LATITUDE
SPACE TRUCKIN'
SO NICE THEY’RE DOING IT TWICE A team of University of Alberta engineering and science students has followed up the success of the Ex-Alta 1 satellite, shown here, with funding for a second one. Ex-Alta 2 will supply researchers with information necessary to track, assess, and predict wildfires.
SPACE AGENCY GRANT SENDS WILDFIRE PREVENTION INTO ORBIT Two years after a wildfire devastated Fort McMurray, a group of University of Alberta engineering and science students have secured funding for an out-of-this-world way to reduce the risk of similar destruction happening again. Supported by the Canadian Space Agency with a $250,000 grant and a launch date, the AlbertaSat student team will create a miniature satellite. After Ex-Alta 2 starts orbiting Earth in 2020-21, the team will spend the next 12 months using it to monitor wildfire conditions and activity in Alberta. Data collected will enable scientists and emergency services to predict where wildfires might start. Particle tracking will help experts profile active wildfires. The funding, under the Canadian CubeSat Project, will also allow the U of A team to look at wildfire after-effects and recovery rates. Ex-Alta 2 has an International Space Station connection, too. Cube satellites are caught by the Canadarm, which then deploys them into orbit. “The data we collect will tell first responders how to allocate firefighting resources so they can better prevent disasters like the one we saw in Fort McMurray,” says Callie Lissinna , the group’s project manager and a student member of APEGA. “Some students on the team have friends and family who were affected by the fire, and it was part of the personal motivation and feeling of communal loss that led to our decision to give back to the community this way,” she says in a U of A story. Ex-Alta 2 is helping space exploration happen at other universities, too, by including open source components— most of them designed by AlbertaSat. Once these components prove themselves, the team will have what’s
called “flight heritage,” increasing its credibility with others who may be considering the components for their own missions. The Canadian CubeSat Project is designed to increase student interest and expertise in space. Fifteen grants were awarded to Canadian colleges and universities in May. The U of A will be collaborating on a small collection of satellites with Aurora College in Inuvik, N.W.T., and Yukon College in Whitehorse, Yukon. Teams at the schools will work together on satellite design, assembly, and testing, with assembly and testing taking place at the U of A. “AlbertaSat’s involvement in the Canadian CubeSat Project is our next step in growing the aerospace community at the U of A,” says Clayton Coutu, communications team lead for Ex-Alta 2. “It ensures that students passionate about space will be able to design, build, and launch spacecraft here for years to come.” This isn’t the U of A team’s first foray into space. Ex-Alta 2’s predecessor—extra points if you guess its name—was launched in April 2017. Part of an international initiative called QB50, Ex-Alta 1 is designed to study space weather. It carries a probe to measure electron density, a radiation monitor, a tool to measure magnetic signatures, and a program for running cube satellites. Ex-Alta 1 is also one of 38 satellites sent into space by universities around the world to study solar wind, which can negatively affect communications and electrical power on Earth. Ex-Alta 1 caught a ride on a rocket launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. Grabbed by the Canadarm and deployed from the International Space Station, it’s the largest satellite in the QB50 mission. And yes, at the time of this writing, it’s still is in orbit.
42 | PEG SUMMER 2018
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