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Satellite
Historical WWII imagery now available in Google Earth
15:32 February 7, 2010 PST
When reconnaissance pilots brought back precious surveillance photos during World War II (WWII) they could not have imagined that they would one day be comparable with the cityscape seen from satellite 50 years into the future, and available around the world at the touch of a button. Google has made this possible with new functionality for Google Earth - historical WWII imagery - giving people a unique opportunity to see the effect of past events using today's mapping technology. Read More
Computer program stops sensors and satellites from 'crying wolf'
By Jeff Salton
17:52 January 31, 2010 PST
We rely so heavily on information gathered by satellites and weather instruments to help us program our daily lives, imagine what would happen if the data we received from these technologies went bad and foretold of cataclysmic outcomes in the days or weeks ahead? Panic could induce scenes on our streets reminiscent of Hollywood disaster movies. To avert such events - or just help get things right even if the forecast is more mundane - scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) have devised an innovative computational technique called Intelligent Outlier Detection Algorithm, or IODA, that draws on statistics, imaging, and other disciplines in order to detect errors in sensitive technological systems. Read More
The remarkable migratory patterns of the Arctic Tern
By Ben Coxworth
01:52 January 23, 2010 PST
It’s official: the Arctic tern has the longest migration of any animal in the world. The Arctic Tern Migration Project recently discovered that the tern flies over 70,000 kilometers (43,496 miles) annually, from its breeding grounds in the Arctic to its winter quarters in the Antarctic. That distance is more than twice what was previously estimated. Over the lifetime of one bird, it travels approximately 2.4 million kilometers, the equivalent of three trips to the moon and back. For a bird that weighs just over 100 grams (3.5 ounces), that’s fairly impressive. Read More
TomTom EASE - small package, small pricetag GPS to hit US stores
By Paul Ridden
19:56 January 7, 2010 PST
TomTom's EASE is the latest addition to its satellite navigation family and brings all the functionality, ease of use and practicality of its siblings at a fraction of the cost. Launched at CES in Las Vegas this week, the EASE blends a simple two icon interface menu, an integrated fold-away mount and the company's proprietary Map Share and IQ Routes - all for around a hundred US dollars. Read More
Northern Lights collide in an explosion of brilliance - we just haven't noticed it before
By Darren Quick
03:22 December 21, 2009 PST
A network of cameras deployed around the Arctic to understand the trigger mechanism for the beautiful light display called the aurora borealis – also known as the Northern Lights – has discovered that sometimes the vast curtains of aurora borealis collide, producing a stunning outburst. The reason no one on Earth has ever noticed these collisions before is that they occur on such a vast scale it takes a network of sensitive cameras spread across thousands of miles to get the whole picture. Read More
California regulators green light space-based solar
By Darren Quick
21:34 December 7, 2009 PST
Earlier this year we reported that California’s biggest power utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), was seeking to buy power generated by space-based solar panels pending regulatory approval from its home state of California. Now, true to the State’s goal of increasing its reliance on a diverse supply of renewable energy resources, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has granted regulatory approval, with energy start-up Solaren tackling the challenge of making the project work. Read More
Eureka! NASA strikes water on lunar surface
By Darren Quick
19:16 November 17, 2009 PST
Scientists have long speculated about the source of significant quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the moon's lunar poles, and just a few months ago NASA announced that water molecules were indeed present, but in relatively small amounts. Now the Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) that was employed to shed some more light on the presence of water on the moon, looks like it has done just that with preliminary data indicating the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently-shadowed crater. Read More
Long awaited satellite to monitor water cycle reaches orbit
By Darren Quick
22:43 November 5, 2009 PST
The 658kg (1,450 lb) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) this week is the first ever satellite designed both to map sea surface salinity and to monitor soil moisture on a global scale. The unique radiometer it carries will enable passive surveying of the water cycle between oceans, the atmosphere and land thereby playing a key role in the monitoring of global climate change. Read More
GPS satellites tell us where we are, but what tells them where they are?
By Jeff Salton
18:00 November 1, 2009 PST
Global Positioning System (GPS) devices have permeated society to the point where millions of us rely on them daily for directions, locations and traffic avoidance (if only they could tell me where I left my car keys). GPS satellites send signals to a receiver in your handheld or car-based GPS navigator, which calculates your position on the planet based on the location of the satellites and your distance from them. The distance is determined by how long it took the signals from various satellites to reach your receiver. But have you ever thought what tells the GPS satellites where they are in the first place? Read More
Google announces free turn-by-turn maps app for Android - looks the goods
By Darren Quick
01:37 October 29, 2009 PDT
Every platform needs a killer app and for the Android OS the early contender for that title has to be the just announced Google Maps Navigation for mobile. Only available for Android 2.0 phones, the new application takes the current Google Maps for mobile and gives it a hefty shot of steroids. Most of the new features that set the app apart from most in-car turn-by-turn navigation systems come courtesy of its Internet connectivity, which makes it possible to access a wealth of relevant information residing on Google’s servers while out and about. Read More
'Hyperspectral Remote Sensor' senses disasters from space
By Darren Quick
23:59 October 25, 2009 PDT
Combining sophisticated sensors in orbit with sensors on the ground and in the air has led researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) to create a “Hyperspectral Remote Sensor” (HRS) that can give advance warnings about water contamination after a forest fire, alert authorities of a pollution spill long before a red flag is raised on Earth, or inform the population where a monsoon will strike. Read More
The ultra-thin JVC SP-FT home theater – only 31mm thick
By Jeff Salton
20:23 October 14, 2009 PDT
Just when you thought your room wasn’t big enough for a home theater, JVC has come to the rescue with its ultra-slim amplifier and speakers, designed to sit perfectly alongside or underneath your ultra-slim 50-inch TV or projector screen. The SP-FT model from JVC is a pair of 31mm thin satellite speakers and matching amplifier which pump out an adequate 80W total output over four independent channels and support Dolby Digital, DTS and AAC formats. Read More
Go live! Livestream Livepack puts a satellite truck in your backpack
By Jeff Salton
22:50 September 30, 2009 PDT
A new backpack from Livestream called the Livepack puts a broadcast TV truck on your shoulders without the weight or cumbersome dimensions – but with the same broadcast capabilities. If you get A-list invitations that put you up close and personal with celebrities, or just fancy yourself as part of the paparazzi, this is a must-have device. The Livestream Livepack crams into a backpack the hardware unit to encode and transmit HD video, a Firewire cable, and six load-balanced built-in 3G modems in order to get the highest possible available bitrate. The system even comes with a dedicated IP address to stream to your Livestream channel - you’ll be a professional roving reporter before you know it (as long as you can provide your own Firewire DV camera). Read More
Swift snaps our best-ever ultraviolet image of neighboring Andromeda Galaxy
By Jeff Salton
18:51 September 20, 2009 PDT
In a galaxy far, far away … about 2.5 million light years, in fact, lie approximately 20,000 hot, young stars and dense clusters that comprise the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, was recently captured by an ultraviolet optical telescope aboard NASA’s Swift satellite, and delivers the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. Read More
X-ray telescope to shed light on dark energy
By Darren Quick
00:45 August 21, 2009 PDT
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Russia’s Roskosmos space agency are joining forces to try and shed some light on the poorly understood phenomenon referred to as ‘dark energy’. In 2012 the German 'extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array'(eROSITA) X-ray telescope will be taken into orbit on board the Russian Spektrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) satellite to start searching for black holes and dark matter in an attempt to answer why the expansion of the universe is accelerating instead of slowing down. Read More
Raytheon announces improved infrared detector
By Paul Ridden
18:41 August 17, 2009 PDT
Raytheon has announced the creation of the world's largest infra-red light wave detector, the "4K by 4K" focal plane array. Not only will it allow whole hemisphere satellite monitoring at 16 megapixel resolution but it should also make sensors less dependent on the complicated scanning mechanisms used in current systems. Read More
Solara Field Tracker 2100 - handheld GPS with text messaging
By Gizmag Team
00:19 July 18, 2009 PDT
The USD$880 Solara Field Tracker 2100 is a handheld GPS with text messaging – no voice, no video, no apps, just text. This may not seem a particularly enticing value proposition, particularly when you consider the USD$30 a month subscription fee, but wait … there's more! As it operates over the Iridium satellite network, which offers truly global coverage, it means you can stay in touch even if you're trekking the Himalayas, or the Silk road or Antarctica. Throw in extreme ruggedness, automatic position reporting and a two-way Emergency Alert notification system and it's a very compelling proposition if you're an adventurer who enjoys getting well off the beaten track. Read More
ECCO: The handy GPS locator on a keyring
By Paul Ridden
20:42 July 16, 2009 PDT
Thanks to personal navigation systems, the days of getting completely lost whilst out wandering are well and truly behind us. GPS navigation systems can now show you 3D representations of your surroundings, give you multiple routing options and can even let you know if there's a good restaurant nearby. You can buy units to mount in your car, on your bike or on your wrist and can now even get GPS capabilities in most modern mobile phones. But if all you want is to be able to find your way back to where you started from as quickly and easily as possible then the ECCO personal GPS navigator might be of interest. Read More
Satellites get the jump on storm prediction
By Darren Quick
01:35 July 9, 2009 PDT
When it comes to severe thunderstorms, every minute of advance warning can be vital. Present methods rely on radar to detect impending storms, but a new technique that uses satellites to measure the temperature changes in the tops of clouds, could predict severe thunderstorms up to 45 minutes earlier than relying on traditional radar alone. Read More
Squad positioning system helps fight fires and save lives
23:22 June 10, 2009 PDT
Student designer Roy Hareguina's "Squad" is a compact indoor positioning system that enables fire fighters, even in dense smoke, to know their exact location and that of their colleagues at all times. Using a dual-mapping system, the tough polyetheretherketone (PEEK) units reduce the danger of separation and disorientation in high-rise buildings, and increase a fire fighter’s ability to save lives. Read More
Lockheed Martin to develop geostationary Solar Powered Airship
By Paul Evans
22:12 April 30, 2009 PDT
May 1, 2009 The idea of replacing very expensive space based satellites and Aircraft mounted Airborne Warning And Control Systems (AWACS) with stationary platforms inside Earth's atmosphere has been floated for decades. Despite the fact that lighter-than-air vehicles or airships that could fulfill this role have been flying for over 300 years, the idea is only now getting off the ground. Lockheed Martin has been chosen by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a US$400 million contract to to design, build, test and fly a 1:3 scale model of an airship surveillance and telecommunications platform called the High Altitude Airship (HAA). The full scale HAA would measure 240 ft long by 70 ft in diameter, run entirely on solar power and be able to stay aloft for up to 10 years. Read More
Space sail to take out the trash
By Darren Quick
12:47 April 26, 2009 PDT
We’ve recently examined the danger posed to future space missions by the ever increasing collection of space junk orbiting the Earth. Now a plan by a pair of space engineers to use a sail to take out the trash – or rather, bring it back to Earth – may help to stop future space missions adding to the problem of space junk. Read More
CO2 monitoring satellite fails to reach orbit
18:14 February 24, 2009 PST
In bad news for NASA (and the planet in general), the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite did not reach orbit as planned yesterday. According to a launch contingency briefing from NASA, the Taurus XL from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 4:55 a.m. EST proceeded normally, with only typical "minor issues" reported as the rocket approached lift-off, but preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. Read More
Toilet training the space community
By Darren Quick
16:27 February 15, 2009 PST
When we are born, we soil ourselves and other people clean it up for us. As we mature, we take responsibility for our own excrement. Strangely, as a society, we're not at all good at toilet training ourselves regarding the excrement produced by industry, transport or agriculture. Human beings capacity to eschew short term gain when faced with long term harm is notoriously woeful so it’s not surprising we've done exactly the same thing in space, leaving so much debris that it's now dangerous to be in the orbital band around earth due to the likelihood of being hit by junk traveling at 18,000 mph. The latest evidence: last week saw the first ever accidental collision between two intact spacecraft, a deactivated Russian satellite and an Iridium 33 satellite, which left a fresh cloud of debris 497 miles above the Earth. Read More
NASA’s Space Observatory to provide global measurements of CO2
By Darren Quick
00:56 February 5, 2009 PST
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory spacecraft and its Taurus XL launch vehicle are undergoing preparations for liftoff on February 23. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory’s mission is to collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas - important because its the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate. This improved understanding will enable more reliable forecasts of future changes in the abundance and distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere and the effect that these changes may have on the Earth's climate. Read More
windykites1
- February 9, 2010 @ 19:22 UTC
