Canadian CubeSat Project teams

Themes: Community outreach, Indigenous culture

• Promote and share Indigenous culture across Canada through northern images, a project that will take northern art to space, where pictures of various pieces will be taken with Earth in the background.
• Promote and share Indigenous culture across Canada through northern voices; engage amateur radio across the country with stories and messages in Indigenous languages.
• Promote and share Indigenous culture across Canada through games; create a globally interactive game for amateur radio operators. Special recordings played only in certain geographic zones will require global cooperation in order to decode a whole message. Messages and content will be developed on the subjects of northern Indigenous history and language.

Academic collaborators

• University of Alberta (AB)
• Yukon University (YT)
• Nunavut Arctic College (NU)
• University of Alberta North (AB)

Governmental/NGO collaborator

• Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NRCan)

Themes: Earth observation, climate change, environment, radiation

• Test a Canadian-developed wide-angle camera to observe snow and ice coverage in Northern Canada. The information collected through its images could help map the thawing of Arctic ice and permafrost and give a better picture of the impacts of climate change in the region.
• Test a solar energetic proton detector, provided by the University of Sydney, to collect data that will enable a better understanding of the effect of Solar Proton Events (SPEs). SPEs are the result of solar activity during which radioactive protons emitted by the Sun become highly energized. The level of radioactivity caused by such events can penetrate and cause damage to the structure and electronic components of spacecraft in their paths. Understanding these events and their effects could help improve the design of CubeSats so they are more resistant to radiation.

Academic collaborators

• ICT Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology (ON)
• University of Sydney (Australia)

Industry collaborator

• Canadensys Aerospace (ON)

Governmental/NGO collaborator

• Defence Research and Development Canada (ON)

Themes: Space weather, Earth observation and environment

• Expand our open-source platform to include accessible, open-source satellite software, electronic, and mechanical designs to increase Canadian and world access to space.
• Test an imaging instrument designed to collect information for predicting, tracking, and monitoring the impact of wildfire on vegetation and land.
• Fly a flux-gate magnometer, an instrument designed to monitor and better understand the effects of space weather on our communications systems.

Academic collaborators

• Aurora College (NT)
• Yukon University (YT)
• University of Calgary (AB)
• University of Saskatchewan (SK)
• York University (ON)
• University of Oslo (Norway)
• Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Belgium)
• University of Iowa (USA)

Themes: Astronomy, geology

• Study how space conditions affect the composition of asteroids and the Moon so that researchers on Earth can better understand those effects when studying their cousins, meteorites. This mission will also help better understand the origins of asteroids when we combine this data with the data from asteroid sample-return missions, such as the OSIRIS-REx mission.

Academic collaborators

• University of Winnipeg (MB)
• York University (ON)
• Interlake School Division (MB)

Industry collaborator

• Magellan Aerospace (MB)

Themes: Earth observation, climate change, environment

• Test an existing technology designed to monitor oceans (sea-ice detection and sea-ice concentration estimation) and fit it on the smaller CubeSat frame, which could lead to cheaper solutions to monitor and collect data on our oceans.

Academic collaborator

• University of Prince Edward Island (PEI)

Industry collaborator

• C-CORE (NL)

Theme: Space technology

• Test a new CubeSat frame made out of lightweight metal alloys to provide better space navigation capabilities for future CubeSats.
• Validate the use of onboard solar energy and battery storage technology to power a stabilization wheel that will better control the position of the satellite's instruments.

Industry collaborators

• GALAXIA Mission Systems (NS)
• ESL Technology Inc. (NS)
• Siemens Digital Industries (Siemens NX)
• Protocase (NS)
• Radio Amateur Canada (Atlantic)
• Xeos Technologies (NS)
• Nova Scotia Community College (NS)
• Mariner Forge (NS)
• Jentronics Limited (NS)

Theme: Space exploration/radiation

• Test an instrument that may offer new ways to measure the amount of radiation to which astronauts could be exposed during spacewalks, as it poses serious risks to their health. This instrument has the potential to replace current dosimetry equipment on board the International Space Station. Its measurements will be used to identify high dose rate areas and incoming solar storms, and to improve radiation modelling tools in preparation for future deep-space missions.

Academic collaborator

• Mohawk College (ON)

Industry collaborators

• Bubble Technology Industries (ON)
• Bruce Powers (ON)
• Nuclear Innovation Institute (ON)

Governmental/NGO collaborator

• NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)

Theme: Space science and technology

• ORCASat will demonstrate that a reference light source on-board an orbiting spacecraft can be used to calibrate ground-based optical telescopes better than current methods. ORCASat will provide improved calibration of the absolute brightness of astronomical objects, which can be used to better understand "dark energy". Dark energy is an enigmatic form of energy making up 68% of the universe believed to cause the universe to expand at an accelerating rate.

Governmental/NGO collaborator

• National Research Council (ON)

Themes: Space weather, communications system

• Conduct one of the first demonstrations of a quantum sensor in space. Quantum sensors use the unique and often strange behaviour of matter at very small distances to perform ultra-sensitive and robust measurements. This quantum sensor uses nitrogen-vacancy defects in a tiny piece of diamond to measure the intensity and orientation of the magnetic field in space. Such measurements are useful to study the effect of solar storms on radio communication, GPS or electrical grids, or the flow of magma under Earth's crust, for instance. Quantum technologies, such as this magnetometer, will lead to smaller, more energy efficient, and more sensitive sensors for space applications.

Academic collaborators

• École nationale d'aéronautique (QC)

Industry collaborators

• MDA (QC)

Theme: Space technology

• Test a FET-based radiation dosimeter and a melanin-based method of radiation protection, both being developed at the University of Saskatchewan. This new radiation dosimeter shows promise in reducing cost, size, weight, and manufacturing complexity when compared to current dosimeter standards. Melanin-based radiation protection could have significant effects on the methods currently used to protect against radiation in space, as it is significantly lighter and easier to work with than current standards, also resulting in reduced transportation costs. The efficacy of these two new technologies will be tested and compared to current standards.

Academic collaborators

• Saskatchewan Polytechnic (SK)

Industry collaborators

• Calian Advanced Technologies (SK)
• Innocorps Research Corporation (SK)
• Galaxia Mission Systems Inc. (NS)

Themes: Earth observation, climate change, space technology

• Capture imaging data of dust plumes over Lake Colhué Huapi in Argentina and Namibian coastal regions to extract aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements.
• Monitor doses of radiation received over time inside and outside the CubeSat to understand the low Earth orbit radiation environment and its effect on components.

Academic collaborators

• Université de Montréal (QC)
• L'Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (France)

Industry collaborator

• MDA (QC)

Governmental/NGO collaborators

• Let's Talk Science (QC & ON)

Themes: Earth observation, smart agriculture, environment

• Develop and test an imaging system for precision agriculture. The system will be able to capture precise soil and crop data (texture, topography, moisture content, weed and disease infestations, crop damage, etc.) as well as verify the effectiveness of herbicide and fungicide applications, monitor physical damage due to insects, inundation, wind and hail, and schedule an irrigation plan. The goal is to develop better monitoring systems to promote greater sustainability.

Academic collaborators

• Memorial University of Newfoundland (NL)
• Université Laval, the Optical Engineering Research Lab (QC)

Industry collaborators

• C-CORE (NL)

Themes: Space weather, meteorology

• VIOLET's mission is to study space weather, stabilized under passive magnetic attitude control, with hysteresis rods, in low Earth orbit, near the peak of the eleven-year solar cycle, obtaining the voltage and current from its four photovoltaic panels, and two internal temperature sensors.

Academic collaborators

• University of Moncton (NB)
• New Brunswick Community College, Saint John Campus (NB)

Themes: Space exploration, Earth observation, climate change, environment, educational outreach

• Conduct a flight test with a novel imaging system for engineering technology demonstration with the potential to provide virtual reality-ready images. This imaging system has future applications in Earth observation and space exploration. Testing will demonstrate imaging modes for different in-orbit functions.
• Enhance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach of Western University's Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) by taking CubeSat operations into the classroom. This will include students from southwestern Ontario schools and Nunavut Arctic College. Remote access to the CubeSat will facilitate live demonstrations of how to send commands and how to interpret data received. These activities will complement the existing classroom activities and build upon previous work developed at Western in enabling remote access to laboratory equipment.

Industry collaborators

• Canadensys Aerospace (ON)
• MDA (ON)

Themes: Space weather, community outreach, STEM promotion

The project will focus on promoting STEM and engage the community through three main initiatives:

• Coding challenges open to Yukon youth and the public, using data gathered from YukonSat. For example, students could be challenged to create a collage of satellite images of a certain region of Earth.
• Coding challenges to transmit and receive short voice recordings. Yukon schools, First Nations, communities, and other groups will have the opportunity to spread their messages to other parts of Canada and the world through a scavenger hunt-style challenge.
• Data analysis and interpretation completed in Yukon University math and science courses. For example, students could learn about instrumentation, signal processing and data analysis methods while completing an activity to map Earth's magnetic forces using GPS and magnetometer data from a satellite built by their peers.

Academic collaborators

• University of Alberta (AB)
• Aurora College (NT)

Governmental/NGO collaborator

• Natural Resources Canada (ON)