INUVIK
A fifth satellite antenna will be built next year in Inuvik, positioning the town to be an important location for data collection.

One of the satellite receiving towers in Inuvik. The town is getting a fifth one next year from Norwegian satellite services company K-SAT and it will be in operation by Sept. 1. - NNSL file photo

Norwegian commercial satellite services company K-SAT said construction will start as soon as possible in the spring.

"We have to be operational by Sept. 1," said president Rolfe Skattboe.

Skattboe said that the satellite dish will be 13 metres in diameter and located in the town's existing satellite antenna facility.

The new antenna is part of the Copernicus programme, a project managed by the European Commission that uses satellites and other types of sensors on the ground to gather information for policy decisions, environmental legislation and data for other major issues like natural disasters.

"K-SAT won the contract from the European Union a few years ago," he said. "In that proposal we included a station in Svelbad, Norway, which is our main location, and an additional station in North America."

After careful consideration, Skattboe said his company chose Inuvik as that latter location. Data will be collected from both stations and then sent to the European Union. When it comes to construction, Skattboe said local contractors will be hired to do the basic preparation and ground installation of the satellite dish.

"I really don't know the exact numbers but it will be similar to what has been done before," he said.

However, Skattboe said there won't be any permanent employment as a result of the new satellite.

'The important thing is that I see is that this installation makes Inuvik an important part of Europe's observation programme," he said. "It will be a prime site for collecting data for the next 20 years."

Representatives from the Department of Natural Resources said the announcement, made in July, would lay the groundwork to attract more partners to co-locate here, and more opportunities for people in the region.

"These investments are helping to position Inuvik as one of the world's main hubs for satellite and space data," said Colin Carrie, parliamentary secretary for federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, during an interview in August.

In addition to K-SAT's satellite antenna, two others at the site in Inuvik are operated in partnership with Natural Resources Canada and the German, Swedish and French space agencies.

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