Aziza's+Page

Canadian Space Agency

The Canadian Space Agency was established on March 1, 1989 by the Canadian Space Agency Act. The act was approved on December 14, 1990. The Canadian Space Agency's headquarters is located at John H. Chapman Space Centre in Saint-Hubert, Quebec.

So far the agency has launched 20 space missions since it was created. There are two space missions planned to be launched this year. //Expedition 20/21// took off on May 27, 2009 with Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk as a part of the first six-person crew on the I//nternational Space Station//. This mission will be on-going for the next six months while the crew woks on doing experiments on account of international and Canadian researchers. There is another mission set for June 13 this year, Mission STS-127. Canada's astronaut, Julie Payette, works on experiments, with six other American astronauts, on the Kibo Pressurized Module.

The Canadian Space Agency is contributing a fundamental part of the //ISS//, the //Mobile Servicing System (MSS)//. The //MSS// consists of three components, the //Space Station Remote Manipulator System//, also know as //Canadarm2//, the //Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator//, or //Dextre//, and the //Mobile Base System//. The //MSS// acts like an arm for the //ISS//, moving supplies and equiptment around the station. The //Mobile Servicing System// is controled by astronauts who recieve special training for this.

Canada has sent many satellites up into space. Some are Earth-observing satellites, communications satellites, and science satellites. There are nine Earth-observation satellites; RADARSAT-1, RADARSAT-2, RADARASAT Constellation, SCISAT, ODIN, CLOUDSAT, ENVISAT, TERRA, and UARS that is one of the ten devices on the American satellite UARS, eight communications satellites; NIMIK, ANIK A, ANIK B, ANIK C, ANIK D, ANIK E, ANIK F1, ANIK F2, and elven science satellites; ALOUETTE I, ALOUETTE II, CASSIOPE, MOST, HERSCHEL, JWST, FUSE, PHOENIX, ISIS I, ISIS 2, and an ultra-violet imager Interball-2 on the Russian satellite Interball-2.

Micrometeorite, Solar Wind, and Gamma and Cosmic Ray Detectors

Micrometeorite Detector

Micrometeorite detectors have been put on spacecrafts since the late 1950's. One of the first spacecraft to have a micrometeorite detector was Explorer 1. These detectors took the impact of micrometeorites and recorded it as a data. Micrometeorites have such a powerful impact that a one could break wires on impact. That's exactly how Explorer 1 recorded the detection of micrometeorites. If one of the wires on the detector was damaged it meant that a micrometeorite had hit it.

Solar Wind Detector

NASA's IMAGE ( Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration) used radio imaging, ultraviolet, and neutral atom tactics to find out Earth's directly driven response of the magnetosphere to solar wind changes. Unfortunately IMAGE started failing in 2005. Launched on March 25, 2000, IMAGE was suppose to be a two year project but turned into nearly six years.

Gamma and Cosmic Ray Detector

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a satellite that detects gamma-rays. It is a fairly new satellite that was sent into space on June 11, 2008. Fermi mainly detects for gamma rays but the information that it gathers will hopefully tell us more about the source of cosmic rays and black holes. There are five main goals for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; look for potential signs of new laws of physics and what Dark Matter is constructed of, help figure out the mysteries of the gamma-ray bursts, which are extremely powerful explosions, inspect the most extreme universal environments, help answer questions about such things as solar flares, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays, and define how black holes impel immense shoots of material to almost light speed.

The Payload for Antimatter/Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA) is also a satellite but instead of detecting gamma-rays it detects cosmic rays. PAMELA is a European satellite that is also trying to detect the source of cosmic rays since cosmic rays tend to weave their path instead traveling straight like gamma-rays.

Reference s

[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []