An Ottawa company's connection to lunar exploration

Michele Faragalli is over the moon after hearing Canadian Jeremy Hansen will be on board Artemis II.

Hansen joins three NASA astronauts set to orbit the Moon as early as November of next year.

"Canadians are getting to go where Canadians have never gone before,” he said. “Growing up, you think of these type of things as other countries participating but with an international push for space exploration, it’s opening up opportunities for people around the world."

In this mission, Hansen carries the dreams of exploration for an entire country.

"We’ve had the chance to meet him over the years and we wish him all the best and we will be watching him for sure," said Faragelli.

Faragelli is the chief officer of technology at Ottawa-based start up company Mission Control.

The company has been testing software set up for lunar exploration for the past eight years, using a 4,000 sq. ft. moon yard.

Canada’s involvement in the Artemis II mission is adding to the contributions the country has played in the space sector.

"It’s good to see a reinvigoration of activity in space. For better or worse, there is a new space race and in this day in age it has so much potential to change to world for the better," said Mission Control president Ewan Reid. "We can’t monitor climate change without space; we can’t enable communication to remote areas without space."

The team is already on their own mission to the moon, collaborating with other countries. It involves a Space-X rocket expected to land by the end of the month. The company's AI solution will help process images from the rover that will be sent back to earth.

This new frontier, inspiring the next generation of explorers like Manal Siddiqui, a computer science major at Carleton University.

“My skills are versatile and I can work on software that goes to the moon,” she said. “I know whatever I worked on, I wanted to change the world and working here I’m taking steps in the right direction.”