CSA/NASA Cooperation in Loses

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xXTheOneRavenXx

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Good afternoon all,

I am currently working on an essay involving Canadian politics. The topic I chose was the loses from the canceled Constellation Program and how it has affected the CSA/CSP (Canada Space Agency/Canada Space Program). I think everyone knows that political-wise the US and Canada go hand-in-hand on many debates and decisions. In my opinion I think the CSA had it right in outsourcing many of it's launches to help reduce the costs while NASA tries to vastly increase their budget to keep all launches on their home turf driving itself into a deeper deficit. This is not to say that the CSA is in any way better off than NASA. While Canada IS a leader in the design and construction of robotics for the space industry, and is well known for the Canadarm; it too suffered from it's own budget overruns. Our own Canadian governments allowed the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to fall behind, rejecting new program ideas and freezing funding at a level that caused Canadian space spending to fall behind other advanced countries levels of support for space activities.

I'd like to know with all these short-falls both agencies have shared, how does the failed Constellation Program affect Canada and the CSA?
 
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xXTheOneRavenXx

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I am very surprised there are absolutely no opinions on this topic. What I am basically looking for is how much affect did it have on the CSA/CSP when Obama canceled the Constellation Program.
 
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access

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Well your problem is that the two programs aren't that closely related. I for one am not aware of any direct canadian involvement. That's not to say we aren't affected but it will take more research and effort to relate the two then what most of us are going to do.

In any case the CSA is essential 500 people dedicated to sending 6 people into space on someone else's rocket to do stuff with the canadarm. Not to say it's not important but it isn't the most interesting space program. As far as funding is concerned yes it is underfunded but as is every space program.
 
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xXTheOneRavenXx

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Good morning,

I found the link I was looking for. On May 8th 2008 MDA (MacDonald Dettwiler) the manufacturer hired by the Canadian government to build the Canadarm, RADARSAT and RADARSAT 2 tired to sell off everything to ATK (Alliant Techsystems) which is the sole manufacturer of the reusable Solid Rocket Motor used to launch the NASA Space Shuttle for $1.325 billion; which completely surprised the hell out of me. I'm glad the Canadian government stepped in to stop the sale. These sats are used to track the ice flow for SAR (Search and Rescue) and shipping routes off our shores, Environment Canada applications, Military applications, and other tracking applications. One of it's most important missions was to track antartica ice conditions. I know the CSA is a lot smaller than NASA, however they to have a huge role to play in the big scheme of things.
I just read an article on CTV.ca titled "Obama budget may benefit Canadian aerospace industry".
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100202/canada_obama_100202?hub=OttawaHome
How can we as a nation expect to progress in the space industry when our very contractors we hire try to sell out to American companies right under our noses. Yes, Canada has been known for it's robotics and hopes to benefit from the canceled Constellation Project... but really, we have to watch who we hire to do our developing for us. That would be like the contractor the US hired to build their military sats trying to sell them to another nation right from under Washingtons nose. I'm sure that wouldn't fly either.
 
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steve82

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I remember seeing a software change request involving the candian arm that got held up by Export Control because it had the formula for converting Fahrenheit to Centigrade on it. Highly technical ITAR-controlled data. That's one of the reasons international space programs are so difficult and expensive.
 
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xXTheOneRavenXx

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Yes, but MDA also has numerous locations over the US as well. They are also involved in SpaceX and work with the ESA. I did quite a bit of research on the company for my paper, and they have absolutely no shortage of money. From what I gather is that they were just pissed about how the Canadian Federal Government had ignored many requests for further funding over the years, and to expand into other areas. People are correct in saying Canada does not have any shuttles of their own and rely on the Russians and US for transport into space. However the US also relies on the engineering technology Canada provides in many areas of space transportation and electronics. The US is the forefront in much of the news media, though I don't believe one could function without the other. Look at the ISS for example. It took the ingenuity of numerous nations to have everything function uniformily. The Canadarm played a big role in moving and attaching many components.... though credit goes to all involved. It's no secret that the CSA is in trouble, and the Federal government needs to pay more attention to this valuable resource if its going to have a future.
 
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