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WASHINGTON – The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is pursuing efforts to develop payloads for lunar science and a small rover that could fly to the moon on a NASA-sponsored landing mission.
CSA announced on November 27 that it has awarded six contracts worth a total of CAD 2.9 million ($ 2.2 million) to five companies and universities for initial “Phase 0” studies of science tools. lunar. The tools range from particle spectrometers and telescopes to an “agricultural feasibility” payload.
The contracts, with individual values ranging from $ 300,000 to $ 600,000, are intended to study the feasibility of the proposed tools and how they will support lunar science. The contracts are expected to last up to nine months.
The contracts are part of CSA’s Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), an initiative that the Canadian government unveiled in February 2019 at the same time it announced it would provide a robotic arm for the NASA-led Lunar Gateway. The program, with a planned budget of $ 150 million over five years, is intended to support a wide range of science and technology initiatives associated with lunar exploration.
In addition to the science awards, on October 29, CSA issued contracts worth $ 3.3 million to two companies, Canadensys Aerospace Corporation and NGC Aerospace Ltd., for the development of lunar technology payloads. Canadensys will develop a 360-degree camera to provide panoramic images of the lunar surface while NGC Aerospace will demonstrate a navigation system.
CSA is also in the early stages of a “microrover” that it intends to develop and pilot in collaboration with NASA. The agency released a letter of interest on October 23 announcing that it would formally issue a call for proposals for the rover by early 2021, awarding two Phase A feasibility studies contracts in the summer. CSA will then select one for full-scale development.
The rover will have a mass of 30 kilograms and will carry two payloads, one supplied by CSA and the other by NASA. “The idea is that we want this mission to demonstrate Canadian lunar mobility technology to the moon and collect scientific data,” said Erick Dupuis, director of space exploration development at CSA, during a session of the Canadian Space Summit’s online conference. on November 27. .
Dupuis said CSA has negotiated a trip to the moon on a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander mission. “In exchange for our launch, we are providing housing for a US instrument on our rover,” he said. He said the deal with NASA also includes the flight of additional payloads for Canadian lunar science in CLPS missions, fixed to landers.
He did not disclose the estimated cost of the rover’s mission, but said it would launch no earlier than the end of 2024 and more likely in 2025. The goal is for the rover to operate for at least one lunar day, and possibly a second if so. it can survive the lunar night by two weeks.
Canada isn’t alone in looking for other countries to fly lunar rovers. The United Arab Emirates announced in September that it plans to build a small rover, weighing only about 10 kilograms, which carries three scientific instruments. Officials said they will seek to partner with another space agency or purchase space on a commercial lunar lander to transport their rover to the moon.
While the CSA rover project is tied to NASA’s CLPS program, Dupuis said the agency was open to other partnerships to fly its payloads to the moon. “We have a pre-negotiated deal with CLPS to get our payloads to launch to the moon, so it’s under our belt, but there may be other opportunities,” he said, such as partnerships with the European Space Agency. “We are open to all mechanisms.”
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