CanX Program
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CanX-1
CanX-2
CanX-3 - BRITE
CanX-4 & CanX-5
Lunette

The Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program at the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory provides cost-effective access to space for the research and development community at home and abroad through the use of nanosatellites and picosatellites. These one to five kilogram spacecraft employ state-of-the-art technologies and subsystems, including high-performance computers, miniaturized attitude control sensors and actuators, and high-speed communication devices. CanX spacecraft are designed and built by Masters students at the University of Toronto, under the close supervision of professional staff.

Our first satellite, CanX-1 - being one of the smallest satellites ever built – pioneered the SFL nanospacecraft design approach. The spacecraft’s principle mission focused on space-testing key technologies for future SFL micro and nanospacecraft. These key technologies included colour and monochrome CMOS imagers, a novel low-cost computer and active-three axis magnetic stabilization. CanX-1 was successfully built and launched on June 30th 2003.

The next CanX satellite, CanX-2, is significantly more ambitious spacecraft than CanX-1. The mission for CanX-2 is two fold. Firstly, it is designed to demonstrate key technologies required for the CanX-4 & -5 formation flight mission. These technologies include a novel SFL-designed cold gas propulsion system and miniature attitude determination and control subsystem sensors and actuators to name a few. Secondly, CanX-2 will also serve as a test bed for scientific missions of importance to the scientific community. These experiments include a miniature spectrometer to detect greenhouse gasses and a GPS occultation experiment to characterize vertical profiles in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

CanX-3, the third in the CanX series, will observe the largest and brightest stars in the sky. Using a technique called differential photometry, CanX-3 will capture minute variations of light from these objects in order to probe the structure and evolution of these massive stellar objects. CanX-3 will achieve this mission using a seven centimetre optical telescope.

In addition to supporting leading-edge scientific research, the CanX spacecraft are used for technology demonstration. The advanced components incorporated into the spacecraft are candidate technologies for future high-performance microsatellites. CanX missions are an excellent means by which to gain flight heritage for developmental systems.