Archive for the ‘Satellites’ Category

Go for GOCE

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

The ESA’s gravity spacecraft couldn’t get off the ground yesterday, but it’s a "go" for today:

Attempt One Issue:

“The doors on the launch service tower did not open,” noted ESA. ”Due to this anomaly, the tower was held in position and did not move back as required for a launch.”

I suspect some people around the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York will be dealing with gravity issues today. More about GOCE:

Clarified by Isaac Newton in the 17th century, gravity is a fundamental force of nature. Everything that has mass is pulled by gravity. As Earth is not a perfect sphere and its interior has layers and zones of different density, gravity varies around the globe.
 
Gravity and its variation in space are fundamental for every dynamic process on Earth’s surface and in its interior. Improving our knowledge of how gravity affects the interaction between these processes has practical benefits in today’s changing world.

An accurate gravity map – the geoid – is also crucial for geodesy applications and for defining a sea surface height reference model with which to accurately survey ocean circulation patterns and sea-level changes.

 

 

Get The Shovel Ready

Monday, March 16th, 2009

 

I don’t know whether this new service announced by CTC and AlphaStar is a project that’s as "shovel ready" as the economic stimulus package requires — or whether we should get the shovel out to bury it.

Here’s the pitch:

AlphaStar International, Inc. and Computers & Tele-Comm, Inc., (CTC) announced today a unique joint venture to provide very high speed WiMAX 4G services for any area anywhere across the entire USA. According to CTC President, Graeme Gibson, "The Digital Divide just got smaller. Today with this announcement, rural areas with no access to broadband fiber finally have a solution to getting connected at 4G speeds. Our mutually developed hybrid model takes advantage of the AlphaStar Teleport, a facility originally built by the U.S. government as part of President Reagan’s Star Wars initiative. AlphaStar (tour) can track any area of the USA including Hawaii and US territories to deliver true 4G speeds. Costs are contained by using the satellite primarily for the backhaul of Internet bandwidth." Bandwidth is then relayed by ground based WiMAX transmitters although the system can also serve to supply Metro WiFi systems or be used for mobile and maritime applications as well as Disaster Recovery and homeland security purposes. Low cost radios can be used rather than a two-way satellite receiver at customer locations. The Teleport can also deliver video and audio streaming. By caching the AV streams and large portions of the internet locally at the WiMAX transmitter performance is dramatically improved at affordable cost.

Great idea and I hope the pricing is right, but I’ve got my doubts. AlphaStar uses AMC-6 (according to their less-than-ideal Web site), which does not cover Alaska and Hawaii. Perhaps my old friends at Americom can persuade them to use AMC-21, which does cover all 50 states (and the Caribbean, which is a bonus).

Excellent combination of technologies for rural broadband and I hope it works out for them.

 

Spitzer Spots Spock’s Planet

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

 

Star Trek fans may remember Spock’s home star, Epsilon Eridani. Now, with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope, the discovery of asteroid belts within the nearby system (10.5 light years away) is prompting new comparisons to our own system — and perhaps a planet Vulcan:

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected two asteroid belts around Epsilon Eridani, the planetary system closest to ours and home to Star Trek’s fictitious First Officer Spock, the space agency reported yesterday.

A planet near the inner asteroid belt was identified eight years ago. The newly spotted planet is in the vicinity of the outer belt.

Epsilon Eridani is around 10 light-years, or 62 trillion miles (98 trillion kilometers), away from Earth’s solar system and, at a mere 850 million years old, is considered a younger, similar version of our own 4.5- billion-year-old system. Star Trek creators made it the home of Vulcan, and it’s possible that there are as-yet-unseen Earth-like planets between the star system and its inner ring, astronomer Massimo Marengo of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told McClatchy Newspapers.

"We certainly haven’t seen it yet, but if its solar system is anything like ours, then there should be planets like ours," Marengo told USA Today.

 

 

Naturally, this prompted an active discussion on Slashdot, with several citations to literary fiction. More serious discussions abound.

The update from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics doesn’t mention Mr. Spock or Vulcans, just what it means to scientists:

Epsilon Eridani and its planetary system show remarkable similarities to our solar system at a comparable age.

"Studying Epsilon Eridani is like having a time machine to look at our solar system when it was young," said Smithsonian astronomer Massimo Marengo (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). Marengo is a co-author of the discovery paper, which will appear in the Jan. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Lead author Dana Backman (SETI Institute) agreed, saying, "This system probably looks a lot like ours did when life first took root on Earth."

Our solar system has a rocky asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, about 3 astronomical units from the Sun. (An astronomical unit equals the average Earth-Sun distance of 93 million miles.) In total, it contains about 1/20 the mass of Earth’s Moon. Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the team of astronomers found an identical asteroid belt orbiting Epsilon Eridani at a similar distance of 3 astronomical units.

They also discovered a second asteroid belt 20 astronomical units from Epsilon Eridani (about where Uranus is located in our solar system). The second asteroid belt contains about as much mass as Earth’s Moon.

A third, icy ring of material seen previously extends about 35 to 100 astronomical units from Epsilon Eridani. A similar icy reservoir in our solar system is called the Kuiper Belt. However, Epsilon Eridani’s outer ring holds about 100 times more material than ours.

When the Sun was 850 million years old, theorists calculate that our Kuiper Belt looked about the same as that of Epsilon Eridani. Since then, much of the Kuiper Belt material was swept away, some hurled out of the solar system and some sent plunging into the inner planets in an event called the Late Heavy Bombardment. (The Moon shows evidence of the Late Heavy Bombardment – giant craters that formed the lunar seas of lava called mare.) It is possible that Epsilon Eridani will undergo a similar dramatic clearing in the future.

 

Some of us would like to believe another planet like ours exists, which recalls the power of the Vulcan Mind Meld in convincing people to think otherwise. 

Here’s one of my favorite clips from the original TV series:


Bella Lancio di Razzi

Monday, October 27th, 2008

 

 

Yes, the Delta rocket is still working. This time for the Italian COSMO/SKYMED-3 and the United Launch Alliance:

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, on behalf of Boeing Launch Services, successfully launched the third Italian-built Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin Observation or COSMO-SkyMed 3 satellite at 7:28 p.m., October 24. ULA successfully launched the first two Cosmo satellites on Delta II vehicles June 7, 2007 and Dec. 8, 2007.

"ULA is pleased to have successfully launched the third of four critical Earth observation systems in this series for Boeing and Thales Alenia Space," said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Delta Product Line. "With this 43rd successful commercial launch, the Delta II system continues its record of mission success, which is unparalleled in the U.S. space industry. This achievement is due to the hard work of our professional engineers and technicians along with the tremendous support we receive from our government, industry, and supplier mission partners. We look forward to many more Delta II launches in the years ahead."

Blasting off from Space Launch Complex 2, it marked the fifth successful Delta II vehicle launch procured by The Boeing Company through its commercial launch business. The ULA Delta II 7420-10 configuration vehicle featured an ULA first stage booster powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine and four Alliant Techsystems (ATK) strap-on solid rocket boosters. An Aerojet AJ10-118K engine powered the second stage. The payload was encased by a 10-foot-diameter composite payload fairing.

ULA began processing the Delta II launch vehicle in Decatur, Ala., nearly two years ago. In February, the 1st stage arrived from Decatur followed by the 2nd stage in August. The vehicle was erected on its stand at the pad Sept. 16, with solid rocket booster installation completed Sept. 19. Hundreds of ULA technicians, engineers, and management worked to prepare the vehicle for the COSMO-3 mission.

Developed by Thales Alenia Space, Italia for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense, COSMO-3 is the third of the four COSMO-SkyMed satellites. Each satellite is equipped with a high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar operating in X-band and is one of a constellation of four radar satellites. The overall objective of the program is global Earth observation and relevant data responding to the needs of the military and scientific community, as well as to the public demand for environmental control.

Here’s a nice video:

 

And here’s one shot on-site, from a distance:

 

 

Elliptical C-band Uplink Antennas

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Via Doug Lung’s RF Report:

In some cases, it isn’t possible to install an uplink dish that meets the FCC off-axis antenna pattern envelope. In the past, the FCC allowed operation of uplinks with non-compliant antennas upon a showing by the licensee that the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) would be reduced enough to keep the energy in side lobes below the level that would have existed using an uplink with a compliant dish at maximum power. This required a detailed engineering showing that often slowed FCC processing.

In the Eighth Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration (FCC 08-246), the FCC adopted an off-axis EIRP envelope approach as one method for applicants to apply for fixed satellite service (FSS) Earth stations using small antennas operating on conventional C and Ku-band frequencies.

It states, "This off-axis EIRP approach gives earth station applicants the flexibility to reduce their power levels to compensate for a small antenna diameter. Thus, using these envelopes as criteria for licensing should enable us to license more earth station applications routinely, expediting the provision of satellite services to consumers and enhancing the types of services available, without increasing the likelihood of harmful interference to adjacent satellite operators or to terrestrial wireless operators."

The Order adopts rules that facilitate the use of elliptical C-band uplink antennas. While the new rules do not specifically state that the major axis of the elliptical antenna be aligned with the geo-stationary orbit plane, the Order notes that "that starting the off-axis EIRP envelope at 1.5 degrees off-axis within the GSO orbital plane, and at 3.0 degrees outside that plane, has the same effect as requiring elliptical antennas to be aligned with the GSO plane in most cases."

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) claimed that it is not possible to develop an off-axis EIRP envelope for analog video signals because the power density of such signals fluctuates. SES Americom opposed new analog regulations because the current rules are working well. The FCC decided to retain the current regulatory framework for analog services at this time. It dropped plans for eliminating analog video transmission over satellite entirely, noting, "The record in this proceeding has shown convincingly that requiring the transition from analog to digital video transmissions proposed in the Third Further Notice would be unreasonably expensive and burdensome."

 


Chandrayaan-1 Launched

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

ISRO‘s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft launched:

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched the Chandrayaan-1, meaning "moon craft" in ancient Sanskrit, into orbit from a launch facility in southern India.

"It’s a historic moment, as far as India is concerned…  We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg of the journey has gone perfectly well," ISRO president Madhavan Nair said.  "It’s a remarkable performance by the launch vehicle, every parameter was on the dot… Today what we have started is a remarkable journey for the Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the moon."

Chandrayaan-1 will orbit 60 miles above the moon’s surface, while documenting its surface and chemical characteristics.

ISRO hopes this first launch will help the nation launch future lunar missions that can help researchers learn more about the moon and its origin.  ISRO hopes to one day launch a manned mission to the moon, but admitted that it would take years before it is able to develop the necessary technologies.

ISRO hopes to launch another moon mission in 2012, as the space agency continues to develop the necessary infrastructure for a manned moon mission.

"Earlier missions did not come out with a full understanding of the moon and that is the reason scientists are still interested.  This will lay the foundation for bigger missions and also open up new possibilities of international networking and support for planetary programs," the ISRO said in a statement published on its web site.

Here are two videos…

 

 

WorldSpace Ch. 11

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

No, we’re not talking about WorldSpace channel 11 ("Radio Voyager") here. We’re talking about Case Number 08-12412, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by WorldSpace, the pioneering satellite radio service available in Africa and Asia. The board of directors voted unanimously to file for it.

 

 

In the U.S., we’ve all heard about Sirius XM Radio and their 18 million subscribers. Turns out WorldSpace has yet to break a million, according to the Wall Street Journal report:

The company, which broadcasts its satellite radio services to more than 170,000 paid subscribers in 10 countries throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, sought Chapter 11 protection in the U.S Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. It listed assets of $307.4 million and liabilities of $2.12 billion.

The bulk of that debt, some $1.8 billion, is a contingent obligation under a royalty deal if the company’s pretax earnings reach a certain level, according to company spokeswoman Judith Pryor.

In court papers, Chief Executive Noah A. Samara said the company was forced to file for bankruptcy after seeking four forbearance agreements with its noteholders since June.

In addition, WorldSpace has failed to pay some of its workers for two months, causing "significant employee attrition," Mr. Samara said. The company owes 50 "critical employees" $1.35 million in back pay.

"As a result of WorldSpace’s growing concern regarding its inability to make timely payments to critical employees and other essential creditors, WorldSpace determined that it is in its best interests and the best interests of its subsidiaries and stakeholders to file these chapter 11 proceedings," said Mr. Samara, one of the key figures in the early stages of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

The company, which intends to sell off its assets or recapitalize the business, is seeking court approval of a $13 million bankruptcy loan provided by a group of hedge funds to continue operating while under bankruptcy-court protection.

Worldspace was founded in 1990 with the intent to provide satellite radio services to the emerging markets of Asia and Africa. The company has two satellites currently in orbit and a third in storage.

Among the WorldSpace’s so called first-day motions the company is asking to secure the bankruptcy loan and use some of that funding to pay its employees. The company is also seeking the continued use of its bank accounts.

Without the bankruptcy financing, the remaining critical employees will likely depart, which would "impair" WorldSpace’s ability to operate the satellites and continue as a going concern, Samara said.

Yenura Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based company controlled by Mr. Samara, is WorldSpace’s largest unsecured creditor, owed $55.2 million. Number 2 is Micronas GmbH, owed $18.2 million, and Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, owed $4.4 million.

Mr. Samara is the largest shareholder of the Silver Spring, Md. company, owning 47.15% of the firm. Aletheia Research & Management Inc., owning 37% percent, and Natixis Asset Management Advisor LP, owning 5.25%, are the other major shareholders of WorldSpace.

 

170,000 subscribers? And they’ve paid to build and launch two satellites? AfriStar launch in 1998, so I’m wondering how they could have kept going for the last ten years on so few paying subscribers.  Probably the dedication of Noah Samara, their CEO and founder. His speech before the African Development Forum in 1999 tells you something about what moved him (it’s so good I need to present it all):

The urgent imperative of our time and of this continent is the creation of an affluent African Information Society. I will speak to this need today. And I will be brief.

Over the past 15 years, we have seen the industrialized world shift its focus from connecting people to connecting nodes of information which people can universally access, share and grow. Focus on convergence technologies has brought unprecedented benefit and wealth resulting from net media or, if you will, information affluence.

In contrast, the developing world has focused on teledensity and lines per 1000 in its quest for universal access. The focus has been universal access to telephony and not to the electronic consciousness of mankind, more popularly known as the Internet. Accordingly, the progress in teledensity has not yielded the corresponding benefits and wealth which information affluence has created for the industrialized world.

Indeed, the information gap between nations is going through a quantum leap. It is volatile and threatens to explode into an irreparable gulf between rich and poor nations.

Developing efficient and effective ways to create information-affluent societies is the need for every need. I have pursued this vision with a sense of purpose and urgency; it animates my being and instructs my energies. Information affluence is, in my humble opinion, the sine-qua-non to development. Have it and wealth and development will follow. Without it, our attempt to alleviate poverty, bring health, wealth and education – indeed our attempt to create a sustainable, compassionate, civilization will be without success.

Information is the predicate to everything we know. It is ubiquitous. It is the building block behind the human DNA, the chair you are sitting on, the building you are in, the car you drive.

Look behind the wealth of nations and of individuals and — again — you will find information. Information about processes, techniques and organizations.

Look behind the poverty of individuals and nations and you will find ignorance.

The state of global information is the best allegory for the state of our planet. The gap between poor and rich has been made starker, not better, by the power of information and communications technologies.

While these technologies have liberated lives, created stock market miracles and improved economies, they have only touched a fraction of the world’s population.

An abyss is in the process of formation.

Nearly 2.5 billion people have never made a phone call; yet Manhattan alone has more phones than all those combined in sub-Saharan Africa. While there is a radio station for every thirty thousand people in most OECD countries, on average there is one radio station for every two million people in most of the developing world. There are more Internet hosts in Estonia than all of sub-Saharan Africa. The hardware disparity between poor and rich nations is not nearly as troubling as the scarcity of information which directly undermines the ability of a nation to not only keep its citizens informed and educated, but to simply keep them alive. 11 million people will die of AIDS this year in Sub-Saharan Africa. 40 million children will be orphaned. Either one of those numbers, by any definition, represents the population of an entire country. This is horror we do not really comprehend.

Asked about concerns he might have at the loss of thousands of citizens, Stalin is said to have once remarked that a single death is a tragedy; but a million a mere statistic.

Stalin was a bad man. We all agree he was ruthless, unmoved by human suffering. But does his comment reflect on him or is his an insight about all of us?

Consider the story of Yaguine Koita and Fode Tounkara – two boys from Guinea, ages 14 and 15. Eight weeks ago they tried to escape the turmoil and poverty of their homeland by sneaking on board the landing gear of a Sabena airliner. They died somewhere between Conakry and Brussels in the unpressurized compartment where the temperature at that altitude is 55 degrees below zero.

A letter they were carrying in their clothing read:

"Help us. We suffer a lot in Africa. We have no rights as children. We have no food. We have war and illness. We have schools but lack education. We want to study so we can be like you, in Africa. "

Their story was carried in every newspaper throughout Europe. It even made the Washington Post where I read about it.

A single death is a tragedy. Eleven million people will die this year from AIDS alone in Africa. How many thousand people do you think died in the few minutes I’ve been standing before you? Does it matter? It is after all a statistic!

But Yaguine and Fode’s death – that is eloquent. To me it is more than poignant.

You see, I was born in Africa and left when I was 17, like Yaguine and Fode, in search of education. I did so weeks before a revolution, a period of terror, in Ethiopia killed many of my close friends.

But for the Grace of God, I could have gone the way of my friends.

Instead, I stand before this august assembly of distinction and achievement to speak on the urgency of creating information affluence for the dispossessed. What can I tell you that the death of Yaguine and Fode has not already conveyed? This is an imperative we must address. It is the same imperative that led me to founding WorldSpace fewer than 10 years ago.

The vision of founding WorldSpace was partly driven by a desire to stem the spread of AIDS in Africa. I felt that an efficient, cost effective system could be developed to deliver a variety of information across a whole continent, clearly and consistently. After sketching this idea, literally, on the back of a napkin, I went to my wife to tell her I was quitting my job as an up and coming legal and business advisor in the communications and satellite industry. "Right, Like hell you will" she said.

I said, no, no, no, no; this is important. I want to launch a satellite over Africa," I told her. She obviously thought I was crazy.

So in the hope of getting her consent, I told her this would be a piece of cake — easy and straightforward. You see all you have to do is:

  • Start a company
  • Apply for licenses
  • Raise capital
  • Get 130 countries to allocate frequencies
  • Get great engineers to design the system
  • Get great companies to build/launch the system
  • Get more companies to make/distribute millions of receivers

Needless to say, it took longer than I thought and it cost more than I thought. But we did start the company; got licenses; got 130 countries to allocate the choicest part of the radio spectrum globally for the service; and raised the money needed to build and launch the system. Starting this month, world brand manufacturers are distributing the receivers throughout Africa.

This is the first satellite ever launched specifically to cover Africa — something I am particularly proud of. The service is also the first of its kind and is being introduced in Africa two years before it gets to America.

The second satellite will be launched in a few months over Asia; soon after a third will cover Latin America in the largest footprint for a direct broadcast service ever created by a single company.

Simply stated, these satellites will broadcast 60 plus channels or radio stations directly to a new generation of receivers. No satellite dish is necessary; just a simple antenna on the receiver.

The receivers can also be connected to a computer to deliver a full-blown, internet-like multimedia content. This is important because the growth of internet-capable PC’s in the developing world is outstripping the capacity of the telephone infrastructure. The WorldSpace system can deliver gigabytes of information to computers without the need of a phone, direct via the receiver.

The service will carry music, information and entertainment. And we are dedicating capacity to carry content addressing women’s issues, environmental initiatives, health advisories and distance education. The system’s data delivery capability can be used to :

  • broadcast the entire school curriculum of a whole nation or an entire continent;
  • reach health professionals on a regular basis with information on pandemics, epidemics and share experiences of successes and failures;
  • telecommute agriculture extension programs;
  • reach women with solutions that address their needs in family planing or entrepreneurial training;
  • reach societies at large to think creatively about their environment and its input on the delicate balance of our planet; and
  • help the youth to reach their counterparts with initiatives, with their dreams.

We believe information is the key to change stark realities that are facing the peoples of the developing world.

WorldSpace is a business with a mission: namely, to create an infrastructure that will provide hundreds of millions of people with access to information. WorldSpace realizes there are 20 million households across Africa that are able to afford and utilize its system for a fee here and a fee there that soon adds up to real money.

But we cannot and will not be oblivious to the fact that more than 350 million people on this continent will not be able to access any information unless we do something about it.

At the end of the day, life is somewhat digital. You have either done something, or you have not. The word trying is a euphemism. In the harsh reality of existence the gray dissipates into a stark relief of black and white. I will not belabor the struggle, the lonliness, the humiliation and the failures we faced at WorldSpace throughout this decade-long journey.

But I can unequivocally tell you that I never doubted – even for an instant – that Africa had to have, indeed deserved, an infrastructure specifically tailored to meet its needs.

In the Book of Ecclesiastes it is written that "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding." In the end life and what we make of it comes down to human will.

It is in our power to bring information affluence to Africa. It is in our hands to make it happen.

Consider the following proposal: Every constituency in this august hall decides to work on a single initiative and this is the initiative: We put 5 million internet terminals in 5 million villages and neighborhoods in 5 fast-paced years. These terminals will have the capacity to deliver primary-to-college education; teach women to become bread-winners for their homes; teach health professionals how to address the pressing health needs in their areas. Maybe the system might even engender understanding between the variagated peoples of this, our beloved continent. It can be done if we want it so badly that we decide to work tenaciously and with a singularity of purpose.

We are doing just that at WorldSpace. We have embarked on a study with the Ethiopian Media Agency to put receivers in every school and attach these receivers to computers and printers. In addition to delivering the curriculum for each school, the units would address the needs of the other constituencies attached to the schools: like women, health professionals, farmers etc…. Each such unit may thus touch the lives of over 200 people — improving their physical well-being, their mental capabilities and their spiritual lives. We are interested in carrying this initiative to other countries in Africa. I once read that Mother Teresa said, "God doesn’t require us to succeed; He only requires that we try." You know she is right. Because in his boundless mercy, the God of big and small things sees into our hearts and souls and judges us by our intent as well as our actions.

History, by contrast, has no compassion whatsoever. Our attempts, and our intent mean nothing to history. Our well-intentioned efforts will not even earn us a footnote.

I am here to speak for industry at this august opening ceremony. Instead, permit me to speak to industry, to governments and to civil society. My message is simple: creating social and economic development in Africa is not about me and it’s not about you. It’s about getting it done. The Prime Minister hit it on the nail at our opening ceremony: by providing for the future of the dispossessed, we will secure our own and that of our families.

Our technology is digital and so is our task. It’s zero or one; we are either on or off; we have gotten it done or we have not.

Here’s what we might see if we get it done, however. Yaguine and Fode’s death will not happen in the next millennium. They would not have to leave their home in search of education. They would find it in the comfort of their village or their homes.

Why can’t we all come together on an initiative that would put us much closer in saying Yaguine and Fode will not die in the next millennium?

We should agree to act, believing that we have a lot more power to effect change, both individually and collectively. I for one have learned never to underestimate where a napkin, a handful of people and commitment can take you.

The great anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, she says, "It is the only thing that ever has."

Rainer Maria Rilke said it differently, beautifully:

Again and again in history some special people wake up
They have no ground in the crowd
They move to broader laws
They carry strange customs with them, demand room
        for bold and audacious actions
The future speaks ruthlessly through them
They change the world!

Change, commitment, resolve all center around the courage that affirms our lives or ideas in spite of all that threatens our lives or ideas! True courage or conviction is neither an opinion nor deterred by one. Rather it is a state of being.

I have no fear to stand alone in my conviction that change towards a compassionate sustainable civilization is not only possible, but inevitable. But I know there is a group of us out there and in this room that are rooted in the conviction that the shortest road to our goal is the creation of an information-affluent African society. Together we will honor our ancestors by creating the greatest of patrimony for our progeny.

The question for you, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, is not whether the inevitable will happen; but whether your fingerprint will be among that small group of thoughtful, committed people who actually changed the world.

Just as moving today as it was nearly a decade ago. Let’s hope there’s some way this company can right itself and continue on with its noble mission. Maybe they’ll get some help from O3b Networks.

Ethan Zuckerman called him "…one of the most charming and inspiring men I’ve met in recent years" on his My Heart’s in Accra blog last June.

Gunter’s Space Page tells us more about the spacecraft they use, an Alcatel payload using an Astrium bus:

Broadcasters have access to the satellite, via either a small individual station, or a central hub station. Leading edge techniques are used to transmit the digital and compressed programmes to the satellite. The satellite will send these programs directly to the public. Each satellite carries an innovative payload that implement baseband processing – appearing for the first time in a commercial programme – and a more conventional and "transparent" payload.

The dual payload carried by WorIdSpace satellites has been designed by Alcatel Space at its Toulouse premises to supply the highest possible digital broadcasting performance and the highest level of reliability throughout the satellites lifetime. On board base-band processing Authorizes direct satellite access to a multitude of individual stations on one-third of the planet, without having to contribute to costly links towards an access “hub”. Thus, a small local station in Africa can broadcast throughout the continent. The conventional payload enables major radiobroadcasters to pool their resources and reduce operating costs.

The high L band power is achieved by a pair of 150 watt traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA) operating in parallel. The ability to set frequencies, in both reception and transmission, makes the System very flexible. In orbit antenna reconfiguration allows antenna coverage optimization and enables one satellite to replace another whenever necessary.

 

 

 

Bread & Satellites

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

If you’ve spent some time in Ann Arbor, Michigan, you may have come across a Zingerman’s — a host of specialty foods delis, restaurants and related businesses. They’re known for having one of the best mail-order breads in the U.S.

 

 

The University of Michigan’s Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory is working on a micro-satellite about the size of a loaf of bread. The story, via Space Daily, gives us more:

U.S. scientists say they are developing a satellite about the size of a loaf of bread that will be deployed to study space weather.

The National Science Foundation-funded project called Radio Explorer, or RAX, is being led by the University of Michigan and the SRI International Corp., a California independent research and technology development organization.

The satellite, called CubeSat, is to be the first free-flying spacecraft, and will be built, in part, by members of the university’s Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory.

CubeSats are approximately 4-inch cube-shaped devices that launch from inside a P-Pod — a special rocket attachment developed by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University.

The RAX satellite will essentially be made of three CubeSats and will measure the energy flow in the Earth’s ionosphere, where solar radiation turns regular atoms into charged particles.

"This project will help us better understand space weather processes, how the Earth and sun interact and how this weather produces noise in space communication signals — noise that translates to lower quality telecommunications capabilities and error in GPS signals," said Assistant Professor James Cutler, a co-principal investigator with physicist Hasan Bahcivan of SRI.

The grants from the National Science Foundation, who use a less-imaginative "half gallon carton of milk" metaphor, hopes to develop more student interest in space, too:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant to SRI International, an independent non-profit research and development organization based in Menlo Park, Calif., to carry out the first space weather CubeSat mission.

CubeSats are tiny satellites with dimensions of 10��10��10 centimeters, weighing about 1 kilogram, and typically using commercial off-the-shelf electronics components.

Developed through joint efforts, California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University introduced CubeSats to academia as a way for universities throughout the world to enter the realm of space science and exploration.

According to atmospheric scientists, CubeSats have the potential to be excellent platforms for technology development and small science missions, and promote student involvement in design, fabrication and flight missions.

"One of the goals is to help train future space scientists and aerospace engineers," said Therese Moretto Jorgensen, program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences. "CubeSats will also help answer questions in space weather such as the cause of disturbances in the ionosphere, and the rise and decay of the Earth’s radiation belts during geomagnetic storms."

 

 

SRI International’s team will include many, including support from NASA:

“SRI is excited about the NSF contract, and working in collaboration with the University of Michigan,” said Hasan Bahcivan, research physicist at SRI International. “This program provides a cost effective way to support space weather and atmospheric research. It is also well positioned to provide excellent training opportunities for students that hope to become engineers or scientists. We expect 20 to 30 students to take significant roles in the design, development, and science operations of the satellite.”

The project’s mission is designed to remotely explore small-scale ionization structures in the form of plasma turbulence that occurs in response to intense electrical currents in the space environment. The structures can adversely impact communication and navigation signals by perturbing the refractive index along the signal propagation paths. By utilizing signals from powerful transmitters on the ground and receiving the scattered signals in space, researchers are achieving effective and powerful space-based radar to probe these structures, which would be expensive to accomplish via a stand-alone satellite radar. 

"We have a multidisciplinary, cross-departmental team working on the project, that includes several engineers and faculty, and a large number of undergraduate and graduate students," said James Cutler, an assistant professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. "My research laboratory will be partnering with several space-related classes and the Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory (S3FL) to build and fly RAX."   

The first launch opportunity for the NSF satellite program will be with the Department of Defense Space Test Program, and is scheduled for December 2009 aboard a Minotaur-4 launch vehicle out of Kodiak, Alaska. Commissioning and launch support for the mission will be provided by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility.

This is the kind of government support we need to develop the future of rocket science.

 

Looks Like Kutztown

Friday, October 10th, 2008

 

Copyright © 2008 GeoEye
Copyright © 2008 GeoEye

 

GeoEye-1’s first image released of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania:

GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a premier provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, released today the first, color half-meter ground resolution image taken from its GeoEye-1 satellite. The satellite has been undergoing calibration and check-out since it was launched on Sept. 6 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The Company will begin selling GeoEye-1 imagery products later this fall.

The Kutztown University image shows the campus, which includes academic buildings, parking lots, roads, athletic fields and the track-and-field facility. The image was collected at 12:00 p.m. EDT on Oct. 7, 2008 while GeoEye-1 was moving north to south in a 423-mile-high (681 km) orbit over the eastern seaboard of the U.S. at a speed of four-and-one-half miles per second. GeoEye-1 was built by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Gilbert, Ariz. The imaging system was built by ITT in Rochester, NY.

 

India, to the Moon!

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

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.