Ontario Tech researcher developing technologies for astronauts

An Ontario Tech University researcher is leading one of the first projects to stream live data from the moon.

Behind the scenes, Ontario Tech researcher Dr. Carolyn McGregor has been working with CommStar and its consortium of partners, including Laser Light Communications of Reston, Virginia, to launch a private data relay satellite, which would establish much-needed communications infrastructure for future missions in space.

As it’s been nearly a half-century since the last time a human was on the moon – in December 1971 – NASA hopes to return by 2023 with the data relay satellite CommStar-1.

McGregor presented her latest research findings on March 6, outlining an ‘end-to-end’ data distribution infrastructure, which enables real-time monitoring for astronaut health through cloud-based analytics via space data relays, noting deep space hybrid radio frequency and optical networks have great potential to address the current gap in space communication networks.

“Ontario Tech will be the lead academic institution in this new form of space telecommunication, Internet of Things (IoT), real-time astronaut monitoring and equipment monitoring for Moon, ‘cislunar’ and Mars missions,” says McGregor, which she says “follows Ontario Tech’s focus on ‘tech with a conscience’ as an advocate of responsible approach to technology innovation.”

The project with CommStar also involves IBM, IoT-platform Smart Cone Technologies, and Ontario Tech’s Joint Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Health and Wellness with University of Technology Sydney in Australia.

McGregor says she is “excited to be part of this paradigm-shifting, game-changing research that will have so much implication on how we think about provisioning technology solutions beyond low-Earth orbit for Mars and Moon missions.”

“We are leading these new approaches to space data communications that will enable Ontario- and Canadian-based businesses to be part of an emerging ecosystem of providers and users on the Earth of the Moon, or someday beyond,” she says, adding new experiential learning opportunities will be provided for students to gain experience on these new space applications for businesses.

CommStar’s CEO, Fletcher Brumley, says this project “outlines an ‘end-to-end’ space-data management platform for the specific purpose of monitoring health off-planet.”

“Space data management is emerging as a key service sector, supporting humankind’s transition from the Earth to Near Space, the Moon, and someday Mars,” says Brumley, noting direct-to-Earth data flows will require state-of-the-art communications infrastructure and services, similar to what we have on Earth, tailored for the human experience off-planet.

“We at CommStar are proud to be part of her work and the potential benefits her design brings to the safe migration of humans off-planet.”

 

Dr. Carolyn McGregor’s Artemis Project

The health, wellness and adaption response of astronauts during spaceflight is a key component for the success of any space mission involving humans.

While physiological and psychological responses of astronauts during spaceflight have been monitored since the missions in the 1960s, earlier versions of communication networks to and within the spacecraft have limited methods to monitor the health and wellness of astronauts in real-time.

Over the past 15 years, McGregor has developed her Artemis big-data analytics platform that enables the capture and processing of physiological data and other clinical data in real-time, for new approaches to real-time health monitoring.

First tested within the domain of neonatal intensive care, Artemis is proposed as an approach for autonomous health monitoring to support missions within and beyond low-Earth orbit.

Artemis Cloud enables health analytics as-a-service and has been demonstrated utilizing the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network  (ORION) in Ontario.