Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The Canadian lunar rover could soon help reveal the far side of the moon. The country's first moon rover is set to put the Canadian Space Agency at the forefront of space exploration, helping in the global search for frozen water on the celestial body. NASA says the moon takes about 27 days to complete a full rotation on its axis as it orbits earth, leaving the same side visible from the ground at all times. As a result, the far side remains little understood and unexplored.
In the unassuming heart of Stratford, in between an oil change shop and a grocery store, a Canadian milestone is taking shape. Canada’s first lunar rover is being designed and built by Canadensys Aerospace – specifically at the Stratford prototyping facility located at the former Samsonite Canada site on Ontario Street. Peter Visscher, general manager of the facility, introduced StratfordToday to a prototype of the lunar rover, affectionately known as SCAMP. Standing for Small Canadian All-terrain Mobility Platform – the ‘t’ is small – SCAMP is being designed for a lunar mission planned for 2026.
A relatively unknown company in the Ottawa Valley will be part of a team that is sending Canada's first-ever lunar rover to the moon in 2026. Bubble Technology Industries (BTI) in Chalk River is designing a device that will attach onto the rover and search for water or ice as it drives across the moon's surface. "Our system is specifically being designed as a radiation detector with the primary purpose of detecting water at the South Pole of the moon," says Scott MacEwan, a research scientist at BTI.
