Canada reaches for the Moon: $2.9M to support sustainable lunar exploration
Establishing a long-term sustainable human presence on the Moon will require a wide variety of technological and scientific expertise. With that in mind, back in , the Canadian Space Agency awarded funding for the development of concept studies to help develop capabilities and define potential Canadian infrastructure contributions on the Moon's surface. Six of these projects will now move to the prototyping phase.
Canadensys, Canadian Space Mining Corporation, Honeywell and MDA will receive a total of $2.9M to advance technologies focused on five fundamental fields for lunar exploration:
- Agriculture and food production
- Autonomous and intelligent robots and rovers
- Avionics and communication
- Mining and in-situ resource utilization
- Power generation and distribution
| Company | Project summary | Amount awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Canadensys | Prototypes of a plant growth tray and water disinfection assembly designed to support crewed lunar habitation. | $449,998 |
| Canadensys | Prototype of a complete rover-representative vehicle, rated for terrestrial operations. | $500,000 |
| Canadian Space Mining Corporation | Prototype of their HYDRO+ technology that leverages integrated gas reduction methods to process diverse ore and minerals sourced from diverse geological regions on the Moon. | $499,647 |
| Honeywell | Prototype of a low-power tracking terminal front end for long-range optical communications. | $500,000 |
| MDA | Development and assessment of algorithms to achieve continuous driving. | $494,098 |
| MDA | Development of algorithms and autonomous plant management tools for a nuclear power system on the lunar surface. | $500,000 |