notes.husk.org

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) (by AstriumTV, via stml) A...

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:38:00 +0100

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) (by AstriumTV, via stml)

A list of the text captions from the video:

Debris must be monitored
Complex systems needed
Surveillance, Tracking & Analysis
Conjunction Prediction
Trajectories Prediction
Imaging requires data policy
Space Weather Surveillance
Solar Eruption Impact
Ariane Launch
Adaptation: safe de-orbitation
Active Debris Removal
For a safer space.

toffeemilkshake: At risk of becoming a MapBox fan blog: Using...

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:06:00 +0100

At risk of becoming a MapBox fan blog:

Using open data, MapBox is taking on the big players in online maps. Now they want to fix satellite view.

Here’s a nice quote from the article:

The team uses some techniques to ensure that they’re capturing peak growth, which is May/June in the northern hemisphere and December/January in the southern. In addition, because the process favors darker pixels, the first output can seem very dim and underexposed, says Loyd.

“It’s a completely natural product,” says Loyd. “Every pixel is a real pixel captured by an camera in the sky. But it’s also completely synthetic.” The goal for the map is to capture roughly what the naked eye can see from space, but for an idealized cloudless planet trapped in eternal summer.

"For the next eight weeks I would call, e-mail, and generally hassle various contacts at multiple..."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 01:29:44 +0100

“For the next eight weeks I would call, e-mail, and generally hassle various contacts at multiple agencies in a seemingly vain effort to see, with my own eyes, the only satellite that NASA has built but never launched.”

- Bill Donahue: Who Killed The Deep Space Climate Observatory? for Popular Science, 2011.

GPS satellite diagram, via AL@Latitude: Equator.

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:46:19 +0000

GPS satellite diagram, via AL@Latitude: Equator.

Sandia engineer Steve Yearout displays a 1/15 scale model of a...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:31:38 +0000

Sandia engineer Steve Yearout displays a 1/15 scale model of a NAVSTAR Block IIR GPS satellite: “Sandia sends sensors into space to detect nuclear blasts globally”. (Google cache; via.)

SatTrack Cam Leiden (via iamdanw): In the evening of June 25 I...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:26:00 +0000

SatTrack Cam Leiden (via iamdanw):

In the evening of June 25 I by chance captured a GPS satellite that was decommisioned last year on photograph: Navstar 39 (USA 128, GPS 2A-27, 1996-056A). It showed up as a very bright small trail and was flashing at a rate of 2-3 flashes per 10 seconds.

"A number of press sources seem to think that “tumbling out of control” means the satellite is..."

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 01:16:29 +0000

“

A number of press sources seem to think that “tumbling out of control” means the satellite is careening randomly through space, and that South Korean reports that it is following a well-defined orbit with a well-defined speed refute the U.S. claim. They don’t. Once a satellite reaches space, its center of mass will follow an orbit that is determined by its initial speed, altitude, and direction. The body of the satellite may be rotating around its center of mass, but sensors tracking the satellite’s motion from the ground that are unable to detect that rotation would instead see the steady, predictable motion of the center of mass in its orbit. …

The reason it matters if the satellite is rotating, or ‘tumbling,” is that if the satellite is not stabilized so that it can point its antennas at the earth, there is no way to communicate with it, either to monitor the health of its systems or to tell it what to do. Moreover, the other equipment and sensors on the satellite will not be useful if they cannot be pointed at the earth. For example, the on-board camera may be working, but if the satellite can’t point it at the earth it’s not very useful.

”

- David Wright at All Things Nuclear, analysing North Korea’s satellite. (via)

paglen: PROTOTYPE FOR A NONFUNCTIONAL SATELLITE (DESIGN 1,...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 04:46:37 +0000

paglen:

PROTOTYPE FOR A NONFUNCTIONAL SATELLITE (DESIGN 1, BUILD 1: “THE KITE”)
MIXED MEDIA, 2012
On view at the Liverpool Biennial

United Kingdom satellite image, processed with GlitchSort...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:43:44 +0000

United Kingdom satellite image, processed with GlitchSort 2.

Original (also reposted from prosthetic knowledge); see also; see also (snow).

Top: China Basin parking lot, near AT&T Park, San...

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Top: China Basin parking lot, near AT&T Park, San Francisco.

Bottom: roughly half of Soho, from Soho Square south and west, London.

The two screenshots of Google Maps were taken at the same zoom level (17). Due to them being at different latitudes, the full size London image has more pixels, but covers the same width (about 460m). (Unzoomed, the two images have the same distance per pixel.)