The original Canadarm took its first flight to space in 1981 travelling onboard the Columbia space shuttle. From that point on until July 2011, a total of five different Canadarm’s travelled to space onboard different space shuttles, including one that was destroyed in the 1986 Challenger’s tragic explosion. During this time, the Canadarm performed many duties and played a very important role in launching many different satellites, releasing, as well as retrieving and repairing, the Hubble Telescope and, most famously, assembling the International Space station.

In 2001, the Canadarm2 was sent into space, where it would become a permanent fixture on the outside of the International Space Station. It continues to operate today and plays an essential part in the day-to-day function of the International Space station.

Plans are already well underway for the Canadarm3 which will be part of a permanent structure to be built on the moon to allow humans to be able to explore the Moon for much longer periods of time than a moonwalk alone would allow.

According to the Canadian Space Agency, the design challenge was “to build a tool that would function flawlessly in space with the same dexterity of a human arm” (About Canadarm, 2021).

The design for the Canadarm began in the early 1970s around the same time that NASA began working on designing and creating the space shuttle program. The plan was for the Canadarm to be attached to the space shuttle and for it to be able to twist, bend, grab and unload different cargo from the shuttle, such as new satellites.

There were many factors that needed to be considered in Canadarm’s design, such as:

• its weight – it couldn’t be too heavy as it was being transported by the space shuttle after all
• it’s movement – it had to be able to bend, rotate and grab like a human arm
• how it operates – it needed to be able to be operated by a human as well as have some automatic operations it could be programmed to do
• its functions – it needed to be able to perform different types of functions and some of them with a high level of precision. Cameras were also to be mounted on the arm to capture images of its surroundings.
• its materials – materials needed to be carefully chosen as the environment in space is much more extreme than our conditions on Earth. For example, sometimes the Canadarm would be operating incredibly close to the Sun so would need to be able to withstand extreme heat, but other times, it could be operating far from the sun and would have to withstand extreme cold temperatures too.

Because the Canadarm is designed to work in space, where there is no gravity and objects are weightless, the arm could not easily be tested on Earth. So, a special “test room” was built to simulate the conditions in space and allow enough physical space to fully test how much and how far the arm could move and bend.

A simulation room was also built so that astronauts could be trained on how to operate the arm from the space shuttle.

Just like a human arm, the robotic Canadarm has joints that can rotate and bend at its “shoulder,” “elbow,” and “wrist”. It even has a hand of sorts that allows it to perform some very precise functions.

According to the CSA, the “Canadarm could lift over 30,000 kg (and up to 266,000 kg in microgravity) using less electricity than a teakettle!” (About Canadarm, 2021).

The original Canadarm was launched into space in 1981 and completed its first mission incredibly effectively. Because of this very important contribution to space technology and exploration, Canada was able to establish the Canadian Astronaut Program, and Marc Garneau was chosen as the first Canadian astronaut to fly to space in 1984.

Since then, NASA has commissioned 4 more designs of Canadarm.

According to the CSA, “over its 30 years of service, the series of robotic arms have performed many tasks.

For example, they were used to:

• send satellites into orbit
• capture satellites for repair
• assemble the International Space Station (ISS)
• support astronauts during spacewalks
• film the experience of astronauts in space with two IMAX cameras
• inspect the shuttle’s thermal protection system with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System” (About Canadarm, 2021)

Spin-off technologies continue to improve our quality of life on Earth and are being used on the International Space Station and for use on the future Lunar Gateway mission that will perform tasks around the moon with and without humans.