Canadian maritime, police, and military authorities must patrol huge areas of land and sea. In April 2008, the nation orbited the 8-kg Nanosatellite Tracking of Ships demonstration satellite, built by Com Dev and carrying a miniature Automated Identification System (AIS) terminal. The AIS technology will likely be added to Canad'a future RadarSats, and Com Dev is working on a follow on. In 2010, Com Dev's more sophisticated Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Microsatellite (M3MSat) will be orbited.
COMMENT: One more example of the utility of a still-overlooked technology, the microsatellite. Micro-birds can't do everything the big satellites can do, not yet, but the technology keeps advancing. They can do missions on their own as well as serving as affordable testbeds for new ideas.
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