Yes, and we're very lucky that we have here beside me the vice-president of space programs, who has decades more experience in this than I do. I will ask him to please jump in.
There are many areas where our research in space helps us here on earth. There is earth observation, for example. At its beginning, when Canada first launched earth observation satellites, we had a program to give funding at the same time as earth observation data, because no one knew how to use it. We would give data, plus funding, and say, “Please figure out how to use this.”
Now, we have an industry, a commercial earth observation industry, and they are generating a return on investment themselves. Some of them don't even have spacecraft. They just manipulate the data to give value-added products, and that has applications in a range of domains: critical mineral extraction, supervision of mining operations, weather applications definitely, environment, biodiversity, keeping ports clean...you name it.
Space exploration—the harsh environment of space—teaches us a lot about human health. Many of our applications in science on the International Space Station have returned benefits here on earth. The body ages in space. It's not particularly good for you to go to space. The first thing that happens is that all the fluids in your body go up to your face. You might have seen it in our astronauts. It's bad for your eyes and bad for bones and increases the risk of cancer, diabetes and a number of other things that we face here on earth. By supporting human health and doing experiments in human health, we can learn a lot about how to prolong human life and quality of life here on earth.
Technologies are also better. If they can survive in the lethal environment of space, they will be much more robust here on earth. An example of that is our space robotics. Those spinoff benefits have been in neurosurgery and also cancer detection.