Session
Technical Session VI: The Future
Abstract
Cassiope, which stands for ‘CASCADE Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer’, is a recently announced and challenging smallsat mission. Primed by MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA), and enabled by contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), Cassiope will support two distinct payloads and objectives. A general mission overview followed by a focus on the technical and scientific aspects of both payloads is presented. The first payload is a suite of space science instruments that in sum are referred to as e-POP, the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe. Developed by a scientific team led by the University of Calgary, e-POP will be Canada’s first space environment sensor suite, providing Canadian scientists with the opportunity to understand the impact the variability of the Sun has on the space environment. The second payload is an experimental Cascade payload. It will be used to demonstrate key aspects of what will be the world’s first commercial space-based digital courier service. Analogous to a “FedExTM-in-the-Sky”, the operational Cascade system is envisioned to deliver extremely large digital data files, nominally ranging in size from 50 to 500 Gbytes, to and from anywhere on Earth typically within a day. The experimental Cascade payload on Cassiope will develop and demonstrate the key enabling Cascade technologies and demonstrate the feasibility of this very large file end-to-end transfer method.
Presentation Slides
Cassiope: A Canadian Smallsat-Based Space Science and Advanced Satcom Demonstration Mission
Cassiope, which stands for ‘CASCADE Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer’, is a recently announced and challenging smallsat mission. Primed by MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA), and enabled by contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), Cassiope will support two distinct payloads and objectives. A general mission overview followed by a focus on the technical and scientific aspects of both payloads is presented. The first payload is a suite of space science instruments that in sum are referred to as e-POP, the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe. Developed by a scientific team led by the University of Calgary, e-POP will be Canada’s first space environment sensor suite, providing Canadian scientists with the opportunity to understand the impact the variability of the Sun has on the space environment. The second payload is an experimental Cascade payload. It will be used to demonstrate key aspects of what will be the world’s first commercial space-based digital courier service. Analogous to a “FedExTM-in-the-Sky”, the operational Cascade system is envisioned to deliver extremely large digital data files, nominally ranging in size from 50 to 500 Gbytes, to and from anywhere on Earth typically within a day. The experimental Cascade payload on Cassiope will develop and demonstrate the key enabling Cascade technologies and demonstrate the feasibility of this very large file end-to-end transfer method.
