Canadensys Aerospace and KSAT have announced their ongoing collaboration for communication services in support of Canada’s first Lunar Rover—KSAT will leverage its network of very large aperture antennas to provide Direct-to-Earth (DTE) communications from the Lunar surface.
Canadensys designs and builds lunar rovers, observatories, greenhouses and science instruments for customers around the world. Canadensys is also under contract to the Government of Canada for the nation’s first lunar rover. Initiated under the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA’s) Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), this lunar rover will demonstrate key technologies for future lunar activity and accomplish meaningful lunar science.
KSAT is a member of the Canadensys lunar rover team and will provide ground station services for the Canadian Lunar Rover Mission (LRM). KSAT Lunar serves the growing Lunar economy supporting missions to the Moon in all their different phases, from LEOP all the way to the surface.
KSAT’s customers include future relay satellites, orbiters, landers and rovers as well as crewed programs. KSAT Lunar’s core element will be composed of an initial network of 3x 20-meter X/Ka antennas to be in Southwestern USA, Spain and Australia. These will be operational by mid-2027. In addition, KSAT is supporting present missions from its own current network together with multiple partner antennas around the Globe.
Christian Sallaberger, President & CEO at Canadensys, said, “KSAT is a very important partner to Canadensys in the area of lunar communications. KSAT is a driving force in global commercial lunar exploration activities and their approach mirrors very well our own commercial philosophy in the design and implementation of lunar missions. We are happy to have their support on the Canadian Lunar Rover Mission and look forward to collaborating on future missions as well.”
Amund Nylund, KSAT’s Chief Operations Officer, said, “KSAT Lunar is an important element in our strategy to continue leading ground network services in the space sector. Working with the Canadensys team these past months has been very interesting and we are very grateful and honoured to have them as our customer in this fascinating journey to the Moon.”
Perry Edmundson, LRM Program Manager at Canadensys, said, “Canadensys is proud to be working with KSAT Lunar and we look forward to integrating KSAT Lunar’s new 20-meter antennas into the mission architecture for Canada’s first lunar rover.”