, mostly from industry, that meet several times a year including with NASA’s other Advisory Council committees.Committee members include long time space players such as Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin to new space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin to name a few. In its first meeting last November the committee published its first observations, findings, and recommendations. The committee tackled a board range of ideas from export controls, intellectual property, supporting space-based commercial development, private sector habitats, logos, advertising, astronaut endorsements and space research.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy

On Monday, May 13, NASA contacted the media on short notice late in the afternoon saying a teleconference was being scheduled for the early evening. Scheduling a teleconference in the evening is not something NASA normally does. Whatever the substance of the call, it must be important. As it turns out the call with media was to outline a budget amendment for the Fiscal Year 2020 to provide additional funds to the Trump administration newly mandated plan for NASA to land U.S. astronauts on the moon in 2024 instead of 2028. The call with the details would in of itself be important, but at the end of the teleconference, after answering questions from the media, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine added a little something that would put the call into the NASA history books. Bridenstine announced that NASA had selected the name Artemis for the human return to the moon program. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and the name of NASA’s famed 60’s moon program which saw humans land on the moon

Today we’re featuring a Future In-Space Operation teleconference with Steve Clarke from the NASA headquarters where he is the Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Steve spoke about NASA’s Exploration Campaign Overview providing an update on the program and where it’s headed. The teleconference was held on April 17th after the Trump administration had mandated that NASA put Americans on the moon within 5 years.The presentation mentioned in the podcast is available on the SpaceQ website.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On April 12 Western University held its annual Space Day. One of the more interesting events was a panel discussion on Space Resources: The Next Frontier in Exploration.The discussion was moderated by Mellisa Battler, a Western grad and current Chief Science Officer at Mission Control Space Services. The panelists were a diverse group including;-Michael Winter, a lawyer and a Market Conduct Investigator, London Life Insurance Company - Holly Johnson, President’s Business Manager, MDA- Mike Villeneuve, Director Central Canada Division, Geological Survey of Canada- Neil Banerjee, Industrial Research Chair in Advanced Mineral Exploration, Western University- Tim Haltigin, Senior Mission Scientist - Planetary Exploration, Canadian Space Agency- Charles Nyabeze, Vice-President Business Development, Centre for Excellence in Mining InnovationIt was a fascinating discussion on how we’ll use resources we find in space to what companies in this area should consider as they execute the longer term goal of enabling use o

Today we’re featuring a panel discussion recorded at the Perimeter Institute on March 8th for International Women’s Day. The Inspiring Future Women in Science panelists included:- Moderator Kelly Foyle, Perimeter Outreach Scientist- Kona Williams, a Forensic Pathologist and Coroner- Shirley Tang, Nanotechnology Scientist- Camille Mitchell, Architect- Daniela Roeper, Mechanical Engineer.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When NASA's Mars 2020 spacecraft launches it will include a helicopter designed to fly only on Mars and will be the first time ever an aircraft will fly on another planetary body.In today's SpaceQ podcast were featuring a Future in Space Operation teleconference with Håvard Grip from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Håvard spoke about the NASA Mars 2020 mission which will includes both a rover and helicopter.The Mars 2020 rover is similar to the Curiosity rover whose mission is ongoing, but will have some different instrumentation. The Mars helicopter that will accompany the rover is quite small weighing only 1.8 kilograms and is about 60 cm in width, though from blade tip to tip it is 1.2 meters.The helicopter is battery powered and is recharged by a solar array. Flights will be short, lasting no more than 90 seconds flying to a height of about 5 meters. The helicopter has a camera. It will fly ahead of the rover to survey the local terrain and transmit the data it collects once it returns and lands at

My guest this week is Aram Daniel Kerkonian. Aram is an expert in space law and policy, a licensed Ontario lawyer and the Chief Legal Consultant of Ardaker Space Consultants. Aram is currently pursuing his doctorate in space law at McGill University's Institute of Air and Space Law, focusing on Canada's regulatory framework related to space.Today we’re going to discuss Canada’s new Space Strategy focusing in part on regulatory frameworks and how updating them will help Canada’s space sector, especially the fast changing commercial space sector. We’ll touch on space mining, ground stations, rocket launches and more. Recently Aram wrote an opinion related to the new Space Strategy.Listen in.Aram Kerkonian recent opinion on SpaceQ:- Finally, a New Canadian Space Strategy – But Wait, What do we do With This?http://spaceq.ca/opinion-finally-a-new-canadian-space-strategy-but-wait-what-do-we-do-with-this/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guests this week are Matt Kozlov, a Managing Director at Techstars and Van Espahbodi, co-founder and managing partner at Starburst. Together they are leading a new Los Angeles based accelerator, the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator. Applications are now being accepted with a deadline of April 7 for the first cohort.The accelerator is notable in that its partners include NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and Israel Aerospace Industries.My conversation starts with Matt as Van was delayed. Van joins in around the 10 minute mark.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest this week is Marina Mississian, Senior Director Space Payloads at Honeywell Aerospace. In 2015 Honeywell announced it was acquiring Cambridge, Ontario based COM DEV. It seemed to be a good move on Honeywell’s part at the time, but by 2017 the market that COM DEV served, primarily the GEO Communication satellite market, had imploded with GEO satellite orders down by almost 75%. Honeywell reacted by right-sizing the COM DEV assets, laying off nearly half the staff. Since then the company has been reinventing itself. Recently they announced a new Greenhouse Incubator to be based in Ottawa.In my conversation with Marina, we discuss the events of the past few years, how Honeywell has reimagined its Canadian space operations, what the Greenhouse Incubator will do, and how the company plans to move forward.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Investment in space startups by angels and the venture community is growing at a rapid rate according to Space Angels, and that bodes well for the future of the commercial space sector.My guest this week on the SpaceQ Podcast is Chad Anderson, CEO of Space Angels.If you’re a startup then chances are you’ve heard of Space Angels. The financial services company was started in 2007 but it wasn’t until around 2014 that the marketplace was ready for the investment community to make some serious forays into the space sector beyond a company like SpaceX.Typical investment by Space Angels is anywhere from $500,000 to $1.5 million. The company has invested over $30 million to date and this may surprise you, many of their investments are outside the US.In its recently released 2018 fourth quarter report, Space Angels said that US$2.97B in equity capital was invested in space companies globally in 2018 and that number is set to grow even larger in 2019.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information

Today’s podcast is all about the moon. I’ll first share some of my thoughts on recent developments with respect to the exploration of the moon by the global space community. Then we have an interview with Pierre-Alexis Joumel, a co-founder of the Moon Race.My interview this week is about the Moon Race competition. The competition is a global initiative founded by Airbus and its international partners including Blue Origin, and is aimed demonstration key technologies required for the sustainable exploration of the moon. The race consist of challenges in four parallel technology streams. If you’re a small or medium business who are interested in getting your technologies demonstrated on the moon then this initiative just might be for you.Listen in.Show notes:- 0:18 Start of my introduction and thoughts surrounding the recent developments on the exploration of the moon.- 7:08 Introduction to my guest.- 7:59 Guest interview. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This podcast was to have aired last week, however the announcement by the Prime Minister of Canada that his government was committing of over $2 billion that will see Canada participate in the NASA led Lunar Gateway program along with funding for new technologies related to the moon meant that we bumped the podcast a week. In its place we had an interview with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Minister Bains who oversees the Canadian Space Agency.Now, events are unfolding again with a big announcement expected this week, likely tomorrow, news that SpaceQ broke. That announcement is the long expected new Canadian space strategy.It’s important to note we only know a portion of what will be in the new Space Strategy, that being the moon as the highest funded priority. And for this podcast, one of the interesting topics we’ll be keeping an eye going forward is the growing interest at the Provincial level in supporting the space program.With the current events in mind we’ve decided to publish this po

This is a special edition of the SpaceQ podcast. Today the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, committed the country to a path that will see Canadian technology and astronauts go to the moon.Canada will participate in the NASA led Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway program and is also funding a new Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program.Shortly after the announcement was made I spoke with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Bains who shared his thoughts on the announcement.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

MDA has been in business for 50 years now, which is no small achievement, and it’s not easy to keep a company growing for a long period of time.In today's SpaceQ podcast I speak with Mike Greenley, Group President of MDA.It’s been nearly a year since Mike was last on the show, and today we’ll discuss MDA celebrating its 50th anniversary this month and the changes at MDA and parent company Maxar since Mike joined the company last year.Companies go through quiet periods, and occasionally turbulent periods. This past year has been a somewhat turbulent period for parent company Maxar. The stock price has plummeted. The GEO satellite communication market hasn’t recovered and now some SSL assets are up for sale. A short seller attacked the company, the company lost its flagship WorldView-4 satellite, and now there are some shareholder lawsuits which could cause some additional problems. These are some hefty issues to deal with. With relative ease, Mike discusses these issues.There's also been another change at MDA,

My guest this week is rocket expert Adam Trumpour. By day, Adam is a mild mannered engineer for Pratt & Whitney, by night he works on rockets and helps mentor students interested in rocketry. One of his latest endeavours is student focused Launch Canada Challenge. He’s also involved the $1M dollar Base 11 Space Challenge. Today Adam provides us an update on both projects.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest this week is Sara Spangelo, co-founder and CEO of Swarm Technologies. The company is noteworthy for its innovation in developing a communication satellite 1/4 the size of a traditional CubeSat, which is 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm. To put it another way, and as my guest put it, the size of a grilled cheese sandwich.The company wants to build and launch 150 of these pico satellites, called SpaceBees, to create a global network to allow Internet of Things devices such as sensors in a farmers field to send small amounts of data back to servers for processing. Currently the company has 7 experimental satellites in orbit.Swarm is less than two years old and it's gotten more attention than perhaps they would have wanted. Last year could have been a company killing year for a startup as they ran afoul of the Federal Communication Commission when they not only launched 4 of their satellites without an FCC license, they also performed unauthorized weather balloon-to-ground station tests and unauthorized tests of sa