Research Areas
CARISMA (Canadian Array for Realtime Investigations of Magnetic Activity)
CARISMA (Canadian Array for Realtime Investigations of Magnetic Activity) is the magnetometer element of the CSA Canadian Geospace Monitoring (CGSM) project.
It is the continuation and expansion of an original magnetometer array that was part of the CANOPUS ground based instrumentation array. The data from the array has contributed to the publication of hundreds of scientific papers and helped to establish CARISMA as an essential international resource for magnetospheric physics.
Outer Radiation Belt Injection, Transport, Acceleration and Loss Satellite (ORBITALS)
The outer radiation belt injection, transport acceleration and loss satellite (ORBITALS) is a small Canadian satellite lead by the University of Alberta and proposed as a Canadian mission contribution to the International Living with a Star (ILWS) program. The ORBITALS mission will provide a unique view of the largely previously unexplored inner magnetosphere and will undertake a voyage of discovery targeting the dynamics of the Earth's radiation belts, plasmasphere and ring current. In combination with the approved NASA LWS Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the ORBITALS-RBSP constellation will have the necessary spatial coverage to resolve the spatio-temporal ambiguities and global dynamics and morphology of the Earths radiation belts.
Planetary Materials Science
The exploration of planetary surfaces is a large part of current international efforts to explore the Solar System, and ISSET includes planetary materials research to assist in those efforts. Planetary materials include meteorites – tangible samples of asteroids, the Moon and Mars, Apollo samples of the Moon, interplanetary dust particles, and cometary samples from the NASA Stardust mission. Many of the same geologic processes recorded in planetary materials will be encountered during robotic or human exploration of planetary surfaces.
The University of Alberta is home to active planetary materials research, and the second largest collection of planetary materials in Canada, including samples of Mars and various asteroid types.
Space Technology
High-Energy Proton Telescope for ORBITALS
The High-Energy Proton Telescope (HEPT) is being developed for detecting and measuring the energy and distribution of protons in the magnetosphere, one of the ten detectors (6 of them Canadian designs) on the Canadian small satellite mission proposal ORBITALS. The HEPT detector project is headed by Prof. Robert Fedosejevs and Prof. Ying Y. Tsui from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the design and testing of the detector is being directed by Dr. Sean Kirkwood.
Microgravity Science and Planetary Environments
Simulations of Mars for the Phoenix Mission
Proessor Carlos Lange from the Department of Mechanical Engineering is a Co-Investigator in the Canadian Science Team for the joint NASA/CSA Phoenix Mars Lander.
The Canadian Space Agency with the help of a group of Canadian scientists is contributing the meteorological station MET on board of the Phoenix Lander. The MET instruments will provide atmospheric measurements that will complement the surface and sub-surface data obtained by other Phoenix instruments for a complete picture of the water cycle from the regolith to the upper atmosphere. The Phoenix MET station is the first Canadian contribution to a planetary lander.