Peter Chadwick, P.Eng_.png

Peter Chadwick, P.Eng

Director, SPDM Program, MD Robotics

Engineer Chadwick has had an illustrious career with Spar Aerospace/MD Robotics, and has been a key player in development of the Canadian Space Robotics as an engineering field. Following the success of the Canadarm, NASA chose Canada to build the robotic systems required to assemble and maintain the Space Station. Canada’s contribution, named the Mobile Servicing System, included a Mobile Base System (MBS), a larger more advanced Robotic Arm (the Canadarm 2), and a dexterous two-armed smaller robot (the SPDM). During his years at the helm of the MSS program, Mr. Chadwick’s contribution was multifaceted, from bringing his experience into play in defining the system requirements, to meeting customer demands, to developing innovative management practices that ensured delivery of the system requirements. Mr. Chadwick was instrumental in refocusing the program on basic program management and program quality goals. At the time, the overall Space Station program was undergoing severe changes. Mr. Chadwick’s personal focus on meeting the established requirements on cost and schedule helped the program team concentrate on the task, and rein into scope cost and schedule creep that were plaguing the program prior to his arrival. Mr. Chadwick supervised a massive scope redefinition effort with the customer that removed the SPDM from the MSS scope, and defined and led an orderly shutdown of the SPDM program to preserve the existing design and know-how for when, and if, the program might be restarted. Mr. Chadwick has a keen awareness of the need to promote the engineering profession. During his tenure as SPDM Director, he participated and encouraged a public relations campaign involving newspaper interviews and Discovery Channel science and technology documentaries focused on the SPDM technology push, to ensure public awareness of this newest technology challenge undertaken by Canadian industry.