Really Rocket Science

Want to find out a particular satellite’s C-band coverage? There’s an app for that.

Commercial satellite operator SES World Skies published an iPhone app last month. Who knew? No "press release" or splashy introduction on their Web site. So while I was at the SATCON Expo show in New York yesterday, and bada-bing: SES is showing an app in their booth.

OK, let me check it out…

The app is called "SES World Skies" and apparently is the first of its kind.  No other "satellite coverage" app exists, so they got that going for them.

First of all, it uses 30 MB and only works in the horizontal position. Google Earth is 8.9 MB. Well, that’s not good. The description is the company’s standard boilerplate:

SES WORLD SKIES is the new global division of SES, created through the combination of the former SES NEW SKIES and SES AMERICOM. The company operates a fleet of 25 satellites – part of the 40 spacecraft of the SES group – delivering services as diverse as television distribution and broadcast, internet access, data transmission and business and government communications to customers worldwide. SES WORLD SKIES currently has six additional satellites under construction. The company’s unique customer-focused approach allows it to offer the best satellite solution for a host of business and government requirements, with a view toward helping customers meet their short-term challenges and realize their longer-term goals. SES WORLD SKIES comprises a world-class team of customer care and technical professionals located in Princeton (NJ), The Hague, Washington D.C., Singapore, Beijing, London, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Sydney, Accra and Johannesburg. Visit www.ses.com for more information.

WTF? This is enough to get me to download? OK, so it’s free.  How do I use it? Nevermind, just start tapping. I did eventually find the instructions page (misspelled, too).

It shows basic, general coverage of each satellite, and lists the general specifications. Does it take advantage of the iPhone’s GPS? No. Can you type in your location and see what satellites are available? No. Can you contact a local sales office for a particular satellite? No. Can you check whether inventory is available for a 4-hour sporting event? No.

SES would have been better off collaborating with DishPointer and building a really good app that promotes their business in general and adds value to the customer experience in particular. In fact, you should check out DishPointer’s app. It rocks. Check out the Augmented Reality Pro version — a steal at $20. Here’s a demo video…

The SES app, unfortunately, won’t be found on many "best iPhone apps" lists any time soon.

Satellite Holdings changes name of Raven Group to Skyware Global.
[SatNews – 10/09/2009]

DigitalGlobe WorldView-2 satellite successfully launched from Vandenberg AFB, California.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009}

Viasat receives $46M contract from Star Satellite Communications Company, a subsidiary of Yahsat, for network infrastructure and customer premise terminals for new high-speed internet service in Middle East, Africa, and Southwest Asia.
[socalTECH – 10/08/2009]

Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite to image impact of its empty upper stage before the satellite also crashes into the moon; studies of plume of gas and dust may confirm presence of ice.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

SpeedCast and Eutelsat expand coverage of their maritime solution across the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas.
[Satellite Today – 10/08/2009]

Omnicity Corp signs agreement with StarBand Communications to offer StarBand satellite high speed internet service in Omnicity markets throughout the U.S.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

KT Corporation signs multi-year pre-launch contract for capacity on Intelsat 17 satellite to be launched in 2011, to deliver enhanced broadband VSAT services in Asia, Africa, and Middle East.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

TDM Satellite Channel, Macau, begins free to air broadcasting on newly launched AsiaSat 5 satellite serving more than 50 countries in Asia Pacific.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

Inmarsat and Vizada donate 70 BGAN terminals to ITU in agreement to improve emergency communications for disaster preparedness and coordinate relief activities.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

RapidEye supplies German company EOMAP with satellite imagery to support mapping services for oil spill monitoring in Australia.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

UTV signs contract for capacity on MEASAT-3a for carriage of UTV Movies.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

Cable & Wireless Panama chooses Gilat to provide SkyEdge II high-performance network to deliver broadband internet to hundreds of schools in remote areas nationwide.
[SatNews – 10/08/2009]

Eutelsat adds 100th HD channel with Sky Sport 1HD.
[hd-report – 10/07/2009]

Satellite and Telco TV services beat Cable on J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey.
[Multichannel News – 10/07/2009]

ExactEarth, subsidiary of COM DEV International, successfully uses NanoSat Automatic Identification System technology to help Canadian Forces monitor illegal fishing activity in Pacific.
[SatNews – 10/07/2009]

Iridium is staging a comeback, goes public 10 years after chapter 11 bankruptcy; can Pentagon demand and other niche services including hosted payload keep it going as it faces satellite replacement requirements?
[BusinessWeek – 10/06/2009]

ORBCOMM and Sierra Wireless enter agreement to integrate Sierra Wireless’s M2M services platform within ORBCOMM’s satellite web services portal.
[TMCnet – 10/05/2009]

Harris subsidiary Maritime Communication Services launches iDirect Evolution network to support broadband IP services for its maritime customer Carnival Corporation.
[PRNewswire – 10/06/2009]

China’s late September announcements that it will build and launch communications satellites for Bolivia and Laos may be followed by plans to build satellites for Ecuador, Myanmar, and Vietnam, as well as some African countries.
[AsiaTimes – 10/07/2009]

Iran claims plans to launch astronauts into space in future.
[SatNews – 10/05/2009]

NSR free webinar will discuss the coming surge in launches of satellites for the mobile satellite services sector – three LEO constellations totaling 128 satellites and another 23 MEO and GEO satellites could be launched in next six years – market demand equation will tilt strongly toward supply side.
[NSR free webinar – October 20, 2009]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

We’ve been waiting for a satcom smartphone for a while now. Last week, AT&T announced a deal with TerreStar:

In the midst of a barrage (literally) of fall phone announcements, AT&T and TerreStar managed to stand apart from the pack on Wednesday with their announcement of an integrated cellular satellite smartphone. The TerreStar Genus will use AT&T’s network, but will also be able to access an all-IP satellite service when cellular coverage isn’t available. You’ll be able to use the phone in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and coastal waters.

With a QWERTY keyboard and a candy bar design, the Genus resembles many a Windows Mobile device (it runs the same OS). Feature details ares slim at this point, but we know that the handset will offer Bluetooth, a touch screen, Wi-Fi, and GPS. Pricing is to be announced, though the Genus will only be released to government customers. Phone Scoop says that AT&T is working on a consumer variant as well.

TerreStar Genus Specifications:

• Size: 118.8 mm x 64.8 mm x 19.25 mm
• Display: 2.6-inch touch screen, QVGA resolution
• Satellite & Terrestrial: 2000-2010 MHz, 2190-2200 MHz S-band
• Terrestrial: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
• 100MB internal memory
• 3 megapixel camera
• QWERTY Keyboard
•  Bluetooth
• WiFi
• GPS
• Micro-USB connector
• microSD card slot
• 1400 mAh battery

It runs Windows Mobile. *yawn* Even Blackberry is better than WinMo.

You know, I don’t care for it. Would I want satcom back-up? Yes. Give up my iPhone? No. Wait a minute…

Now that’s a hot idea: build the satcom capability into an iPhone. Now that’s a good enhancement. Might as well add a special feature: bypassing Edge service and connecting directly to satellite. I’d pay extra for that.

 I can just picture it now…

Viasat announces it is buying WildBlue Communications for $568M in cash and stock.

[TheStreet.com  – 10/01/2009]

Thales Alenia Space signs contract with APT Satellite Company Limited to design and build APSTAR 7, to provide broadcasting and communications services over the Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, and part of Europe.
[SatNews – 10/01/2009]

Ariane 5 delivers two payloads to orbit; Amazonas 2 for Spain’s HISPASAT, the COMSATBw-1 for Germany.
[SatNews – 10/01/2009]

EGNOS, a free satellite navigation network, is launched by the European Union, intended to help pilots, drivers, and blind people by fine tuning GPS accuracy to within 2 meters..
[SatNews – 10/01/2009]

Terrestar Genus hybrid satellite/cell phone is coming to AT&T.
[Digital Trends – 10/01/2009]

Comtech EFData gets $1.1M order from U.S. government for equipment to support the government’s satellite-based communications infrastructure.
[Newsday – 10/01/2009]

TeleCommunications Systems gets $11.7M contract from U.S. Army to provide additional Secret Internet Protocal Router and Non-secure Int ernet Protocal Router FSAT systems to the United States Forces Afghanistan.
[Sys-Con – 10/01/2009]

Soyuz TMA-16 launch carries Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev of the 21st space station crew into space for a six month stay aboard the International Space Station.
[SatNews – 09/30/2009]

B-52 bombers will be getting a new satellite communications system, to be developed and installed by Boeing.
[Minot  Daily News – 09/30/2009]

NSS-12 satellite, the first satellite built by Space Systems/Loral for SES NEW SKIES, is delivered to Kourou launch base for October 29 scheduled launch.
[TMCnet – 09/30/2009]

THOR 6, aTelenor’s latest satellite, arrives safely at Guiana Spaceport In Kourou for scheduled end of October launch.
[SatNews – 09/29/2009]

Terrestar will be able to deliver the most advanced communications services over a large area using a single satellite instead of multiple satellites using 18-meter antenna deflector built and successfully deployed by Harris.
[TMCnet -09/29/2009]

KVH TracPhone FleetBroadband systems receive new "505" emergency calling service which routes calls directly to Coast Guard rescue centers worldwide.
[PRNewswire – 09/28/2009]

China plans to build and launch a communications satellite for Laos.
[RedOrbit – 09/27/2009]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

Good move by ViaSat in intending to buy WildBlue:

ViaSat will pay $443 million cash and use $125 million of newly issued ViaSat shares to buy WildBlue. The cash flow from each company is expected to cover financing for the transaction.

Liberty Media will appoint a board member to ViaSat as part of the acquisition.

WildBlue’s other shareholders include Intelsat, Tennenbaum Capital Partners, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

ViaSat technology helps power the WildBlue service already, and the two companies have worked together for more than a decade. ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg said the company will launch a satellite, ViaSat1, in 2011 that will allow for a major expansion in the number of customers WildBlue can serve.

WildBlue CEO David Leonard agreed in a written statement about the deal.

“With the addition of ViaSat-1 capacity to our network, we believe we can grow our subscriber base to become a top 10 broadband ISP in the U.S. and expand further domestically and internationally,” he said.

ViaSat has decent cash flow, as does WildBlue. Having more Ka-band capacity coming in to their inventory in a couple of years will work wonders for acquiring new customers.  Need detail? Check it out here.

"Bridget" will be driving on Mars in 2018 or so, presumably on the other side of the street.

The new European version of a Mars rover, ExoMars, is being tested in a sand quarry in Bedfordshire:

 The quarry – chosen for its similarity to Martian terrain – saw cameras and image processing software tested on the ExoMars prototype rover Bridget.

The rover will be equipped with a raft of cameras and the aim is to integrate them and the data they will send back.

The technology developed for the mission has applications not only in space science but also here on Earth.

The eventual rover will have a pair of front-mounted navigation cameras and a quartet of cameras at its corners for hazard avoidance.

It will also have a pair of scientific cameras that give it stereoscopic vision and thus depth perception, as well as a high-resolution camera for zooming in on areas of interest.

The wide-angle scientific cameras are equipped with filter wheels, which limit the light that reaches them to specific wavelengths.

Measuring the sunlight reflected off Martian terrain in these specific bands gives information on the chemical makeup of whatever is in the field of view.

The aim of the EU PRoVisG (Planetary Robotics Vision Ground Processing) project is to stitch together all of the information from the cameras, ensuring for example that the scientific results are tagged to the location at which they were taken and that the navigation cameras’ views are assembled into a virtual, 3D representation of the rover’s environment.

What are they looking for? Plenty:

The ExoMars mission’s scientific objectives, in order of priority, are:

1. To search for signs of past and present life on Mars.
   » Read more…

    

2. To characterise the water/geochemical distribution as a function of depth in the shallow subsurface.

    

3. To study the surface environment and identify hazards to future human missions.

    

4. To investigate the planet’s subsurface and deep interior to better understand the evolution and habitability of Mars.

Video report, via ITN…

Delta II launch of two STSS-Demo satellites proceeds successfully at Cape Canaveral following several rain delays.

[SatNews – 09/25/2009]

Worldview-2 launch date affected by rain delays of launch of the STSS satellites; subject to day-to-day rescheduling.
[SatNews – 09/24/2009]

Next generation secret satellite built and launched by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. government is performing as required following its September 9th launch from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas 5 rocket.
[SatNews – 09/24/2009]

SpaceX schedules maiden launch of Falcon-9 rocket for November 29 from Cape Canaveral.
[Satellite Today – 09/24/2009]

The Thor 6 satellite, owned by Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, is ready to be shipped by sea to Kourou in French Guiana for launch scheduled on October 29.
[SatNews – 09/24/2009]

Ukraine plans to export launch vehicles to Latin America, with Cyclone-4 rocket scheduled to launch from Brazil’s Alcantara space center in 2010.
[Satellite Today – 09/24/2009]

Seascape wins U.S. FAA contract for two 3.7m geostationary TeraScan ground stations, for GOES-East and GOES-West, to be installed in Atlantic City.
[SatNews – 09/24/2009]

SkyTerra is to be acquired by Harbinger Capital Partners and taken private in a transaction worth around $280M.
[The Washington Post – 09/24/2009]

EchoStar partners with ViaSat and seeks $483M in federal stimulus money to build and launch a new satellite offering broadband with download speeds of up to 8 megabits per second in 20 states west of the Mississippi river.
[Denver Business Journal – 09/24/2009]

Clipper Tankers selects KVH TracPhone V7 and mini-VSAT Broadband for its fleet.
[PR Newswire – 09/23/2009]

Digital Rapids’ MediaMesh content distribution system receives 2009 STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) award from TV Technology Europe magazine at 2009 IBC convention.
[SatNews – 09/23/2009]

Spacecom is reconfiguring Amos 6 communications satellite to handle broadband internet rather than wait for Amos 7 and Amos 8.
[SatNews – 09/23/2009]

India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission finds evidence of large quantities of water on surface of Moon.
[SatNews – 09/23/2009]

India, having lost contact with Chandrayaan-1 on August 29, makes up for it on September 23 with launch of seven satellites from a single rocket.
[SatNews – 09/23/2009]

NASA’s MESSENGER to make third and final flyby of Mercury at distance of 142 miles above the surface for final gravity assist to enter Mercury’s orbit in 2011.
[SatNews – 09/23/2009]

Gilat deploys broadband satellite internet service for passengers of Kazakhstans’ national railway.
[MarketWatch – 09/22/2009]

Hughes announces it has shipped more than 1000 HX terminals to provide satellite backhaul for major GSM cellular operator in Southeast Asia.
[PRNewswire – 09/22/2009]

SES World Skies announces multi-year agreement with Netcom Africa to expand delivery of telecom and broadcast television services throughout Nigeria and West Africa.
[SatNews – 09/22/2009]

Global Satellite USA launches world’s first IP54/IK03 certified satellite phone, the Thuraya XT, combining satellite phone functionality with Thuraya’s satellite network.
[SatNews – 09/22/2009]

Asiasat-5 begins commercial service on September 17 at orbital location of 100.5 degrees East with enhance power and coverage over the Asia Pacific region.
[SatNews – 09/22/2009]

Nimiq 5 performing post-launch maneuvers according to plan.
[SatNews – 09/21/2009]

Arianespace Soyuz launches Russian weather satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome September 17.
[Satellite Today – 09/21/2009]

Japan’s HTV-1 transfer vehicle successfully attaches to International Space Station port for supply mission.
[SatNews – 09/21/2009]

Revenue growth is increasing on steady gains in transponder demand, new report from NSR shows.
[NSR report – September 2009]

The Earth Observation industry has taken rapid strides in the last decade and expanded its application base to new industries outside the military and weather.
[NSR Report – October 2009]

Security of Global Navigation Satellite Systems can be improved by using GPS hidden attributes to cross-check receivers and authenticate the signal.
[insidegnss – September/October 2009]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

The rocket scientists at ISRO are indeed a happy bunch today:

In its sixteenth flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota today (September 23, 2009), ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C14 successfully launched the 960 kg Indian remote sensing satellite Oceansat-2 and six nano satellites for international customers into a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). This was the fifteenth successful flight of PSLV. PSLV-C14

After a 51 hour count down, PSLV-C14 lifted off from the first launch pad at SDSC SHAR, at 11:51 am IST with the ignition of the core first stage. The important flight events included the separation of the first stage, ignition of the second stage, separation of the payload fairing at about 125 km altitude after the vehicle had cleared the dense atmosphere, second stage separation, third stage ignition, third stage separation, fourth stage ignition and fourth stage cut-off.

The 960 kg main payload, Oceansat-2, was the first satellite to be injected into orbit at 1081 seconds after lift-off at an altitude of 728 km. About 45 seconds later, four of the six nano satellites were separated in sequence. The initial signals indicate normal health of the satellites.

Oceansat-2 is the sixteenth remote sensing satellite of India. The state-of-the-art Oceansat-2 carries three payloads and has the shape of a cuboid with two solar panels projecting from its sides.

The eight band Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) payload carried by Oceansat-2 images a swath (strip of land or ocean) of 1420 km width with a resolution of 360 metre and works in the Visible and Near Infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Ku-band Scatterometer with a 1 metre diameter antenna rotating at 20 rpm, works at a frequency of 13.515 GHz. The Scatterometer covers a swath of 1400 km and operates continuously. ROSA is a GPS Receiver for atmospheric sounding by radio occultation built by Italian Space Agency (ASI).

Soon after separation from PSLV fourth stage, the two solar panels of OCEANSAT-2 were automatically deployed. The satellite’s health is continuously monitored from the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Networks (ISTRAC) Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of a network of ground stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard and Tromso in Norway as well as a station in Troll, Antarctica.

Here’s the video report, via Star News:

ND Satcom CEO Norbert Hölzle is excited. His company has developed a "zero latency" product, which, appropriately, has no name/brand. Don’t believe it? You’re probably not alone. Since when have we exceeded the speed of light?

He was interviewed by Satellite Today’s IBC E-Daily recently…

IBC E-Daily: What are your expectations for the latency product?

Hölzle: When I initially saw this, I was a little skeptical, but at our headquarters, the new system was faster than my laptop. It is impressive. Inside the industry, you can talk about buzz words such as encryption, bits and bytes, but this will not win a customer outside the satcom industry. But if you are able to show customers that an SAP log-on can work in the desert, for example, that will be of interest.

IBC E-Daily: Does this latency market open up new customer segments?

Hölzle: On the booth, we have had three customers that want to have a demonstration over the next few weeks, and they are definitely not using our modems right now. The combination of this solution with the newly launched SkyWan IDU 1070 modem is something that will definitely open up new markets.

IBC E-Daily: How do you sell the product to a new customer base?

Hölzle: We will target business customers that need equipment in the field for business critical applications. One option is through our own sales force, another option is through a partnership model. In South Africa, for example, we go through the service provider Q-Kon, so if someone wants to buy this, we will forward them to Q-Kon, and we will build our partners for this type of system. We also have an interested South American partner organization. You have to map this on the sales channel, because you don’t want to tread on their toes. The most important thing is not just to develop the product, but how you sell it and go to the market. You have the danger that a partner may see you as a competitor, so we have to convince them they are not. We are not the biggest player in the modem field, but I think the latency product will help change the ball game for us.

Aren’t you glad he cited SAP? Sure, there are plenty of businesses located in the middle of nowhere that run SAP. Right.

Satcom biggest drawbacks are cost and latency. When you have no choice, you bear down and take it. Well, now ISPs in Africa have another option: the Seacom fiber optic cable. Tata Communications, for one, is expected to reduce latency from 500 to 170 milliseconds:

 Tata Communications, which is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world and handles 17 per cent of the world’s ISP traffic, says that soon it will be able to reduce latency time from 500 to 170 milliseconds.

The reduction has been made possible due to the switching from satellite-based transmission to fibre-based transmission through the 17,000 km Seacom cable system that went live a few weeks ago.

 CNN’s report was excellent…

SES is ready for a cat fight. Their African business is at stake, and "partnering" with Intersat Africa is their first move:

 The company plans to initially sell ASTRA2Connect to countries like East and Central Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, Newtec, a manufacturer of state-of-the-art satellite equipment and a long-term partner for ASTRA2Connect, will supply Intersat Africa with the respective satellite broadband user terminals based on its award-winning Sat3Play technology.
 
 “East Africa has recently been connected to the Information Superhighway on submarine fibre, but unfortunately only the users in urban areas will benefit from this internet revolution,” Abdul Bakhrani, CEO of Intersat Africa said in a statement. “The last mile connectivity is still a challenge and this is whereSES’ ( News – Alert) broadband service and satellite capacity fit in. The ASTRA2Connect service also complements our Rural Internet Kiosk programm, which will empower thousands of Africans with high speed internet.”

 Astra2Connect. Brilliant. Now let’s see about helping organizations like DrumNet with satcom and showing you’re not all about making money on space segment. Quick: deploy!

Do we sense another case of social/marketing latency? Too little, too late?

It may not be a catchy name, but the ESO discovery is nevertheless very significant.

The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth’s. Combined with CoRoT-7b’s known radius, which is less than twice that of our terrestrial home, this tells us that the exoplanet’s density is quite similar to the Earth’s, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system.

The ESA’s P.R. folks put it in better pespective:

The confirmation of the nature of CoRoT-7b as the first rocky planet outside our Solar System marks a significant step forward in the search for Earth-like exoplanets. The detection by CoRoT and follow-up radial velocity measurements with HARPS suggest that this exoplanet, CoRoT-7b, has a density similar to that of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth making it only the fifth known terrestrial planet in the Universe.

The search for a habitable exoplanet is one of the holy grails in astronomy. One of the first steps towards this goal is the detection of terrestrial planets around solar-type stars. Dedicated programmes, using telescopes in space and on ground, have yielded evidence for hundreds of planets outside of our Solar System. The majority of these are giant, gaseous planets, but in recent years small, almost Earth-mass planets have been detected demonstrating that the discovery of Earth analogues – exoplanets with one Earth mass or one Earth radius orbiting a solar-type star at a distance of about 1 astronomical unit – is within reach.

 A little too hot for us. The work of astronomers continues, worldwide, day and night.