Stories
Our impact on space so far
These are the stories of Mission Control’s mission contributions, science collaborations, industry initiatives, education and outreach projects.
Featured
A Decade of Progress
In 2025, we turned 10! A decade of turning the impossible into progress—with launches, breakthroughs, and a team that never stops pushing forward.From testing prototypes in the desert and building our own Moonyard, to flying AI in space and sending rovers to the Moon, we’ve come a long way.And we’re just getting started…
Launch of Mission Persistence
Canada’s Giant Leap for AI in Space Mission Control proudly marked a major milestone with a spirited launch party celebrating the deployment of Mission Persistence, an advanced space technology demonstration aimed at pushing the boundaries of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) in orbit. Held at Mission Control’s headquarters, the event brought together the dedicated Mission…
Spacefarer used in NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge
We are excited to share a highlight reel from our collaboration with the Huskyworks Lab at Michigan Technological University for NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge this year! In this competition, NASA challenged teams to develop and demonstrate robust robotic vehicles capable of lunar regolith excavation, and mobility over complex terrain. Mining on the Moon with robots is a tough enough challenge, but to…
AI and Federated Learning for Lunar Rovers
The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded Mission Control a funded opportunity to advance new concepts in Cognitive Cloud Computing in the space domain: Mission Control proposed a new distributed computing paradigm for space assets that uses low-power hardware and deep learning computer vision algorithms to provide secondary life stages to space components; creating a robust,…
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A Decade of Progress
Read more: A Decade of ProgressIn 2025, we turned 10! A decade of turning the impossible into progress—with launches, breakthroughs, and a team that never stops pushing forward.From testing prototypes in the desert and building our own Moonyard, to flying AI in space and sending rovers to the Moon, we’ve come a long way.And we’re just getting started…
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Launch of Mission Persistence
Read more: Launch of Mission PersistenceCanada’s Giant Leap for AI in Space Mission Control proudly marked a major milestone with a spirited launch party celebrating the deployment of Mission Persistence, an advanced space technology demonstration aimed at pushing the boundaries of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) in orbit. Held at Mission Control’s headquarters, the event brought together the dedicated Mission…
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Augmented Reality Data Visualization Analog Research Campaign
Read more: Augmented Reality Data Visualization Analog Research CampaignIn the fall of 2024, Mission Control travelled to Flagstaff Arizona with their Husky rover to take part in phase two of the NASA PSTAR (Planetary Science and Technology from Analog Research program) funded Augmented Reality Data Visualization Analog Research Campaign (ADRVARC). By using the same lunar analogue field site, ARDVARC will simulate deploying a…
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Spacefarer used in NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge
Read more: Spacefarer used in NASA’s Break the Ice ChallengeWe are excited to share a highlight reel from our collaboration with the Huskyworks Lab at Michigan Technological University for NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge this year! In this competition, NASA challenged teams to develop and demonstrate robust robotic vehicles capable of lunar regolith excavation, and mobility over complex terrain. Mining on the Moon with robots is a tough enough challenge, but to…
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AI Wildfire Detection
Read more: AI Wildfire DetectionMission Control was awarded a contract under the CSA’s smartEarth program (Accelerator Track – Stage 1) to develop an Earth Observation Application Innovation to safeguard the health, security, and environment of Canadians. Building on its heritage in mission operations and onboard artificial intelligence, Mission Control has designed a wildfire detection concept to address the needs…
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AI and Federated Learning for Lunar Rovers
Read more: AI and Federated Learning for Lunar RoversThe European Space Agency (ESA) awarded Mission Control a funded opportunity to advance new concepts in Cognitive Cloud Computing in the space domain: Mission Control proposed a new distributed computing paradigm for space assets that uses low-power hardware and deep learning computer vision algorithms to provide secondary life stages to space components; creating a robust,…
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AI For Ground Vehicles
Read more: AI For Ground VehiclesDriver-assistance Assessment of Safety and Hazards In 2021, Mission Control developed a terrain classifier to enable autonomous navigation for uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs). To address offroad mobility challenges for UGVs, Mission Control leveraged our Artificial Intelligence expertise to develop a Deep Learning model that can classify road hazards based on data from three different types…
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PHOENIX
Read more: PHOENIXMission Control is excited to announce their involvement in the PHOENIX (Portable Handheld combinedRamaN-LIBS-XRF) project, awarded by ESA. Mission Control is working with, INTA, University of Leicester, and the University of Valladolid, to produce two types of hand-held spectrometers for astronauts to do field geology on the lunar surface.The spectrometers developed for PHOENIX, under ESA’s…
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Sale to NASA Kennedy Space Center
Read more: Sale to NASA Kennedy Space CenterIt has been an exciting time for the Mission Control team, as they not only sold a license of Spacefarer to NASA Kennedy Space Center, but recently celebrated the achievement of becoming the worlds first in deploying deep learning AI in deep space.
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ESA-ESRIC SPACE RESOURCES CHALLENGE
Read more: ESA-ESRIC SPACE RESOURCES CHALLENGEIn November 2021, Mission Control and 12 other teams from Europe and Canada competed in the ESA-ESRIC Space Resources Challenge in the Netherlands, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC). Mission Control is pleased to announce they, along with 4 other teams, have been awarded a contract…
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SEMI-AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION FOR DETRITAL ENVIRONMENTS (SAND-E)
Read more: SEMI-AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION FOR DETRITAL ENVIRONMENTS (SAND-E)Mission Control’s turnkey application, the Autonomous Soil Assessment System (ASAS), was used during the Semi-autonomous navigation for detrital environments (SAND-E) simulated Mars rover missions in Iceland in 2019 and 2021. The mission identified ways to increase the scientific return of the Perseverance rover in NASA’s Mars 2020 mission that will roam the surface of Mars…
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MISSION CONTROL INTELLIGENCE (MCI)
Read more: MISSION CONTROL INTELLIGENCE (MCI)Mission Control demonstrated AI-powered autonomy on a micro-rover ahead of commercial missions to the Moon. We partnered with Axiom Research Labs Private Limited (ARL) of on a project called Mission Control Intelligence (MCI): Enhancing the Autonomy of Commercial Space Robotics. ADVANCED MISSION OPERATIONS MCI is a suite of cutting-edge technologies that will enable mission operators…
