Sebadoh's blog

Mars Lander Hits the Snooze Button

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:12:47 -0700

We were all jazzed about NASA's Mars Lander back in May, when the Lander successfully navigated a complicated descent sequence onto the Red Planet.

But since touching down, the Lander has been beset by problems, and now it looks like the end may be near for the mission:

NASA'S Phoenix Mars Lander entered safe mode late yesterday in response to a low-power fault brought on by deteriorating weather conditions. While engineers anticipated that a fault could occur due to the diminishing power supply, the lander also unexpectedly switched to the "B" side of its redundant electronics and shut down one of its two batteries.
During safe mode, the lander stops non-critical activities and awaits further instructions from the mission team. Within hours of receiving information of the safing event, mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and at Lockheed Martin in Denver, were able to send commands to restart battery charging. It is not likely that any energy was lost.

Weather conditions at the landing site in the north polar region of Mars have deteriorated in recent days, with overnight temperatures falling to -141F (-96C), and daytime temperatures only as high as -50F (-45C), the lowest temperatures experienced so far in the mission. A mild dust storm blowing through the area, along with water-ice clouds, further complicated the situation by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the lander's solar arrays, thereby reducing the amount of power it could generate. Low temperatures caused the lander's battery heaters to turn on Tuesday for the first time, creating another drain on precious power supplies.

Science activities will remain on hold for the next several days to allow the spacecraft to recharge and conserve power. Attempts to resume normal operations will not take place before the weekend.

The shut down is not unexpected:

"This is a precarious time for Phoenix," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of JPL. "We're in the bonus round of the extended mission, and we're aware that the end could come at any time. The engineering team is doing all it can to keep the spacecraft alive and collecting science, but at this point survivability depends on some factors out of our control, such as the weather and temperatures on Mars."

The Arizona Daily Star has more:

If Phoenix is able to bounce back from the power failure, it's not clear what the lander will be able to do, as engineers already have shut down heaters that warm the robotic arm and the oven-like science instrument known as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer.

It won't be long before Phoenix reaches a state in which it requires more energy to stay alive than it can take in through its solar arrays.

The forecast for Mars? More dust and cold.

You can keep up to date on the continuing developments at the Mars Lander Blog.

Vint Cerf in Space!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:27:47 -0700

Okay, we don't mean physically in space. But Father of the Internet Vint Cerf (pictured above) wants to replace the current point-to-point communications infrastructure between spacecraft and earth with an internet-style networking protocol.

Technology Review has more:

Cerf, who is Google's vice president and chief Internet evangelist, is working with a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he is also a visiting scientist, and at the MITRE Corporation, based in Washington, DC, to design and implement a revolutionary new scheme for space communication. The project, dubbed the Interplanetary Internet, will be tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2009, and Cerf hopes that by 2010, new space missions will be designed to use the protocols.

The article features an interview with Cerf:

TR:What are the challenges of building such a network in space?
VC:We started by working on a set of protocols that could deal with two very important properties of space communication. The first is delay. The distances between the planets are very large. For example, when Earth and Mars are closest together, it still takes 3.5 minutes for a radio signal moving at the speed of light to propagate. If I were on Mars and you were on Earth, it would take seven minutes at best before you heard a response. When Earth and Mars are farthest apart, the round trip takes 40 minutes! The reason we can talk back and forth on Earth so easily is that propagation times are very short by comparison.

The other problem is that the planets and their satellites are in motion, and most are rotating. The rotation of the planets means that if you are talking to something that is on the surface of the planet, it may rotate out of the line of sight so you cannot talk to it anymore, until the device on the surface rotates into view again. The same could be said for some orbiting satellites. You have to develop protocols that will deal with the fact that you cannot always communicate with the other party: the communication is both delayed and potentially disrupted. So that is what we designed: a delay- and disruption-tolerant networking system [DTN]. It will allow us to maintain communications more effectively, getting much more data because we don't have to be in direct line of sight with the ultimate recipient in order to transfer data. The new protocols will be proposed to serve as a potential international standard for space networking.
TR: Is this going to require putting new infrastructure in space?

VC: The answer is yes and no. For example, the Deep Impact spacecraft [now called EPOXI] is already in orbit around the sun. It was used to launch a probe into a comet to examine its interior. EPOXI is being temporarily repurposed to test the new DTN protocols. The spacecraft has processing, memory, radio equipment, and solar panels for power so we don't have to put new hardware up. We just have to upload new software. We are lucky to not have to field any new equipment yet, but the DTN protocols eventually have to show up in a fairly significant number of devices in the system to create the kind of network that can serve space-communication needs. Some specialized spacecraft could become store-and-forward routers. Each time a new mission is launched, using the standard bundle protocol, previous mission assets that are still in operation could be used to support the communication requirements of the new mission. In this way, we hope to accrete a kind of interplanetary backbone network.

Cerf is supporting Barack Obama for president because of the latter's positions on net neutrality, according to CNET. But maybe he's just gunning for the position of CTO of the United States?

Technorati Tags: space science technology vint+cerf internet networking satellies

Russia Invests in Space

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:26:09 -0700

Russian Prime Minster Vladimir Putin's black Labrador, Connie, has been given a tracking collar linked to the Russian navigation satellite system Glonass, the government website said on Friday.

But Connie's GPS collar isn't the only space initiative the Russians are investing in. In fact, Russia is set to spend more that $7 billion on space over the next few years, according to New Scientist Space:

The former president, quoted by local news agencies, told a government meeting that Russia, which accounts for 40% of all space launches, would earmark more than 200 billion roubles ($7.68 billion) from the federal budget for development of the space industry from 2009 to 2011.

Russia's Soyuz crewed spacecraft and Progress cargo vehicles have been the main workhorses serving the International Space Station (ISS) since the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on atmospheric re-entry in 2003....

NASA plans to mothball its entire space shuttle fleet by 2011.

"Evidently . . . between 2011 and 2016, the United States will not possess a new spaceship to replace the space shuttle," news agencies quoted Anatoly Perminov, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, as telling Putin.

"So Russian spacecraft will bear the brunt of transportation and maintenance works, as well as replacing [ISS] crews and launching European and Japanese cargo ships from time to time."

Putin said Russia's group of space satellites had reached more than 100 units and would rise steadily.

A good place to explore the Russian space program online is RussianSpaceWeb.com.

Russia's next scheduled launch from Baikonur will lift ASTRA-1M into orbit on 3 November 2008.

Is anything else going on that week?

Technorati Tags: russia space putin GPS satellites rockets launches NASA

Korea Set to Enter Space Club Next Summer

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:08:28 -0700

"A decade of effort and anxiety all comes down to a single moment next summer when South Korea attempts to launch a satellite into orbit from its brand new spaceport at the southern tip of the peninsula," Korea Times reports:

A successful launch would make Korea the ninth country in the world to launch a home-made satellite from its own soil and mark a huge step forward in national ambitions to have a man on the moon by 2020.

The planned rocket launch is further heightening the public interest toward the country's space program, which had been hyped since Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) biologist Yi So-yeon boarded the Soyuz spacecraft in April to become the second Asian woman ever to travel into outer space.

Korean scientists recently unveiled a mock-up of the rocket:

The KSLV-1, a carrier rocket designed for transporting satellites, is a joint project with Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, which is providing the technology for the project and designing the 25.8-meter-long lower assembly that contains the liquid-fueled propulsion system....

The first launch is expected as early as April, and if successful, another rocket will be launched from Naro nine months later. The Russians will provide the technology for a third launch if the first two attempts fail...

The rocket will head straight up for the first 25 seconds before making a ``kick-turn'' to about 10 degrees east, passing 100 kilometers above Okinawa on the way. The nose cone of the second-stage of the rocket that holds the satellite will split after 225 seconds and the lower assembly of the rocket will fall back to Earth 13 seconds later after burning all of its fuel.

Construction of the Naro Space Center (built by Hyundai Heavy Industries) is 95% complete. Goheung County, where the Space Center is located, is hoping that the Center will attract additional investment.

Technorati Tags: space satellites communications Korea asia science aerospace rockets launches

FCC to Open White Space Spectrum

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:57:57 -0700

Daily Wireless has the news that is sure to please advocates such as Google, Microsoft, and Motorola:

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said today that he will support allowing conditional unlicensed use of the so-called “white spaces” television spectrum. During a press conference, Martin said that he was proposing to let carriers and other vendors deploy devices in white space spectrum which operates unlicensed at powers of 100 milliwatts.
His proposal would also permit use of white space on channels adjacent to existing television stations at powers of up to 40 milliwatts. The FCC is planning to officially vote on whether to allow unlicensed white space use during its Nov. 4 meeting pdf..
Martin said portable devices must have sensing technologies as well as a geo-location database. This would make sure the devices would be able to detect nearby broadcasts in order to avoid those frequencies.
Companies such as Google that are part of the Wireless Innovation Alliance are asking for the white spaces to be unlicensed and open to all.

Here's a video from the Washington Post on testing mobile devices that use the white space spectrum:

So what exactly is white space?

White space in telecommunications refers to unused frequencies in the radio waves portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

National and international bodies assign differing frequencies for specific uses, and in some cases license the rights to these. This frequency allocation process creates a bandplan which in some cases for technical reasons assigns white space between used bands to avoid interference. In this case, while the frequencies are unused they have been specifically assigned for a purpose.

In an opinion piece over at TVTechnology, Frank Beacham argues that white space is an incredibly valuable public resource that could provide wireless broadband access for as little as $10 a month:

Vacant space in TV Channels 5-51 is perfectly suited for cheap WiFi and other unlicensed wireless services. Failure to take advantage of this publicly owned resource would not only be an enormous waste, but eventually allow the spectrum to be tied up for far less noble purposes.

NAB lobbyists would have you believe that the use of wireless devices in these vacant slices of spectrum would cause interference and threaten the transition to terrestrial digital broadcasting. Sports leagues think the devices might cause static on wireless microphones and coaches’ headsets.

Perhaps they are right about the interference, at least at this early stage of the technology. But what doesn’t work now can be made to work. Sensors can detect which frequencies in an area have no usable TV signals and a device’s transmission can be limited to prevent it from interfering with occupied channels....

THE OTHER SIDE

The NAB, [Ben Scott, policy director of FreePress, a nonpartisan group advocating an open, independent media] said, is engaged in “a campaign of misinformation” to persuade Congress and regulators to ignore the huge potential of unused public airwaves. “In some communities, more than three-quarters of these ‘white spaces’ are vacant,” he said. “The social and economic benefits of utilizing these unused airwaves far outweigh the shortsighted fears of the broadcast industry.”

By using “false assumptions and twisted facts,” Scott said, the NAB is attempting to collapse the entire white spaces debate into a single test of prototype devices at the FCC.

Scott, as well as the high-tech companies advocating the unlicensed use of white space, argues that the FCC’s initial tests actually demonstrated the viability of the smart sensing technology to reduce interference. The tests are being used as a bogeyman in the public lobbying campaign.

It is dangerous, Beacham writes, to allow technical obstacles to cloud the big picture—which is setting important policy as to how a valuable public resource is to be used.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: white+space spectrum broadcasting mobile technology television open+source

Solar Power From Space

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:03:41 -0700

The Washington Post had an intriguing article on Sunday, titled An Energy Fix Written in the Stars:

Solar energy is a favorite of environmentalists, but it works only when the sun is shining. But that's the trick. There is a place where the sun never sets, and a way to use solar energy for power generation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: Put the solar cells in space, in high orbits where they'd be in sunshine all the time.

You do it with the solar power satellite (SPS), a concept invented by Peter Glaser in 1968. The idea is simple: You build large assemblages of solar cells in space, where they convert sunlight into electricity and beam it to receiving stations on the ground.

The solar power satellite is the ultimate clean energy source. It doesn't burn an ounce of fuel. And a single SPS could deliver five to 10 gigawatts of energy to the ground continually. Consider that the total electrical-generation capacity of the entire state of California is 4.4 gigawatts.

Conservative estimates have shown that an SPS could deliver electricity at a cost to the consumer of eight to 10 cents per kilowatt hour. That's about the same as costs associated with conventional power generation stations. And operating costs would drop as more orbital platforms are constructed and the price of components, such as solar voltaic cells, is reduced. Solar power satellites could lower the average taxpayer's electric bills while providing vastly more electricity.

They would be big -- a mile or more across. Building them in space would be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one: We already know how to construct the International Space Station, which is about the size of a football field. And the SPS doesn't require any new inventions. We have the technology at hand.

The SPS was granted a pantent in 1973, according to Wikipedia:

In 1973 Peter Glaser was granted U.S. patent number 3,781,647 for his method of transmitting power over long distances (eg, from an SPS to the Earth's surface) using microwaves from a very large (up to one square kilometer) antenna on the satellite to a much larger one on the ground, now known as a rectenna.

What's a rectenna, you ask?

A rectenna is a rectifying antenna, a special type of antenna that is used to directly convert microwave energy into DC electricity. Its elements are usually arranged in a multi element phased array with a mesh pattern reflector element to make it directional.

A simple rectenna can be constructed from a Schottky diode placed between antenna dipoles. The diode rectifies the current induced in the antenna by the microwaves. Schottky diodes are used because they have the lowest voltage drop and highest speed and therefore waste the least amount of power due to conduction and switching.

Rectennas are highly efficient at converting microwave energy to electricity. In laboratory environments, efficiencies above 90% have been observed with regularity. Some experimentation has been done with inverse rectennas, converting electricity into microwave energy, but efficiencies are much lower—only in the area of 1%.

Here's a good article from last July's Scientific American on SPS in Japan, which also cites the Japanese animated series "Mobile Suit Gundam," which has humanity turning to space-based solar power in the year 2307:

Want to learn more? Check out the Citizens for Space Based Power blog.

Technorati Tags: mobile+suit+gundam solar+power satellites global+warming technology energy space rectenna

I Want My MobileTV

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:05:11 -0700

Let's talk about Solaris.

No, we don't mean the Sun Microsystems operating system for Web servers (for which there is now OpenSolaris anyhow), nor the solar-powered roadway studs that go by the same name.

We're talking about Solaris Mobile, the joint venture between ASTRA and Eutelsat -- competitors in providing satellite TV in Europe who are now partners in launching an S-band based service.

TerreStar, it turns out, is after the same spectrum:

Following the Oct 6 announcement that the Solaris Mobile SES Astra/Eutelsat joint-venture is seeking to win access to the 2GHz S-Band for DVB-H transmission over Europe comes news that TerreStar Europe is also bidding for the same capacity.

TerreStar Europe is a subsidiary of TerreStar Networks, a Virginia-based business (and NASDAQ registered) that is seeking to operate integrated satellite and terrestrial telecoms systems. The business was originally called Motient, and it is a direct successor to American Mobile Satellite Ventures. A couple of weeks ago TerreStar sold off its stake in rival SkyTerra for $123m. TerreStar already has a nationwide roaming agreement with AT&T throughout the USA, for example.

Here's the pitch for Solaris (opens in PDF). It's similar to satellite radio in the U.S., such as the now- combined Sirius XM, which offers Backseat TV -- one of a half-dozen ways of getting mobile TV in the U.S.

Solaris Mobile will use Eutelsat's W2A satellite, scheduled for early 2009, and a very large spacecraft:

Based on the Alcatel Alenia Space Spacebus 4000C4 platform, W2A’s missions also comprise up to 46 transponders in Ku-band and a C-band payload of 10 transponders. Designed with a lifetime of more than 15 years, W2A has a maximum launch mass of 5.7 tonnes and will deliver 11 kW of payload power.

Eutelsat has also just announced they will have two spacecraft as Arianespace's payload at the end of November -- one of many launches over the next three months worldwide.

(Check out our previous posts on Mobile TV here, here and here.)

Technorati Tags: TV mobile broadcasting TerreStar ASTRA eutelsat communications satcom solaris

India, to the Moon!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:49:18 -0700

Who is this man?

He's the man who'll give India the moon, otherwise known as Mylswamy Annadurai, the recipient of the Hariom Ashram pretit Vikram Sarabhai Research Award for his outstanding Contributions to Systems Analysis and Space systems management(2004), and the recipient of a citation from ISRO for his contribution to the INSAT systems Mission management(2003) and Team Excellence award for his contribution to Indian Space Program (2007):

On the shoulders of the soft-spoken M Annadurai rests a mission that will make history for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and for India. The man, who has worked on a dozen ISRO missions, is now the project director of the most ambitious of missions of ISRO till date. Annadurai... is now preparing to send India’s first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan I.

The spacecraft, which will carry 11 payloads, of which five are from India and six from the US, Europe and Bulgaria, will be launched onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C11 (PSLV), with improved strap-on motors. On D-day (as of now, October 22), the PSLV’s lift-off will take India into the league of nations that have had a date with the moon, remotely. This could be just the warming up before an Indian lands on the moon.

Here's a good illustration of the Chandrayaan I mission. Integration with the launch rocket has begun at Sriharikota Range (SHAR), and the launch is scheduled for the 22nd of this month:

At SHAR, the lunar probe will undergo a further series of electrical and mechanical checks, including those of its solar panels. It has already undergone preliminary thermal and vibration tests at the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in Bangalore.

The upgraded version of the launch rocket PSLV-C11 will have a lift-off weight of 316 tonnes, and will be used to inject the 1,304-kg mass Chandrayaan-I into a 240 x 24,000 km orbit. Subsequently, the spacecraft's own propulsion system will be used to position it in a 100-km polar orbit around the moon.

We'll have more about the liftoff as the 22nd approaches.

Technorati Tags: ISRO exploration solar+system technology science space moon india pslv

Smile For The Satellite

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:30:58 -0700

Chelyabinsk is one happy town. They've come a long way from being "the most contaminated spot on the planet."

Here's an interesting story from Slashdot:

Citizens of the Russian town Chelyabinsk calculated when the satellite, QuickBird, which takes images for Google Earth and Google Maps, would cross above their city and used people to make a giant smiley face. A rock concert on the main square attracted many people and everyone got a yellow cape. It looks like someone at Google was quicker than usual to put up the new data. Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame. The article has a screenshot of Google Maps and images taken directly at the event."

They did pretty good:

This isn't the first time that Google Earth or Google Maps has captured something interesting from space. Longtime readers of Really Rocket Science will recall the Ipod that fell to Earth, which we wrote about way back in March of 2006:

But there's more to be seen than "Ipods" and smiley faces in the world of Google Earth. GoogleSightSeeing.com -- whose tag line is "Why Bother Seeing the World for Real?" has a great series of blog posts on cool sights that you can see right from your computer desk. Be sure to check out this map of global points of interest.

Here's a clip on Chelyabinsk:

Technorati Tags: Quickbird internet cool+stuff satellites google+earth google ipod technology radition chelyabinsk

Satellite Internet Making Inroads on the Backroads

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:24:35 -0700

It's hard to believe for some of us who think of dial-up internet as a thing of the past, but up to 10 million Americans who live in our nation's most remote places still don't have the option of DSL or cable internet.

But dial up won't suffice in today's age of YouTube and World of Warcraft, so what to do?

The answer is satellite broadband Internet.

We've written in the past about several of the players in the market, such as Wild Blue, HughesNet, and Spacenet's Starband. But today we want to focus on SkyWay USA, which touts itself as "rural America's low-cost satellite provider."

For just $49 in equipment costs (after a rebate) and a monthly basic subscription of $29.95, you can be up and running with SkyWay USA in a matter of days. Installation is so easy, according to this press release (caution if you're still on dial-up: opens in PDF) that Skyway claims they've even had a 69 year old grandmother install the system.

So how does it work?

Skyways use a hybrid or combination model, using your phone line for sending commands (upload) and satellite for content (download).

For capacity, they use Echostar Fixed Satellite Services -- at least according to MarketWatch. (On their own website, SkyWay says it is partnering with SES Americom.)

FSS is the division of EchoStar that uses DISH Network's excess capacity. Dean Olmstead, who was behind the AMERICOM2Home concept, notes that SkyWay USA will be using both the Ku- and Ka-band capacity of Echostar FSS.

Technorati Tags: networking communications echostar ses+americom broadband skyway internet satellite rural olmstead

Satphones for the Masses

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:08:17 -0700

Qualcomm is teaming up with SkyTerra’s Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) and ICO Global Communications to integrate satellite communications into mass-market cellular handsets, Wireless Week reports:

Under the agreement, Qualcomm will integrate satellite and cellular communication technology by developing a satellite protocol and including it in the firmware of select Qualcomm multimode baseband chips. Qualcomm also plans to support the L- and S-Band frequencies, in which MSV and ICO operate, in select RF processors.
In essence, the same mobile chipsets at the heart of wireless devices will let handset makers produce satellite-capable devices at comparable scale and cost.

I guess this might mean the end of the "can you hear me now?" commercials, eh?

The quality of the players in this venture (no pun intended) bode well for its ultimate outcome. Qualcomm developed its satellite-based asset-tracking service, OmniTRACS, years before GPS technology became commercially available. OmniTRACS is what's inside those little white domes you see on on Sears trucks.

Here's a video of how it works:

Qualcomm is also working on the Google Android phone, which is supported by the Android open-source operating system and intended as a major competitor to the Apple iPhone:

Qualcomm is likely to face stiff competition in the future from chipmakers who want in on the Android action.

Perhaps we'll see similar functionality as what's found in the Thuraya system, with the Android switching between GSM and satellite as required?

Time will tell.

Technorati Tags: Apple Google android iphone gadgets phones technology mobile cellular satellites qualcomm

Taikonauts Ready for First SpaceWalk

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:00:23 -0700

The Shenzhou VII spacecraft will blast off tomorrow with three astronauts aboard, one of whom will be the first Chinese to walk in space:

The taikonauts, as they are known in the mainland, will be equipped with space-age gadgets as well as down- to-earth pencils.
Responding to the challenge experienced by international experts in producing a writing instrument that works in no-gravity conditions, mainland scientists came up with the common lead pencil. Thicker than the earth variety, China's space pencil has a special carbon compound.
Shenzhou VII will release a small satellite to monitor the operation of the spacecraft itself and the progress of the spacewalk. During the mission, new satellite communications technology will be tried out as well.

China is using five satellite tracking ships to monitor the mission. They're now in place:

The final Yuanwang ship arrived at its destination on Monday, said Jian Shilong, director with the China Maritime Tracking and Control Department.
The ships will remotely track and support the Shenzhou VII space shuttle which will blast off in late September.
Four ships are on the Pacific ocean and one is on the Atlantic.
"In previous missions including the Shenzhou V and Shenzhou VI missions, only four tracking ships were deployed," Jian said. "We added one more to the Shenzhou VII mission to monitor the taikonaut's extra-vehicular activities."
Jian said the tracking ships will monitor the entire space walk and also keep tabs on the depressurization of the orbital module when taikonauts leave and re-enter the spaceship.
The Yuanwang ships can control the shuttle's solar panels, its orbit maneuvers and maintenance.
In all, China boasts a fleet of six Yuanwang space tracking ships which have carried out 68 expeditions and traveled more than1.4 million sea miles in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The tracking ships, combined with 20 terrestrial surveying stations, constitute China's space telemetry network.

Why the extra ship? Because the planned space walk is a big deal in Chinese popular culture -- presenting an unprecedented [communications] challenge for the Chinese, who want to provide seamless, high-quality live video feeds of the outing.

A space industry source explains:

The source said China had proved to the world it could maintain long-distance communication with its lunar project, but stable broadband communication had always been a barrier for Chinese technology. The deficiency meant China was still unable to compete with the US and Russia in the civilian commercial communication satellite markets.

But in the past couple of years, China had achieved several breakthroughs in antennas that were used for rapid communication with the Earth, and the space walk "will be a window to show how much China has caught up in this highly important field", the source said.

Because the antenna was directional and must be pointed to a small target area, the source said the astronaut would probably emerge from the spacecraft while orbiting over China, to enable the Chinese people to witness the event.

And what will they do on the spacewalk? Nothing much, really:

When asked about what the astronaut will actually do outside the spacecraft Qi said he once suggested retrieving the national flag that hangs outside the spaceship. After consideration it was finally decided the astronaut would perform some test and control experiments. He added, "Whether it's fetching the national flag or doing some experiments, the astronaut will have to do something, so that it's not just a case of proving our ability to put someone outside the spaceship."

Technorati Tags: space science rockets aviation astronauts taikonauts china satellites broadcasting communications

GMES Gets New Name

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:33:26 -0700

In Europe, there's been a huge coordinated effort by scientists to monitor the state of the environment through the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program, or GMES for short.

Of course, GMES is a bit of a tongue twister, which is why GMES now has a new name: Kopernikus, named, of course, after the Polish astronomer.

Their motto is "We care for a safer world." Involving projects in numerous countries around the world, the objective of Kopernikus is to monitor the state of the environment on land, at sea and in the atmosphere and to improve the security of the citizens in a world facing an increased risk of natural and other disasters.

The ESA provides additional information:

More than 40 European and non-European Earth Observation satellites have united to provide data to GMES Services over the next years. ESA will coordinate the data acquisitions seeking to optimise resources from the variety of European and non-European EO satellite missions. Considered missions include ESA Member States’ missions, such as France’s Spot and Pleiades satellites, Germany’s TerraSAR-X, Italy’s CosmoSkyMed, the UK-led DMC constellation (including the soon-to-be launched DMC-UK2 and Spain’s Deimos-1), as well as Canada’s Radarsat, Israel’s Eros and other non-European missions distributed through European companies. In addition, ESA will act as data provider for its own EO missions, such as Envisat and ERS-2, as well as its Third Party Missions.

Here's a great video of how the birds give scientists a nice view of the earth:

Technorati Tags: kopernikus ESA GMES copernicus satellites science ecology disease environment technology space

Wilmington, NC: First to Make the Digitial Transition

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:07:35 -0700

The 49th state has been in the news lately, but we heard from the 50th state yesterday when Sen. Daniel Inouye raised the alarm that the next president could be a victim of the current administration’s handling of the digital TV transition:

“I am troubled that a bipartisan and noncontroversial public policy goal, intended to help our emergency first responders better serve and protect the American people, may end up as an albatross around the neck of our next president,” Inouye said.

The House will hold a hearing tomorrow morning on the status of the DTV transmission; the Senate will hold one next week.

This group of potential tube casualties includes a disproportionately large portion of Spanish-speaking, elderly and low-income Americans. Of the 21 million US households that rely exclusively on over-the-air television, the GAO found that almost half had incomes under $30,000 and that about 28 percent of them were Hispanic.

In advance of today's House Commerce Committee "DTV Transition" hearing, the Consumer Electronics Association released new research findings.

According to their market research, consumer awareness of the digital-TV transition is now at 86%, up 12 percentage points from the beginning of the year. 32% of households with at least one analog-only over-the-air TV have applied for converter boxes, while another 37% know they will have to and plan to do so by year's end. That adds up to 14 million converter boxes, the CEA said, for which the National Telecommunications and Information Administration should have enough coupons to cover.

Meanwhile, Wilmington, North Carolina last week became the first city in the U.S. to make the all digital transition, well ahead of next year's February 17th deadline.

Those of you who may be working on the digital transition might want to follow this great blog on Wilmington's transition, to gain a little advance insight into the stumbles and successes that Wilmington is facing with its residents in the immediate aftermath of the transition.

Local station WECT has also put up an informational page on their site, which will probably be held up as a good example for other stations to follow.

We can't say that the "DTV Answers Booth" in Wilmington, pictured above, was overwhelmed by the curious, however.

Broadcasters certainly have their work cut out for them as the transition approaches, with lots of educating to do. Here's a PDF from the FCC site featuring an analysis of calls from the second day of the Wilmington transition.

Technorati Tags: hdtv hdtv+transition analog+deathwatch politics broadcasting television communications wilmington

DIY Friday: Build Your Own Stolen Vehicle Tracker

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:34:40 -0700

You may have heard about OnStar's anti-theft device:

What happens is this — if you report your car as stolen, you can then call OnStar and have them work with law enforcement to use the car's GPS system to find where your vehicle's located. OnStar will then have the police make visual contact with your vehicle and once they've determined it's safe to do it, will shut down the drivers ability to manually control acceleration. Basically, they shut down the accelerator, causing the vehicle to coast to an idle speed — but not causing the driver to lose steering or braking control. At the point in which the vehicle comes to a stop (or close to it — idle speed) — the police can then apprehend the "perp.

For those of you without OnStar, there are stand-alone alternatives, such as LoJack and Inilex. While neither of these will physically slow down a vehicle (think how different the OJ chase scene would have been if OnStar had been around then!), they can be used effectively for theft recovery.

But here's the Catch-22. With the economy in a slowdown, crime is up. But with the economy in a slowdown, your cash is down.

What do do? DIY.

The DIY SPY has a "Retro GPS tracker which, when combined with their tracking software, can be used to determine where a vehicle has travelled. Unfortunately, it appears you have to retrieve the unit to download the data, which makes it less than ideal for recovering stolen vehicles, but not a bad item to have in any modern PI's bag of tricks.

If you want to go even cheaper, you can build your own "Ghetto Lojack" for $30 by picking up a cheap boost mobile phone at Target and combining it with the Mologogo website, which we first blogged about here.

If you've got the dough, and the REI outfit to match it, you could always get a SPOT personal locator beacon (with their great slogan: "live to tell about it") for $170.

Need more info? Detailed instructions for a Smart Car Surveillance System using a mobile phone can be found here; and here's an open-source solution for your iPhone or laptop.

Technorati Tags: onstar automobiles DIY satellites GPS spying tracking gadgets