The Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Microsatellite (M3MSat) is a tele-detection satellite developed by the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; ) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The President of the Canadian Space Agency, president is Lisa Campbell (civil servant), Lisa Campbell, who took ...

and launched in 2016. Its mission is to demonstrate and test the technology to assess the utility of having in space an

Automatic Identification System The automatic identification system (AIS) is an automatic tracking system that uses transceivers on ships and is used by vessel traffic services (VTS). When satellites are used to receive AIS signatures, the term ''Satellite-AIS'' (S-AIS) is ...

(AIS) for reading signals from vessels to better manage marine transport in Canadian waters. The system will be supported by an instrument called a Low Data Rate Service (LDRS), which transmits AIS messages to ground sensors.

Objectives

The M3MSat microsatellite will be used to receive and locate digital signals transmitted by vessels. This data will be sent to ground stations to then be relayed to operators for

Defence Research and Development Canada Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC; , ''RDDC'') is the science and technology organization of the Department of National Defence (Canada), Department of National Defence (DND), whose purpose is to provide the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), ...

(DRDC). This will make it possible to identify and record marine traffic, know vessels' direction, cruising speed, and ensure that they navigate legally and safely in Canadian waters. Canada's Department of National Defence has granted a licence to

exactEarth exactEarth Ltd is a Canadian company that specializes in data services that deliver real-time global location-based maritime vessel tracking information utilizing patented satellite AIS detection technology. exactEarth provides satellite AIS ...

to commercialize the AIS data collected from M3MSat and integrate it with the data collected from the rest of the exactEarth constellation.

Payload

M3MSat is a tele-detection satellite, and its mission is to demonstrate and test the technology of three instruments: *

(AIS) — will make it possible to detect signals from ships and thus know the locations of ships travelling in Canadian waters. * Low Data Rate Service (LDRS), which will receive low-speed AIS data from boats in Canadian waters and retransmit that data to control centers located in the east and west of the country, ensuring coordination and retransmission of information collected on marine traffic. This will enable the collection of data on marine traffic in remote areas where there is no data streaming infrastructure. *Dielectric Deep Charge Monitor (DDCM), accumulated

electrostatic charge Electric charge (symbol ''q'', sometimes ''Q'') is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative''. Like charges repel each other and ...

in satellites'

dielectric In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an Insulator (electricity), electrical insulator that can be Polarisability, polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric ...

(non-conductive) material and gain insight on their level of functionality. This information will help extend the lifetime of Earth-orbiting satellites.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Microsatellite Communications satellites Maritime communication Satellites of Canada Spacecraft launched in 2016 2016 in Canada