Considering that Canada is the second largest country, has one of the largest renewable sources of fresh water in the world, and is home to nearly a tenth of the world’s forests, naming space as a national asset may seem absurd or even fanciful, as some mythical sasquatch or ookpik. Not so, says Sarah Gallagher, director of the Western Institute for Earth and Space Exploration (Western Space), who previously served as an advisor to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) executive on issues related to science, science policy and the development of capabilities in the field of space. Sarah Gallagher. Photo by Chris Smeenk, Special to Western Communications “Canada is well positioned – geographically and politically – to play an important role in the coming years as humanity once again sends men to the Moon and continues to explore the world,” said Gallagher. “Closer to home, the North is warming faster than the rest of the planet, and using land and coastal observation satellites to monitor and understand the effects of climate change is an obvious solution.” Like Canada, Western Space (with its diverse membership of scientists, social scientists, engineers, doctors, philosophers, lawyers and entrepreneurs from across campus) has expertise that can contribute to space exploration as the country uses it as a tool and has the opportunity to benefit from its full potential. An important first step is hosting a pan-Canadian conference this week. Space as a National Asset for Canada (SNAC) 2022, which will run from Monday, October 31 to Wednesday, November 2, brings together the space community from academia, industry and government to demonstrate the value of space technologies for Earth applications and to discuss holistically, Canadian space ambitions. CSA President Lisa Campbell delivered the keynote address while CSA Senior Mission Scientist (Planetary Exploration) Tim Haltigin, CSA Astronaut Jeremy R. Hansen and MDA Senior Director of Defense Strategy Kevin Whale will present plenary addresses. “The main theme of this conference is to explore what space means as a national asset and to delve into the many ways in which space interacts with Canada and Canadians, scientifically and socially,” said Gallagher, an extragalactic astronomer specializing in in black holes. “We also want to focus our knowledge and expertise on how we can maximize the uses of space satellites and space-related research to address some of the grand challenges we face,” he added. Panel discussions will target topics such as exploration science and technologies, Earth observations of climate change and food security, policy and legislation, space resources and space debris. “We will discuss everything from security and sovereignty to technologies that can improve healthcare in remote communities,” Gallagher said. “Research related to space exploration can lead to fantastic discoveries and innovations, and we need to find ways to make better use of these results, learn from them and share what we learn with academics, governments and private industry to everyone’s benefit”.
