First row : Daria Camilla Boffito; Sampada Bodkhe; Pooneh Maghoul, Richard Boudreault; Elham Baladi. Second row : Foutse Khomh; Jason Robert Tavares; Daniel Therriault; David Mélançon; Michel Gamache. Troisième rangée : Gunes Karabulut Kurt; Yves Alain Peter; Giovanni Beltrame; Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin; Louis Laberge Lebel. (Photo : Donald Robitaille)

ASTROLITH is being created pursuant to the Space Strategy for Canada, which aims to strengthen the country’s leadership and innovation in the space sector. The research unit also builds on Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy and Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Action Plan. Research objectives will include supporting the goals of Canada and the Canadian Space Agency in advancing knowledge relative to exploration of the Moon and cislunar space (i.e., between the Earth and the Moon’s orbit), propelling Canada as a world leader in the lunar and space industries, envisioning major projects with international partners.

FROM THE MOON TO EARTH

ASTROLITH’s activities will target three main objectives. Besides developing next-generation technologies to support exploitation of cislunar and space resources and the related infrastructure, the unit will focus on the economic and environmental aspects of space technology. It will also seek to mobilize knowledge in the space sector, for example by training highly qualified personnel through graduate studies.

As encapsulated in its Latin motto Ad Lunam pro Terra, ASTROLITH is dedicated to developing technologies with direct impacts here on Earth: enabling development of infrastructure in Canada’s North or facilitating the energy transition, for example. Indeed, the research unit’s founding members are already involved in developing technologies in various areas related to space and extreme environments, from design of resilient habitats and infrastructure for remote regions to deployment of cislunar communications technologies to development of advanced robotics systems for prospecting and mining, among many others. Their work is bolstered by contributions from specialists in life-cycle analysis, sustainable development and space-related policy development.

The founding members of ASTROLITH are :

chemical engineering

Daria Camilla Boffito
Richard Boudreault
Jason Robert Tavares

Expertise : Lunar geotechnics; architecture and design of resilient habitats and infrastructure; geophysics; geomechanics; automated drilling systems; prospecting; small modular reactors (SMRs)

Civil, geological and Mining engineering

Najib Bouaanani
Pooneh Maghoul

Expertise : Next-generation technologies for processing of exploitable advanced materials via lunar in situ resource utilization (ISRU); SMRs

Electrical engineering

Elham Baladi
Gunes Karabulut Kurt

Expertise : Cislunar surveillance and communications technology 
 

COMPUTER AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Giovanni Beltrame
Foutse Khomh

Expertise : Advanced robotics systems for lunar exploration; AI

mECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Sampada Bodkhe 
Daniel Therriault
Frédérick Gosselin 
Louis Laberge Lebel 
David Mélançon 

Expertise : Industry 4.0; advanced materials; composite materials; additive manufacturing

ENGINEERING pHYSICS

Yves-Alain Peter
Guy Marleau

Expertise : Instrumentation and measurement; design and operation of modular reactors

mATHEMATICS AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin
Michel Gamache

Expertise : Economics and environment; smart mines

The current team will also benefit from the expertise of external members: Marie-Josée Potvin of the Canadian Space Agency; Gilles F. Leclerc of Canadensys Aerospace Corporation; Robert C. Anderson of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); Myriam Lemelin of the Canada Research Chair in Northern and Planetary Geological Remote Sensing at Université de Sherbrooke; Roberto de Moraes of AECOM; and Cameron S. Dickinson of MDA.

Giovanni Beltrame, co-founder of ASTROLITH and a full professor in the Polytechnique Montréal Department of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering, has been named by the unit’s Executive Committee to a two-year term as its head. A former microelectronics engineer with the European Space Agency, he is enthusiastic about this new chapiter in Polytechnique’s history.

“Polytechnique has an impressive pool of expert in complementary research fields,” Professor Beltrame notes. “By bringing these people together to work on projects in space and lunar engineering, we’re creating powerful levers for stimulating research and developing sustainable technologies in Canada. Thanks to them, the sky is no longer the limit: rather, it’s where everything begins.”

Pooneh Maghoul, co-founder of ASTROLITH and an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, agrees. She points out that this research unit is being created at an especially opportune time: “There is a whole new industry emerging as a result of the NASA Artemis program. Polytechnique Montréal is already leading the way in helping to create it, and establishing itself as a key partner in projects involving lunar and cislunar exploration.”

ABOUT POLYTECHNIQUE MONTRÉAL

Established in 1873, Polytechnique Montréal is one of Canada’s largest engineering education and research universities, and is located on the Université de Montréal campus – North America’s largest Francophone university campus. With over 60,000 graduates and over 120 academic programs, Polytechnique has trained 22% of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ)’s current membership. It offers some 120 training programs. Polytechnique Montréal is also distinguished by its more than 300 talented professors and 10,000 students, Its overall annual budget is $300 million, including $100 million reserved exclusively for research.

MEDIA KIT

ASTROLITH team members : https://polymtl.info/Astrolithtroussemedia
ASTROLITH website : https://www.polymtl.ca/astrolith/

INTERVIEWS AND MEDIA REQUESTS

Martin Primeau
Advisor, Media Relations - Science Outreach
Polytechnique Montréal
514 805-0797
martin.primeau@polymtl.ca