Canadian ingenuity: Canadarm’s robotics and scientific innovation


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June 8, 2022 • 49 minutes ago • 5 minutes of reading

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Pulling the Canadarm on its first shuttle trip in 1981, the astronaut was able to manipulate the equipment as an extension of his own arm to grab, hold and transport equipment into space. Back on Earth, NASA crews applauded, especially Canadarm project director Garry Lindberg, who along with his team were the innovative builders of the shuttle’s remote handling system, the Canadian contribution to the program. space shuttle.

Raised with two siblings in rural Rimbey, Alta, Lindberg’s childhood in southwest Edmonton was steeped in his father’s scientific principles. Senior Lindberg adopted “the latest strains and methods of raising plants and animals researched by agricultural scientists,” Courtney Tower wrote in “Our People” in the Alta Vista-Canterbury community newspaper, Vistas, April 2018.

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“The work and responsibility came from their little ‘associations’ with their children,” Tower said, “each had their own plots of land to sow, or their own calves to raise.” Lindberg graduated from Red Deer High School at age 15 and was admitted to the University of Alberta. In 1960 he graduated with a degree in physical engineering.

Receiving the Athlone Fellowship, Lindberg attended Cambridge University in England. (A leading university, Cambridge graduates include heavyweights in sciences such as Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, Alan Turing, Sir Charles Newton, and many others.) In 1964, Lindberg returned to Canada with a doctorate in mechanical engineering. That same year, Lindberg accepted a position at the National Research Council’s National Aviation Facility in Ottawa.

Competition between the Soviet Union and the United States had moved to the forefront in the mid-1950s, when the Cold War turned to the sky and unexplored space. Surprisingly the Americans, the Soviets developed the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile and launched Sputnik 1 into space. Aggravated Americans could not have the USSR at the forefront of exploration. The space race was underway.

Sputnik “was the world’s first artificial satellite … the size of a beach ball (58 centimeters or 22.5 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kilograms or 183.9 pounds and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth in its elliptical path, “he said. NASA History Division. “This launch led to new political, military, technological and scientific developments.”

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NASA’s first missions launched rockets, satellites and people into space. Much of the expensive equipment was disposable, and in the 1970’s a plan arose to develop reusable shuttles. Along with the transport equipment, a robotic arm was considered necessary. The Canadians were ready for the challenge.

The machine for space operations would be complex, sophisticated and groundbreaking. The request from NASA was brief, according to the Canadian Space Agency: “Build a tool to work perfectly in space with the skill of a human arm.” The initial goals were to launch new satellites, recover older ones, and make satellite repairs.

“In 1974, Lindberg was appointed Project Director of the Shuttle Remote Manipulation System, or Canadarm, Canada’s best-known space hit,” the University of Alberta told The Spacemen. a Medium, 2017.

In collaboration with scientists and technicians, the 33-year-old project director’s work also included working with NASA and several Canadian companies to build the distinctive equipment. Contractors included SPAR Aerospace (Specialty Products / Applied Research), CAE Electronic, DSMA Atcon (Dilworth Secord Meagher and Associates Engineering Company) and RCA Limited, the Canadian subsidiary of RCA Corporation in the United States.

The robotic arm was built with carbon compounds, multiple layers of graphic epoxy, stainless steel and aluminum. Functioning as a human limb, the 15.2-meter (15-foot) diameter 15.2-meter (15-inch) SRMS was built with several pieces of barbell, with shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints.

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The resilient arm could grab things with its “hand” and “had to be able to unload the contents of the cargo shuttle’s payload bay,” the Canadian Space Agency said. Weighing about 410 kilograms on Earth, the Canadarm was designed to lift and maneuver payloads of up to 30,000 kilograms. In microgravity, it could lift payloads of more than 260,000 kilograms.

A white thermal insulation blanket covered the arm to protect the electronics and delicate parts from the ends. The multi-layered blanket “consists of layers of deified Kapton, Dacron fabric and a Beta fabric outer cover,” the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers described in “The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System – The Canadarm.” The deck featured “thermostatically controlled electric heaters (resistance elements) connected to critical mechanical and electronic hardware,” which provided heat during the intense cold of the space when it was out in the sun’s glare.

Equipped with CCTV cameras on the elbow and wrist joints, the robotic arm was controlled by the space shuttle’s “general purpose computer”. The astronauts used manual controllers to “tell the computer what they would like the astronauts to do.”

Canadarm was launched into space with the space shuttle Columbia on November 13, 1981. The success led to the creation of four more robotic arms for NASA, providing three decades of service with a wide range of duties. (Two of the Canadarm machines were destroyed in horrific events, when the Challenger exploded in 1985 and the catastrophic disintegration of Columbia in 2003.) The space shuttle program ended in July 2011 with the last flight of the Atlantis. . Canadarm proved a valuable contribution, serving 90 missions.

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With the triumphant launch of the robotic arm, Lindberg moved on to new aerospace projects. In 1982, “he became the NRC’s head of research for aircraft and space systems research and development,” said Tower, “including the wind tunnels still visible at Uplands Airport.” .

Lindberg “became the executive director of the NRC space division in 1986 and played a key role in the establishment of the Canadian Space Agency in 1989,” the University of Alberta said. The scientist served “as vice president of research and applications until his retirement in 1997.”

Enjoying the job of selecting candidates, Lindberg and the space agency chose the extraordinary astronauts Marc Garneau, Chris Hadfield, Julie Payette, Roberta Bondar and others. “We’ve made a pretty good choice,” Lindberg told Tower. Canadian astronauts embarked on a distinguished career after their space adventures. “They were and are pretty amazing people.”

After retiring, Lindberg applied her talent to benefit her community. Living in Ottawa’s Alta Vista neighborhood for most of his life, the executive and his wife, Daryl, raised two children. Lindberg’s younger men are environmental scientists with federal government agencies. (Before retiring, Daryl Lindberg worked in social services. She now also shares her skills with hospice and church.)

In 2008, the University of Alberta presented Garry Lindberg with the Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition, in 2017 he was named a member of the Order of Canada. The award was not only for his contributions to the establishment of Canada’s space programs, but also for “more than 20 years of volunteering for local initiatives and community events.”

Lindberg’s brilliance and dedication to the space program helped secure Canada’s place as a world leader in robotics and scientific innovation.

Susanna McLeod is a writer living in Kingston.

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