My office, you can just see my desk in the back right corner

So this is where I’m working this co-op term. It’s the upper portion of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)’s “High-Bay” labratory within the John H. Chapman Space Centre, located near St. Hubert, QC. My desk is just barely visiable in the back right corner of the photo. Definitly one of the “cooler” offices I’ve had the opportunity to work in. On the left (and nearly over my head when I’m sitting at my desk) is a mock-up of the CanadArm 2, which was part of Canada’s contribution to the International Space Station (ISS). If you look to the back-left area, you can see that the CanadArm 2 is attached to an aluminum structure. This is known as the Mobile Base System (MBS), or more properly as the Mobile Remote Servicer (MRS) Base System. This unit is designed to travel along a track system that runs along the side of the Internation Space Station.

In the center of the photo is another mockup of the CanadArm 2. This one is of the “shipping” container and the arm in transportation-configuration. This is how the arm was transported up to the ISS, on-board the Space Shuttle Endeavor during STS-100. The photo below depicts the lower portion of the “High-Bay” lab, which can be see if you further to the right of the above panorama.

A view of the CSA's "High-Bay" lab, looking down from the upper mezzanine.

There are all kinds of varying experiments and research projects being conducted at any time. You can see in the back left corner a larger robotic arm (black base). This is one simulated arm from Dextre (a Canadian robot that forms another part of the MRS onboard the International Space Station). It is modifed to use hydraulics, as the actual robot cannot lift its own weight on earth (…gravity). They are doing some research dealing with either training or software/algorithm upgrades with it, I’m not sure on the details. Just for interest, here is a picture of the actual Dextre Robot, at the Kennedy Space Centre, before it was flown up to the ISS:

Dextre at the Kennedy Space Centre after delivery from the CSA

For those of you that don’t know, I’ve just completed my first year in the University of Waterloo’s Mechatronics Engineering program. The university has a unique Co-op program that is mandatory for all engineering programs. Students are required to complete at least 5 of 6 possible 4-month co-op, work-experience terms during their undergraduate degree. I’m currently working on the Robotics Engineering team, under the Spacecraft Engineering group at the CSA, working on some very cool lunar rover development work/research.