Some out-of-this-world technology developed by a B.C.-based aerospace company has caught the eyes of NASA.
SSL, the U.S. business unit of Richmond’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA), has landed a deal to provide the space agency with a spacecraft platform to explore one of the largest asteroids in the solar system, the Canadian company announced Friday (January 6).
MDA says the contract will be worth in excess of US$75 million (C$100 million) once it’s been finalized.
SSL will build a power-propulsion chassis for a NASA discovery mission exploring the metallic asteroid known as 16 Psyche. The asteroid, 210 kilometres in diameter, is the only known body in the solar system with a metallic core accessible for study.
The platform will come equipped with a high-power solar electric propulsion system, while the mission is expected to launch sometime in the 2020s.
