U of M over the moon about satellite’s lunar launch

A milk-carton sized satellite built by Manitoba researchers will go where no Canadian spacecraft has gone before — the moon’s orbit.

Magellan Aerospace’s Winnipeg division announced last week it had received a $6.9-million contract from the Canadian Space Agency to develop the lunar exploration spacecraft. University of Manitoba STARLab researchers are developing the CubeSat — a pint-sized satellite that will orbit the moon and launch a dart-like piece of tech to the moon’s surface to collect data to send back to scientists.

A U of M satellite was sent to space in 2023, but it remained in low Earth orbit.

“This is a completely different level. This is actually leaving Earth’s orbit and going into lunar orbit,” STARLab director and associate professor Philip Ferguson said. “It’s the first time Canada’s ever done that with a small satellite.”

It may be a small satellite for space, but it’s a giant step in Canadian lunar exploration, Ferguson said.

“We’ve got this renewed push now to explore the moon, to understand the resources, the different kinds of critical minerals that it has to offer, but then also look to the moon as a potential staging area for future missions to Mars,” he said.

“So, this is an important step for Canada’s strategic space exploration plan, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it here in Manitoba.”

The satellite is set to launch in late 2027.

While south of the border, the U.S. administration is proposing a 25 per cent cut to NASA funding, Canada is bringing in young minds and different industries to become a leader in space exploration, said Andrew Bowman, a PhD student who is working on the satellite project.

“I think there’s a niche opening up that we can fill really well,” he said.

“And I think that by letting and by giving these contracts to not just industry, but a combination of industry and academia and university, and getting people from the undergraduate, even high school level, up to the PhD level and beyond, involved in these missions in a very, very, very literal way, I think it’s a great way that we’re going to build up and have the possibility to become a bigger player in the space industry.”

The U of M lab is working with the Manitoba First Nations Educational Resource Centre, along with educator and storyteller Rockford McKay, to integrate Indigenous knowledge into the project, including working with students to understand the overlaps between western space engineering tech and the First Nations tradition of using star systems to navigate the land.

Ferguson noted that when a spacecraft orbits the earth, researchers can use GPS systems to help navigate. When a satellite is on the moon, that changes.

“We are at the mercy of visual navigation, looking at landmarks to navigate, and of course, looking at stars to navigate,” he said. “These are things that Indigenous explorers have been using for centuries.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca