Vanguard Magazine

TeChnology WATCh 36 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018 www.vanguardcanada.com Canadian innovations for the By nICole VeRkIndT W henever I travel abroad and tell people I am from Canada, most of the time I get a physical response from the other person: holding their arms and motioning "brrrr", or sometimes pointing upwards (i.e. north) in a somewhat ridiculous mo- tion. If there is one thing we specialize in as Canadians, it's being cold and north. The Arctic wraps around 75 per cent of Canada's coastlines and is 40 per cent of its total land mass. And now, more than ever, the world is looking at the Arctic as a key transit way – the new thoroughfare that will dramatically cut down logistics time and re- move the necessity to travel through com- plicated canals. With that, however, comes a much harsher environment and unique complications which have to be solved with innovative technology. It would take the North much longer to recover from catastrophic environmental events, so truly unique technologies are required. The following are just a few examples of Canadian innovations in this area. Weatherhaven, the Canadian SME that was recently awarded the $168 million Headquarter Shelter Systems (HQSS) to replace up to 80 per cent of the Nation- al Defence's Expandable Modular Tent System structures sells a "Polar Shelter", which is made of a unique Polar fabric which is used in places like Antarctica, the High Canadian Arctic & Greenland. The Canadian Federal Government has an RFP ready to go called ESCP (Enhanced Satellite Communications Project), which will be a pair of elliptical orbit satellites at medium earth orbit that spin 90 degrees to conventional satellites and thus pass over both poles. This project will provide com- munications and surveillance in the North. The Arctic's extreme northern latitudes and polar ionosphere create issues for sen- sors and communications, rendering critical navigation technologies like GPS unreliable. Two potential bidders for ESCP are Vi- aSat and MDA. ViaSat's upcoming satellite model, the ViaSat-3 is due to enter service in 2019/2020, which aligns with the Gov- ernment of Canada's procurement time- line. The underlying technology is a strong contender for ESCP; ViaSat-3 leverages 3 satellites in geostationary orbit to provide bandwidth exceeding 1000 GBPS. Diagram showing density of MDA's radar imaging over the last 20 years.Note the high levels of activity in the Arctic Arctic

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