Enhanced national security, better climate change responses, and using AI to get more out of Earth Observation (EO) data: These are just some of the technology that space will affect Canada’s future going forward.
These and other specifics were detailed during the ‘Shaping Canada’s Future with Emerging Space Technologies’ panel at Space Bound 2024. It is the annual conference hosted by the Space Canada industry association, being held September 24-25, 2004 at Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Nature.
Not surprisingly, the ever-increasing number and capabilities of Earth-orbiting satellites — particularly in low Earth orbit (LEO) — is making it far easier to track what’s happening on the ground.
However, this growing fleet can do more than just serve as super-powered CCTV security cameras. As Deloitte Emerging Technology Lead/panelist Raquel Buscaino said, “having eyes in space is great. But you can also provide EO data that is timely to prevent disasters.”
At the same time, the thousands of satellites that are now filling up low Earth orbit may actually make space a more secure operational zone, despite the push by some nations to keep developing anti-satellite weapons. That’s because having thousands of small satellites in LEO makes it pointless to destroy one or more in order to disrupt an adversary’s space-based communications.
Panellist Chad English of Reaction Dynamics — who deliberately does not have a job title — described this unintended consequence as “Mutually Assured Civility” (MAC), which is the opposite of the nuclear deterrence principle known as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). He views MAC as “a stabilizing factor” in Earth orbit, potentially making space an even more reliable resource for Canada going forward.
Nordspace CEO/panelist Rahul Goel was not so upbeat about the future impact of space technology on Canada. His concern is not the technology itself, but rather the current lack of domestically-based commercial launch facilities in this country. “If we can’t get payload into LEO at least, we’re going to bottleneck in that way,” Goel said.
Meanwhile, Bryn Orth-Lashley, GHGSat’s Technical Operations & Service Delivery Manager, sees satellite technology aiding Canada in the ongoing fight against climate change. “With all these new satellites going into orbit, we’re going to be able to get data more quickly” about incidents such as Earth-based gas emissions, he said. As soon as a new unauthorized emission is spotted from orbit, it can be monitored continuously using LEO satellites.
Given the increasing amount of data being generated by EO satellites, it only makes sense to process this data using AI-enabled software, to extract more usable content from this source. However, there are still some issues to be resolved in this data chain. For instance, the sophistication of AI applications is running ahead of EO technology, according to Buscaino. As well, there remains “a last mile” problem to get the EO data from the satellites to the ultimate end users, she said.
The bottom line: Emerging space technology will shape Canada’s future in new and sometimes unexpected ways — and likely make it better.
- Read more coverage from the Space Bound 2024 conference.