Archive for June, 2013

Eles adoram brasileiros no Luxemburgo

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013

Nice daytime launch of a Proton-M (Протон-М) with SES-6 as the the payload. It’s a big boy: weighing in at 6,100 kg, with lots of transponders: 43 C-band and 48 Ku-band. It’s replacing the 806 spacecraft, one of the few remaining “brick” birds (LM/AS-7000). That’s a good thing to do because you never know when these might go on ya.

Besides filling it partially with what’s on 806, what are you going to do with all that capacity? You could probably wait until the 2014 World Cup to help fill it with 6 weeks of occasional business. Then what? Hey, how about a DTH business? And the players are:

  1. Net/Embratel with 8,638,984 subscribers
  2. Sky (DirecTV) = 5,144,946
  3. Oi = 792,107
  4. Telefónica/Vivo = 586,152
  5. GVT = 451,605

Oi waits for launch, then signs the contract. Anchor customer, probably. Large? Good enough.


WBMSAT Satellite Industry News Bits 05/31/2013

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

SpaceX Chairman optimistic that partially reusable rocket will accelerate reduction in launch costs that have already followed the Falcon 9 entrance into the market.
[Space News – 05/31/2013]

SES subsidiary SES Techcom supports satellite communication links with a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System using SES Ku-band capacity.
[Sat PR – 05/31/2013]

Cartrack uses ORBCOMM to provide satellite data communication services to extend its range of GSM logistics and telematics solution in Africa.
[financial news – 05/31/2013]

Today’s attempts at multi-nation initiative for human exploration beyond low earth orbit face same barriers that doomed the Euro-Russian collaboration on manned space vehicles.
[Space News – 05/31/2013]

Eutelsat launches contract free satellite TV service Freesat in Romania.
[Romania Insider – 05/31/2013]

SES 6 to be launched June 3, 2013 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by International Launch Services (ILS).
[Satellite Today – 05/30/2013]

Sri Lanka paying China Great Wall $215 million to build and launch SupremeSAT-2.
[Space News – 05/30/2013]

NASA hands over operational control of the Landsat 8 to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science Center.
[SatNews – 05/30/2013]

Norwegian Space Centre and SINTEF company MARINTEK look at how to get broadband services into the Artic regions.
[Phys Org – 05/30/2013]

North America expected to lose its status as top region for in-flight entertainment to the Asia-Pacific region within 5 years.
[Satellite Today – 05/30/2013]

Gilat to present free Webinar June 1th entitled ‘News and Entertainment Anywhere with Satellite Communications on the Move.’
[SatNews – 05/30/2013]

Galaxy Broadband Communications of Canada selects Hughes HX gateway and HX90 and HX200 satellite terminals to provide IP networks for Resource, Government, and Enterprise markets in North America.
[SatNews – 05/30/2013]

Spidersat wins contract to provide VSAT network design and provisioning to ArcelorMittal in Liberia.
[Sat PR – 05/30/2013]

NASA reactivates GOES-13 in effort to pinpoint malfunction.
[Space News – 05/29/2013]

China to provide Sri Lanka’s first communication satellite.
[UPI – 05/29/2013]

Task of monitoring global air traffic to be greatly aided since successful launch of ESA’s Proba-V satellite May 6 with the first space-based automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) system.
[Satellite Today – 05/29/2013]

Advantech Wireless selected by SAVIS Tegnologia to provide geographically redundant military satellite communication network for SISFRON, the largest border security program in Latin America.
[Satellite Today – 05/29/2013]

MDA signs contract with Canada’s Department of National Defense to support a space-based surveillance solution being developed by MDA.
[Satellite Today – 05/29/2013]

SingTel looks at selling the satellite communications arm of its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus to a private equity firm.
[smart company – 05/29/2013]

UAE and Belarus discuss ways to resolve interference between the satellite networks of the two countries in their Frequency Coordination Meeting.
[WAM -05/29/2013]

Gilat plans increased performance in the SkyEdge II-c product, with 66 Msps forward channel bandwidth.
[financial news – 05/29/2013]

Fifth WGS satellite receives first in-orbit signals.
[Satellite Today – 05/28/2013]

Pay-TV households across the globe expected to reach more than one billion before the end of 2013 according to senior analyst with Multimedia Research Group.
[Satelllite Today – 05/28/2013]

British company SATcase offers emergency satellite communication on smartphones via a smartphone case with a satellite receiver.
[Out and About Live – 05/28/2013]

Singapore-based Swire Pacific Offshore upgrades to Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband Unlimited on 65 of its vessels.
[Sacramento Bee – 05/28/2013]

SPOT Global Phone introduces satellite phones for outdoor recreation market.
[Canadian Reviewer – 05/28/2013]

Fifth WGS satellite rockets into space aboard Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
[iol scitech – 05/27/2013]

Cost of modernized GPS ground control system soars $3.4 billion above original $1.4 billion price; development delays launch of satellites.
[Nextgov – 05/26/2013]

Astronauts should fly back to earth, according to this company.
[Nextgov – 05/24/2013]

 WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services


Silk Pavillion at MIT

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

SILK PAVILION from Mediated Matter Group on Vimeo.

This is very cool.

MIT Media Lab’s Silk Pavillion is worth reading about.

The Silk Pavilion explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales.The primary structure was created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC (Computer-Numerically Controlled) machine. Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density. Overall density variation was informed by the silkworm itself deployed as a biological printer in the creation of a secondary structure. A swarm of 6,500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffold spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gaps across CNC-deposited silk fibers. Following their pupation stage the silkworms were removed. Resulting moths can produce 1.5 million eggs with the potential of constructing up to 250 additional pavilions. Affected by spatial and environmental conditions including geometrical density as well as variation in natural light and heat, the silkworms were found to migrate to darker and denser areas. Desired light effects informed variations in material organization across the surface area of the structure. A season-specific sun path diagram mapping solar trajectories in space dictated the location, size and density of apertures within the structure in order to lock-in rays of natural light entering the pavilion from South and East elevations. The central oculus is located against the East elevation and may be used as a sun-clock. Parallel basic research explored the use of silkworms as entities that can “compute” material organization based on external performance criteria. Specifically, we explored the formation of non-woven fiber structures generated by the silkworms as a computational schema for determining shape and material optimization of fiber-based surface structures.

Perspective view of the completed Silk Pavilion and the Basic Research exhibit focusing on fiber density distribution studies (far right). Image: Steven Keating.