December 13, 2018 Western planetary scientists assist in capturing first full-colour image of NASA InSight using HiRISE space camera Houston, there is no problem here. Eric Pilles assisted in capturing – for the first-time ever – extraordinary and highly significant scientific images of the NASA InSight robotic lander using HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), the camera currently monitoring the Red Planet aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
November 30, 2018 Will Canada boldly join the next-generation space station project? Members of Canada’s space community including academic and business leaders are currently engaged in an urgent dialogue that’s highlighting how the window may be closing on Canada’s opportunity to play a leadership role in the development of the global space economy, as well as the next steps in the exploration of space.
May 07, 2018 Western partners with Nunavut Arctic College in the Canadian CubeSat Project Western University recently announced its partnership with Nunavut Arctic College as participants in a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) project, where teams of professors and students take part in a real space mission. Western received one of 15 CSA-funded grants to build a miniature satellite called a CubeSat. The CubeSat project aims to enhance the STEM outreach of Western University’s Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) by taking CubeSat operations into the high school classroom both in Southwestern Ontario and Nunavut. Remote access to the CubeSat will facilitate live demonstrations of satellite communications and interpretation of received data.
May 01, 2018 300th MRO-HiRISE Imaging Campaign of Mars Planned by Western-Based Team It’s the tricentennial anniversary of the first 2-week mission-planning “cycle” of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)... and our Western University-based team has the honour of planning it! The 300th HiRISE’s imaging campaign executes on the evening of Saturday, May 12th and continues to Saturday, May 26th as Mars continues into Northern Fall/Southern Spring.
April 26, 2018 ExoMars returns first images from new orbit; Western’s Livio L. Tornabene makes major impact The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has returned the first images of the Red Planet from its new orbit. Western University’s Livio L. Tornabene, a Co-Investigator on CaSSIS, plans to participate regularly throughout the mission in the targeting of the CaSSIS camera system.
March 19, 2018 CPSX Undergraduate Research Award winner of 2017, Emily Pass, wins Co-op Student of the Year Award Emily Pass won the CPSX Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Award last year to work with CPSX faculty member, Dr. Stan Metchev, and Computer Science faculty member, Dr. Steve Beauchemin, over the summer of 2017. She designed and implemented the software, algorithm and code for the telescope array, Colibri. Emily has now won a national Co-op Student of the Year award from Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada.
January 26, 2018 Western scientists believe bright fireball event near Grand Bend dropped meteorites A network of cameras directed by Western University observed a bright fireball across southern Ontario at 7:23 p.m. on Wednesday, January 24. Analysis of the video data by Western scientists suggests that fragments of the meteor are likely to have made it to the ground between the communities of Saint Joseph and Crediton, Ontario.
