Aerospace turning to Canada for successor to Hubble telescope

The Hubble space telescope is set to retire around 2030. Now a team of researchers at Magellan Aerospace and experts at the University of Manitoba are working on a successor to Hubble called CASTOR.

Since its launch in 1990, Hubble has changed humanity’s understanding of the universe – making it one of NASA’s most transformative observatories. But its time in space is slowly drawing to a close, with its retirement expected at the beginning of the next decade.

“It’s over 30-years-old now and as anything with moving parts goes, things start to break down and furthermore it’s starting to decay in its orbit. So, it’s really time to build a new telescope,” said Tyrone Woods, Co-Lead of CASTOR Science.

Woods says the new telescope, which will be mostly developed in Winnipeg, will see 100 times better than what Hubble currently produces, and at a fraction of the cost.

“Hubble can just see a little, it’s an amazing telescope, but you have to make trade-offs, it can only see a little pin-point of the night sky at any given time. CASTOR is going to be able to see about the size of a full moon across the night sky, just 100 times better,” said Woods.

CASTOR, which has been in the works for 12 years, will be able to see the hot, massive stars that astronomers want to look at, as well as growing black holes, exoplanets orbiting distant suns, and explosions in deep space.

“We’re filling in that gap that would be missing with the James Webb Space Telescope and having them all work together gives you a complete picture of the universe,” said Scott Young, Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum.

CASTOR’s design is ready and international and industrial partners are lined up. However, the project is waiting for funding from the federal government.

“It’s going to make discoveries that we have never even thought of, just like Hubble did, and it will blow people’s minds. The fact that people will look at these amazing pictures and know that it was built in their city, it will be inspiring to the next generation of kids who are thinking, ‘I’d like to do space, but I don’t live in the United States, I live in Winnipeg, what can I do?’ well you can do anything,” said Young.

Woods added, “The telescopes that we build to look up into the night sky, they can also look down and Canada is a world leader in Earth observation, revolutionizing everything from agriculture to climate science.”