CASI ASTRO 2019 Conference Schedule Available

Peregrine lander. Credit: Astrobotic Technology.

The Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute will hold its now annual ASTRO conference in two weeks in Laval. The theme this year is “Space for Business”.

The conference will feature an opening keynote speaker in Sylvain Laporte, president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It will also include Dr. Sarah Gallagher, CSA Science Advisor as the the ASTRO 2019 Reception and Dinner keynote speaker who will speak on “Leveraging Science for Innovation”.

With the conference being so close to the CSA headquarters there are numerous speakers and sessions led by the agency. As well, with this years theme, there is a strong business component.

There are four plenary panels and up to five concurrent technical and innovation sessions each day. There is also a “Lunch & Launchers – Panel Discussion” on the last day.

The four plenary panels are;

  1. Monday – Canadian Space Agency Directors General
  2. Tuesday –  Scaling Up: Lessons Learned from Starting a Canadian Space Company
  3. Tuesday – Commercial Lunar Exploration
  4. Wednesday –  Defence Space – Chair, BGen. Kevin Whale, DG Space, Department of National Defence

Notable sessions

Some of the sessions which will be of greater interest this year include those with the moon as the theme. In particular the CSA will provide an overview of the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP) followed by a Town Hall Discussion in the Future Lunar Exploration Activities technical session mid-day Wednesday.

The Innovation 360° technical being held each day is where you’ll find many of this years theme talks.

The technical sessions are as follows:

  • Planetary Rovers
  • Space Manipulators
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar
  • The Space Innovation Ecosystem – Funding Opportunities from Ideas to Space
  • Space Exploration Systems and Technologies
  • Testbeds
  • Regulatory Environment
  • Space Technology Development Program
  • Space Science, technology and Expertise Development in Academia
  • Vehicle Dynamics
  • Partnerships
  • ESA Ministerial 2019: Satcom/Navigation/EO
  • Space Capability Flight Demonstration Initiative
  • RADARSAT Constellation Mission
  • Federal Government R&D Funding
  • CubeSats
  • Advanced Materials
  • Earth Observation and Remote Sensing
  • David Florida Laboratory: Assembly, Integration and Test
  • Intellectual Property Strategy, Services and Tools
  • Space System Resilience and Space Situational Awareness
  • Future Lunar Exploration Activities
  • CSA Earth Observation Roadmap to Success

The preliminary program is available below and on the CASI website. SpaceQ will be on hand to cover the conference and to listen to any interesting stories participants might want to share.

About Marc Boucher

Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor & publisher. He is the founder of SpaceQ Media Inc. and CEO and co-founder of SpaceRef Interactive LLC. Boucher has 20+ years working in various roles in the space industry and a total of 30 years as a technology entrepreneur including creating Maple Square, Canada's first internet directory and search engine.

Leave a Reply