CF's space plans

[MarkOttawa]

Excerpts from an article in Aviation Week and Space Technology (text subscriber only, some links added at this Torch post
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2010/05/cfs-space-plans.html ) (Usual copyright disclaimer):

Milspace Expansion To Be Outlined In New Space Policy
Aviation Week & Space Technology Apr 26 , 2010 , p. 32

Canada to add broadband and polar satcom capabilities, expand SAR constellation
Printed headline: Polar Plan

The Canadian Defense Department is poised to issue a new policy statement showing how the nation plans to expand its space presence to meet changing threats.

The existing policy, formulated in 1998, reflects requirements associated with the 1990-91 Persian Gulf war. The new document, expected to be issued in 30-60 days, will reflect more recent developments, such as the need for reinforcing Canada’s sovereignty in an era of global warming that is facilitating activity in the high arctic, and protecting space assets against potential hostile threats.

New trends such as increased reliance on dual-use assets shared across government agencies, and greater use of commercial space capabilities, will also be addressed. The policy statement will be accompanied by a first-ever space-based strategy, Col. Andre Dupuis, the Canadian Defense Department’s director of space development, told a military space gathering here last week organized by SMI.

The two documents are likely to coincide with release of a long-term space plan (LTSP)—Canada’s fourth, and the first since 1994. Release was initially anticipated in late 2008 or early 2009 but was held up by the global economic crisis and uncertainty in the U.S. space program. The LTSP is important for Canadian military planners, because they rely heavily on civil programs to meet their space requirements, particularly in Earth observation.

Although there is still no word on when the LTSP will be released, a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) report on plans and priorities, issued on March 27, said the agency is already reorganizing for the plan, which it expects to coordinate on the government’s behalf. The reorganization will give more prominence to the space-utilization directorate, which manages Earth-observation missions such as Radarsat.

Military space spending is currently running at a modest C$250 million ($250.4 million) a year, according to figures released by Futron, and is currently stable, Dupuis says. CSA funding, around C$300 million a year, is flat and has been declining in real terms...

The main capability objective in the remote-sensing area will be to scale up the Radarsat constellation—a cluster of three C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microsatellites approved for development in March—in order to enhance operational flexibility and expand revisit time over Canada’s vast ocean reaches. Planners are debating the number of spacecraft (6-12) and whether to employ existing or new technology. Expanding to six spacecraft would permit six daily revisits in the high arctic, compared with four per day with three satellites.

One issue, Dupuis says, will be how to meet the estimated C$150-160-million price tag, including launch and ground equipment. Planners are considering bringing in other countries to help defray the cost. Most prospective partners, such as the U.K. and Australia, could meet their requirements with existing satellite technology; but some, such as the U.S., might not, he says.

Radarsat prime contractor MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates is studying a next-generation wireless SAR architecture, capable of operating in X and C bands, that could offer an operationally responsive solution to a number of requirements, including ground-moving-target identification and resolution down to 33 cm. The price point for such a system might be C$100-120 million.

Canada also wants to develop a global search-and-rescue network to serve its arctic regions and overseas forces, and has spent C$10 million defining a piggyback terminal, based on Cospas-Sarsat heritage, that could fly on navigation satellites. After being denied access to Galileo, because Ottawa does not have a security agreement with the European Union, Canada has offered to fund 20-30 payloads on the U.S.’s GPS-3.

A primary goal of the new space policy will be to see that the benefit of new capabilities reach the warfighter. One effort already underway is the C$27-million Joint Space Support Project, aimed at making remote-sensing receiving terminals available to tactical and operational forces and denying the use of that imagery to enemy troops. Contracts for the terminals should be issued late this summer...

Dupuis says military planners are coming around to the argument that space spending allows the military to optimize use of assets such as surface ships and surveillance aircraft, justifying their cost. This is reflected in Defense Department decisions to fund Polar Epsilon ground stations for Radarsat [see "Polar Epsilon: Upgrade for our Arctic and maritime satellite surveillance"] and to co-finance the CSA’s Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Satellite [see Micro and Small Satellite Projects], an automated identification system payload to be launched next year.

The main goal in enhancing space situational awareness will be to build a follow-on to Canada’s Sapphire geostationary SSA satellite, to be launched in the first quarter 2011 as part of Canada’s contribution to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) [see "CF Wants to Keep a Closer Eye on Outer Space"]. The aim would be to design Sapphire 2 from the outset to fully complement the orbit of the U.S.’s Space-Based Space Surveillance satellites, which will provide a similar capability. Despite efforts to synchronize the orbits of the two satellites, orbital coverage will not be fully complementary, Dupuis acknowledges.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Edward Campbell]

After being threatened with fatal (for satellite surveillance capabilities) delays, it is now reported, in this article which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the National Post, that Prime Minister Harper has, personally, intervened to make RADARSAT Constellation Mission programme come to fruition:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/19/stephen-harper-steps-in-to-save-radarsat-upgrade-after-budget-cutbacks-threatened-satellite-programs-future/

Stephen Harper steps in to save Radarsat upgrade after budget cutbacks threatened satellite program’s future

John Ivison

Dec 19, 2012

OTTAWA – The Harper government has approved funding for Canada’s world-beating surveillance satellite program, just as it seemed that it may become the victim of spending cutbacks.

Sources say the Prime Minister intervened personally to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding to move the next generation of Radarsat satellites off the drawing board and into production. A public announcement of the funding deal is expected soon.

Stephen Harper has lauded Radarsat — a series of satellites monitoring Canadian territory from space — in his annual visits to the Arctic, saying they can “pick up a breaching whale through the fog … so we will be able to see what the bad guys are up to.”

Three new Radarsat satellites would complete the surveillance coverage of Canada’s coasts, not only in the north but on
our east and west coasts.
Source: National Post

But the future of Radarsat was in doubt when the 2012 federal budget did not include new funding to cover the 50% increase in costs from the original price-tag of $600-million for the three new Constellation satellites.

Mr. Harper directed the departments that would make use of the program, including Natural Resources Canada, Environment, Fisheries and Oceans and National Defence, which came up with more than half of the required funds, to make up the shortfall.

Radarsat has been developed by Vancouver-based Macdonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA), which was subject to a takeover bid by U.S.-based Aliant Technologies that the Conservative government blocked on security grounds in 2008.

The technology that the government was concerned about losing was the Radarsat surveillance satellites, two of which are already aloft. The three new satellites would complete the surveillance coverage of Canada’s coasts, not only in the north but on our east and west coasts. The satellites give surveillance teams a real-time picture of vessels as they move along Canadian coasts.

However, when there was no funding in the 2012 budget, the company warned that its teams of engineers and technicians would find other work. Analysts said that Canada was facing a space “brain drain,” as employees moved to the U.S. and Europe, in the face of government cuts. MDA laid off 100 people, while the country’s other main space firm, COM DEV, cut 31 staff. At the same time, the Canadian Space Agency had its budget cut by $60-million.

The Radarsat Constellation Mission — a series of three satellites and associated ground-based stations — was initially announced in 2005. The project was designed to replace the existing Radarsat-2 surveillance satellite.

The federal government has previously acknowledged its plan to begin the program in 2014 has been delayed by at least two years. The Department of National Defence had warned the satellites had to be in place by 2015 at the latest or Canada would be left without any space-based surveillance capability.

In a late November report, former Conservative cabinet minister David Emerson said the space program is in Canada’s national interest “to unlock wealth, secure our coastlines and borders, protect our population and deliver services.”

Canada’s space industry will get a welcome boost Wednesday when Chris Hadfield is launched on a five month mission as the first Canadian commander aboard the International Space Station.

But critics worry that beyond the ISS and Radarsat, Canada’s space capabilities are being denuded.

The news that funding has been approved for the three new Constellation satellites will not be a panacea for the industry. But some smaller companies, such as Cambridge, Ont.-based exactEarth will benefit from the investment of public funds in Radarsat – three of its automatic identification system transmitters to aid vessel monitoring will be installed in the new Constellation satellites.

And there is speculation in the industry that the Unites States is interested in buying Constellation satellites once the project goes ahead.

National Post, with files from Postmedia News

Despite my general support for spending cuts, even for restraint in military spending, until we finish digging ourselves out from under the effects of the Great Recession, I am glad this has happened because:

1. We, Canada and the CF, need more and better spaced based surveillance, warning and control systems and this is a step (but just one small step) in the right direction; and

2. "Big science" needs stable, consistent funding over long periods.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis will be in Montreal on Wednesday to announce that the controversial RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) is going ahead.

There have been reports the projected costs of the three-satellite program have jumped to more than $1 billion from $600 million.

The program began in 2005.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA), which had been contracted to develop the project, recently had to submit a revised proposal for the construction phase — the next step in the process.

In the past, Paradis has said the Harper government was committed to the satellite program but that it would be done in the most cost-effective way.

An official in his department would only say that Paradis would be making a significant announcement.

Officials from MDA and the Canadian Space Agency will join Paradis at the company's satellite systems office in suburban Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.

The CSA's website says the satellites will provide complete coverage of Canada's land and oceans with launches planned for 2016 and 2017.

The satellites would be used for maritime surveillance, disaster management and monitoring of environmental change ....

The Canadian Press, 8 Jan 13

 

[57Chevy]

                                        Articles are shared with provisions of The Copyright Act

Canadian Forces put their 1st satellite in orbit
CBC News
By Max Paris, Environment Unit 25 Feb

Sapphire will act as air traffic controller for 20,000 pieces of space debris

Canada's military took a giant leap into the space game today with the launch of its first satellite from a pad in India.
Sapphire is a space vehicle about the size of a dishwasher that will act as an orbiting air traffic controller.

"It's better looking than a dishwasher," joked Canadian Brigadier-General Rick Pitre, director general of space, when asked by the CBC about the new satellite.

"In fact, it is interesting the analogy you provide, because it is about understanding the cleanliness of space," Pitre added.
Canadian Forces' first satellite, Sapphire, will act like an air traffic controller in orbit. (MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates)
Sapphire was built for the Canadian Forces by MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. It will be able to monitor every object bigger than 10 centimetres across that is circling the earth.

"I think understanding what's actually happening up in space is critical, and that's where Sapphire comes in," said Pitre.

The idea is to make sure that none of those 20,000 orbiting pieces — some junk, some multi-million-dollar satellites — bump into each other. Because at 35,000 km/h, a baseball-sized chunk of metal ramming a communications satellite can take down a nation's phone network.

"It will very likely destroy the spacecraft — make it explode into many, many other sub-pieces and then create more debris," explained Michel Doyon, flight operations manager at the Canadian Space Agency, one of the partners in Sapphire's launch.

Doyon said the problem of space junk got a lot worse in 2007. That was the year the Chinese decided to target one of their defunct weather satellites with a missile. The resulting explosion made thousands of pieces of orbiting debris — and headaches for space agencies around the world.

In 2009, a dead Russian satellite collided with an Iridium communications satellite creating a cloud of thousands of more hunks of metal.

"That's really changed how we do business here in the [Joint Space Operations Center]," Canadian Major Cameron Lowdon, chief of space situational awareness, told CBC News from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Vandenberg, Calif.

Canadians have been working with Americans at Vandenberg for decades. Now, the JSPOC has assumed the role of safety monitor for the world's space assets, Lowdon says.

He is in charge of a group that catalogues pieces of debris and each of their trajectories. When they see a possible collision in the making, they alert the owner of the satellite. Then the company or country has to decide what to do. In some cases, a satellite can be manoeuvred out of the way, while in others nothing can be done.

All about 'orbital safety'

"Orbital safety is what we're really trying to maintain here," Lowdon says.

Sapphire will complement a battery of ground-based observation stations. When the earth-bound monitors spot a possible collision, Sapphire will be able to take a picture of a dangerous piece of space junk unimpeded by the earth's atmosphere or weather systems.

With this piece of hardware, Canada has carved out a unique niche in the space-based surveillance world, said Lowdon. In the past, the Canadian Forces provided personnel for the effort but never a satellite. The U.S. also has a space-based debris monitoring satellite called Space Based Space Surveillance.

"We're going to be able to walk around here with a bit more pride on our shoulders, I suppose, as Canadians," Lowdon added.
                                      _______________________________________________________

Sapphire (Space Surveillance Mission of Canada)
eoPortal Directory

 

[a_majoor]

Canadian industry and universities have a modest bank of experience with small satellites (the U of T built and launched a space telescope called MOST  in 2003, which is about the size of a barracks box), which the CF might tap into as well.

Micro satellites can be built relatively cheaply (MOST cost $10 million), and if built on an assembly line, the low unit cost and high number of units which can be placed in orbit on a single launch (or spred out over multiple launches by piggybacking on launches of other satellites) can provide a high level of coverage. Small satellites are harder to observe, so there is a certain advantage against enemy ASAT technology. Large numbers of satellites working together can replicate, or in some instances surpass the performance of single large satellites (for example creating "virtual" antenna or mirrors from many disparate units with similar performance to a single unit with an aperture the diameter of the distance between the two outermost satellites in the array).

Here is an area where we have a distinct advantage, no reason we should be ignoring it.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Note capability to support Canadian Forces abroad:

MDA gets $4.5-M contract in space-based maritime surveillance project

The Canadian government has awarded MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Systems Ltd (MDA)
http://mdacorporation.com/
a $48.5 million contract for delivery of the Polar Epsilon 2 system.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/business-defence-acquisition-guide-2015/joint-and-other-systems-19.page

The contract is part of the government’s commitment to providing the Canadian Armed Forces with the equipment it needs to respond to crises within Canadian borders and abroad.

The Polar Epsilon 2 will use imagery from the three-satellite RADARSAT Constellation Mission, to be launched in 2018,  http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/radarsat/
to deliver advanced surveillance capabilities for domestic and global CAF operations. It will provide access to a domestic source of space-based observation data, greatly enhancing their ability to identify and track vessels from space in near-real-time.

“The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring the Canadian Armed Forces remain a modern, combat-effective, multi-role military able to conduct the missions the Government asks of it,” a statement from defence chief Harjit Sajjan said. “The Polar Epsilon 2 project positions Canada as a world leader in space-based remote sensing for arctic and maritime domain awareness, and provides our women and men in uniform with the data and information needed to respond to domestic and international crises and events [emphasis added].”

The three-satellite configuration will provide daily revisits of Canada’s vast territory and maritime approaches, as well as daily access to 90 per cent of the world’s surface [emphasis added].

The RCM is being designed for three main uses:

*Maritime surveillance (ice, surface wind, oil pollution and ship monitoring);
*Disaster management (mitigation, warning, response and recovery); and
*Ecosystem monitoring (agriculture, wetlands, forestry and coastal change monitoring).

In addition to these core user areas, there are expected to be a wide range of ad hoc uses of RADARSAT Constellation data in many different applications within the public and private sectors, both in Canada and internationally.

For example, while the mission design initially focused on maritime security requirements, land security, particularly in the Arctic, will be dramatically enhanced. The system offers up to four passes per day in Canada’s far north and several passes per day over the Northwest Passage...

The new system will extend and enhance the capacity of Polar Epsilon 1, which works with the RADARSAT 2 satellite,
http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/news/article.page?doc=polar-epsilon-project/hnps1uo5
amplify the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to detect, identify, and track vessels of interest in Canada’s maritime areas, the Arctic region, and in support of operations around the world [emphasis added]. Polar Epsilon 2 will allow identification of ships in addition to their radar-detected positions, providing an integrated, near-real-time maritime situational awareness capability. It will also help support land-based missions as required...
http://www.vanguardcanada.com/2016/06/20/mda-gets-4-5-m-contract-space-based-maritime-surveillance-project/

The system's very high resolution will be three metres--scroll down to bottom here.
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/radarsat/radarsat-tableau.asp

Very relevant:

Not Much Noticed: Canadian Forces Intelligence Command (plus HUMINT)
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/mark-collins-not-much-noticed-canadian-forces-intelligence-command-plus-humint/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Intelligence vs ISR and resolution:
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/mark-collins-radarsat-constellation-new-canadian-satellites-and-maritime-arctic-surveillance-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-17550

Mark
Ottawa