Fantastic Future Friday: Canada Edition

Happy Canada Day, Eh.

Since it both a Friday and Canada Day I thought I'd highlight the Canadian contributions to the space program.

The Canadians have managed to contribute a lot to space exploration with a comparatively small budget. The most complex tasks that the Space Shuttle did, launching the Hubble telescope and building the ISS, couldn't have been done without the Robot arm or Canadarm built in Canada to mimic the human arm on a huge scale.

They also built the MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars or Microvariabilit et Oscillations Stellaire) Telescope, not only a powerful inexpensive space telescope but they managed to get the abbreviation to work in both languages. The MOST is a tiny telescope 2' x 2' x 1' and weighs 124 lbs. It cost $7 million dollars.

The nice thing about (pronounced “Aboot”) the MOST is it can stare at one star for up to two months at a time and can detect tiny changes in the brightness.

Canada has also built science equipment that has been placed on the ISS the Phoenix Mars Lander and the James Webb Space Telescope.

So to CSA (Canadian Space Agency) I'd like to say, “Happy Canada and keep up the good work.” It the Canadians can keep adding to our understanding of the universe with innovative scientific equipment made at comparatively low cost it will lead to a fantastic future.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE