IYA (International Year of Astronomy) 2009

The Universe: Yours to Discover - One Earth, One Sky

The Canadian Space Summit is the annual event of the Canadian Space Society, dedicated to helping the Canadian space industry and related groups develop a wider understanding of the diverse space exploration and development projects undertaken by Canadians across the nation and around the world. Its mission is to foster collaborative connections between the many government agencies, companies and organizations involved.

For many years, the term 'dual use' has been applied to the idea of civil versus military when speaking of space applications. However, with the increased development of space assets, this duality of space applications has rapidly expanded to a multiplicity of uses in that any application for space can inherently be applied to more terrestrial applications or, for that matter, other areas of space research. The 2009 Space Summit theme, "Multi-use missions: Opportunities for collaboration on space technologies", is meant to highlight this inherent trait and educate the space community on the importance of considering additional applications for their research. It will emphasize the many short and long term issues, requirements and goals of the various constituencies that together make up the Canadian space sector and provide insight into the roles played by individuals, business leaders, public organizations and academic experts as they compete to define the issues the industry must address to move forward.

Preliminary topics to be covered are as follows:

Low Earth Orbit, including on-orbit servicing, debris removal/mitigation, space surveillance, microsatellite constellations, nanosatellites, space for Arctic sovereignty Astronomy, including metrology and precision space telescope structures, space telescope detector and receiver technologies (X-ray, UV, THz), attitude control and pointing technologies, space telescope optics technologies, and space astronomy science instrument concepts. Planetary Exploration, including robotic exploration on Earth and in the Solar System, Technology transfer: from planetary observation to Earth observation, Planetary science instruments for Earthly benefits Life Sciences, including Telemedicine, Medicine & Healthcare, Personal and public safety, Physiological & Behavioral Research, Cellular Mechanisms and Tissue Engineering, and Pharmaceutical Research Law and Policy, including space traffic management for all actors, potential legal regimes for space debris removal, international space surveillance/situational awareness, verification regimes for space arms control, applying the laws of armed conflict in space, space assets vs. space weapons Space Commercialization, in particular regulatory and financial issues surrounding the "dual use" theme, such as utilization of Industrial and Regional Benefits (IRB), credits to drive ongoing, dual-use sales, "dual use" of military space focused technologies, and export controls for "dual use" products Education and Training, including elementary, secondary and postsecondary programs, student participation in space missions, the role of government and industry, new roles for educational institutions, and communication of space activities to the public.

For more information, to register, and to submit a title and abstract for a poster presentation, visit www.css.ca.