Charting our own course: Launching Canada’s space future

Springboard’s Alannah Dharamshi, Noah Zon, Jasmine Irwin, and Jamie Van Ymeren teamed with Vass Bednar and Robin Shaban to respond to the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) call for Canadians to share their visions for Canada’s future in space with a discussion paper.

In fall 2020, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched a consultation to broadly inform Canada’s future approach to space exploration. The consultation comes at a critical time, with new opportunities and challenges on the horizon. Space exploration is pushing forward in a way not seen since the space race. Recently, Canada made significant commitments related to space, including signing the Artemis Accords and announcing plans for a series of joint lunar missions with the US, setting Canada up to be the second country to have an astronaut orbit the moon. But these commitments and other developments leave questions about how space will be governed, what role Canada will play, and how to ensure space’s potential is realized in a way that serves Canadians and humanity at large.

In 2019, the Government of Canada introduced a new national Space Strategy. The strategy articulates a broad picture of the implications of space exploration for life on Earth and is grounded in clear principles. It has a short time horizon compared to the work of space exploration, looking back at existing policy commitments as much as it looks forward. Despite the ambition reflected in this strategy, Canada’s level of funding for space activities remains at a fraction of our peers’. To rise to the occasion we need a broader, long-term framework that can mobilize all corners of Canadian society and guide our future exploration in space.