Really Rocket Science

‘Star Drunk,’ a film by drunk people

Written drunk. Acted drunk.

Star Drunk is the sequel to the viral short film ‘Cleverbot: Do You Love Me.’ Star Drunk is an experiment in writing a short film while drunk; several writers from Portland got together one night to write the script. We promised each other that whatever we wrote that night, we’d produce as a short film. We ended up creating a Star Trek-Star Wars-Battlestar Galactica’esque parody with laser gun fights and space battles. Taking the concept a step further (and stranger), we asked our cast to be drunk on the night of filming. [email protected]

For those saying that we faked all of this, here’s some proof that everyone was drunk. Some behind the scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snQofXtdxr4 The Captain: Greg James LaBeef: Adam Elliot Davis Gorgonzolla: Kyle Smith Kaylee: Britt Harris Ryan: Alexander Fraser Dee: Bethany Jacobs Directed by Chris R Wilson and Zach Persson Written by Chris R Wilson, Zach Persson, Jacqueline Gault, Tim Feeney, Roman Battan and Josh Persson Concept by Chris R Wilson and Roman Battan Produced by Hollie Olson Director of Photography – Phil Anderson Camera Operators – Phil Anderson, Christopher Jayawardena, Janaka Jayawardena Sound – Tim Kahn Visual Effects by Chris R Wilson and Zach Persson Additional Crew: Susan Funk Austin Caylor Coltron James Roman Battan Sponsored by New Deal Distillery(they gave us amazing booze).

Thank you to the cast for your willingness to put yourself out there like this! We love you, Steve Coker.

Yup, it’s happening: a minor geomagnetic storm.

A shock in the solar wind passed earth late on October 8 (UTC) bringing unanticipated G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm activity. The brunt of the disturbance is expected through the early hours of October 9 (UTC), then followed by a second pulse later on October 9.

This image from the Gaspe Region of Quebec is from 02:00 UTC on 9 October 2013…

Courtesy of Gino Audet.

Courtesy of Gino Audet

The above review piece on the movie “Gravity” agrees with Leroy Chiao’s OpEd on CNN. Love the bit about orbital mechanics…

The physics of reality spaceflight are also boring. Orbital mechanics can be quite complex. Maneuvers and orbit changes are performed precisely and deliberately, and take some time. Much more exciting to have spacecraft “fly” like winged jet fighters in space, like in “Star Wars.” How boring would those battle scenes have been had their maneuvers been technically accurate?

Why is CNN doing so much around this film? It’s a Warner Bros. film! Regardless, I’d go see it. Here’s the official trailer…

Love this new TV spot from GE, directed by David Gordon Green.

Will he be the director for the next Star Trek film?

As of 4 October 2013 Eutelsat has ceased operating and SES is operating on frequencies at 28.5 degrees East following arbitration in September and preliminary injunction by regional civil court of Bonn.
[Yahoo Finance – 10/04/2013]

SES authorizes shipment of SES-8 to Cape Canaveral for planned launch by SpaceX on Falcon 9 despite insurer’s concern that Falcon 9 did not meet all objectives in September 29 test flight, failing second ignition of upper-stage engine.
[Space News – 10/04/2013]

Company A, 53RD Signal Battalion at Fort Detrick hosts international partners to discuss memorandum of understanding between the partners related to global satellite communications.
[dcmilitary.com – 10/04/2013]

The U.S. and Japan Pledge Closer Cooperation on Space Surveillance.
[Space News – 10/04/2013]

The Kazakh government is on track to leverage its contract with Astrium of Europe into an ability to build and operate optical Earth observation satellites, according to the company managing the work.
[Space News – 10/04/2013]

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) on Oct. 4 said it had signed an agreement with Teledyne Brown Engineering of the United States to place the first commercial Earth observation payload on the international space station (ISS) in late 2015.
[Space News – 10/04/2013]

The company created to sell commercial launch services aboard Ukrainian rockets operated from a Brazilian equatorial spaceport is seeking to persuade skeptics that it is finally nearing launch readiness.
{Space News – 10/04/2013]

SES announces successful launch of ASTRA 2E satellite aboard an ILS Proton Breeze M booster.
[Satellite Spotlight – 10/03/2013]

The fifth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite which was launched in May has completed on-orbit testing and is being operated by the U.S. Air Force, increasing coverage for warfighters.
[AEROSPACE Manufacturing and Design – 10/03/2013]

Intelsat feels impact of U.S. budget crisis, warning investors that usual end-of-fiscal-year spike in U.S. Defense Department spending on satellite =bandwidth will be absent this year.
[Space News – 10/03/2013]

Swiss company finalizes plans with Canada to launch space junk cleanup satellite on Swiss space plane in 2018.
[Yahoo News – 10/03/2013]

O3b returns second group of four satellites to manufacturer in Italy for testing following cancellation of late-September launch due to signal power anomaly on the first four satellites.
[Space News – 10/03/2013]

Launch preparations are back on for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter despite the U.S. government shutdown that has idled all but 500 or so of NASA’s 18,000 civil servants.
[Space News – 10/03/2013]

Russian government pushes ahead with massive investment in a new cosmodrome in the Russian Far East as part of strategy to reduce dependence on Baikonur in Kazakhstan and stimulate investment in Far East.
[Space News – 10/03/2013]

Interference Reduction Group executive says interference battle has “long way to go.”
[Via Satellite – 10/03/2013]

Lockheed Martin powers on GOES-R system module for the first time.
[Via Satellite – 10/03/2013]

Optus signs new contract with Western Australia government to deliver satellite services through its Aurora Digital Viewer Access Satellite Television platform.
[IT Wire – 10/03/2013]

Small-satellite manufacturer Andrews Space sells third satellite to unidentified customer as addition to earlier two-satellite order, with all three to be delivered in 2014.
[Space News – 10/03/2013]

UltiSat will provide several nongovernmental organizations with global managed satellite network solutions.
[Via Satellite – 10/03/2013]

KVH wins two prestigious National Marine Electronics Association product awards.
[Hispanic Business – 10/03/2013]

Arianespace’s next dual-payload heavy lift mission scheduled for mid-December begins assembly at spaceport in French Guiana, for payloads from SES and HISPASAT. [SatNews – 10/03/2013]

Asset-tracking provider Orbcomm Inc. said it has acquired Comtech Mobile Data Corp.’s Satellite-Enabled Notification System.
[Transport Topics – 10/02/2013]

Pullmantur Cruises, a Royal Caribbean International brand, renews and extends long-term contract with MTN Communications for enhanced onboard suite of connectivity options and expansion of broadband satellite services.
[SatNews – 10/02/2013]

Comtech EF Data completes interoperability testing with selection of Cobham SATCOM Maritime VSAT stabilized antenna systems and the ROSS Open Antenna Management protocol to enhance maritime connectivity.
[Yahoo Finance – 10/02/2013]

Raytheon Co. wins $33.4 million contract with U.S. Air Force to modernize satellite communication systems for nuclear missile launch control sites.
[Executive Biz – 10/02/2013]

ThinKom’s ultra-low profile ThinSAT 300 antenna and iDirect’s OpenAMIP protocol are now interoperable.
[Via Satellite – 10/02/2013]

Government shutdown affects Landsat program – Landsat 7 and 8 will continue to collect data which will be archived by U.S. Geological Survey, but will not be processed into data scientists and businesses are used to working with.
[Nextgov – 10/01/2013]

NSR report projects satellite-based Earth Observation market to reach $6 billion by 2022, driven by commercial vertical markets.
[Financial Content – 10/01/2013]

EchoStar and GVT will form joint venture in Brazilian pay TV market.
[Via Satellite – 10/01/2013]

October issue of Satellite Executive Briefing includes “Satellite Industry Remains Stable . . For now” by Elisabeth Tweedie; “Case Study: Remote Monitoring of Leased Equipment;” “A Ripening ‘Satellite Nation’” by Lou Zacharilla, and “ICT and the Hydrocarbons MarketPlace” by Marin Jarrold.
[Satellite Markets – October 2013]

GATR gets $440 million contract as U.S. Army awards $4.7 billion in year-end communications contracts.
[Nextgov – 09/30/2013]

Harris Corporation delivers system to prepare NOAA satellite operators for next-generation GOES-R satellites.
[Satellite Spotlight – 09/30/2013]

Eutelsat and SEBS Net connect Montenegro’s police HQ and border controls with OneAccess satellite router solution.
[Yahoo Finance – 09/30/2013]

Members of Space Concordia’s ConSat-2 pit their skills against those of nine other teams in the second Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.
[Concordia – 09/30/2013]

Researchers will spend the next two years gathering meteorological data from Svalbard in the north to Nittedal in the south to update currently available statistical information about how much satellite signals are adversely affected by meteorological conditions.
[PHYS.org – 09/30/2013]

Linx Technologies announces launch of its GM Series Global Navigation Satellite System receiver module capable of simultaneously acquiring and tracking several satellite constellations.
[R&D Magazine – 09/30/2013]

Ukrainian President Yanukovych approves national space program for 2013-2017 that includes the launch of three satellites.
[intercfax – Ukraine – 09/30/2013]

NSR report analyzes key elements for satellite-based SCADA/M2M platforms in terms of shifting markets, cost considerations, application targets and end user requirements. [SatNews – 09/30/2013]

Cassiope, a Canadian satellite, was launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 on Sunday to study the effect of solar storms on radio communications, satellite navigation and other ground-based technologies.
[CBC – 09/29/2013]

FSS experts warn of industry struggle in new Morgan Stanley report, predicting the sector has “entered a ‘no-growth’ cycle, and that returns will likely decline over the next few years.”
[Via Satellite – 09/27/2013]

Singapore Airlines takes to the skies with its first eight new Boeing 777-300ERs equipped with Panasonic Avionics Corporation’s true broadband Wi-Fi, mobile phone service and inflight entertainment.
[Via Satellite – 09/27/2013]

Commercial SATCOM is critical to the military’s future; it already meets 80 percent of DOD’s SATCOM needs.
[Defense One – 09/25/2013]

WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services

U.S. Air Force considers commercial satellite lease covering western Africa to demonstrate willingness of Defense Department to break outmoded and inefficient buying habits, as industry hopefully anticipates decision.
[Space News – 09/27/2013]

Cyugnus capsule – Space News

Orbital Sciences Corp’s Cygnus capsule now slated for Sunday berthing at ISS.
[Space News – 09/27/2013]

SES’ Astra 2E satellite slated for launch on September 30.
[Yahoo Finance – 09/27/2013]

Soyz/Fregat rocket – Space News

Latest delay of planned Russian Soyuz/Fregat launch in December underscores issue for small-satellite owners.
[Space News – 09/27/2013]

Telecom New Zealand is awarded contract to establish and manage one of Inmarsat’s Pacific Ocean Region satellite access stations for Global Xpress.
[TelcoReview – 09/27/2013]

Thales Alenia Space gets contract to operate, support and maintain Europe’s GPS satellite navigation overlay system for 8 years for more than 120 million euros.
[Space News – 09/27/2013]

Both DirecTV and Dish are open to the idea of a DirecTV-Dish merger, but such a merger would likely face regulatory hurdles.
[Satellite Markets & Research – 09/27/2013]

The International Telecommunication Union on Sept. 27 warned owners of small satellites that they are not exempt from the rules that bind the rest of the satellite industry.
[Space News – 09/27/2013]

Microspace Communications celebrates its 25th anniversary, having built a network that comprises over a quarter of a million independent locations throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
[PRWeb – 09/27/2013]

Russia’s two principal commercial satellite-fleet operators, RSCC and Gazprom, will invest heavily in consumer Ka-band satellites to provide satellite broadband across Russia.
[Space News – 09/26/2013]

Orange Business Services is providing secure satellite VPN services to improve communication between the Russian headquarters of Nordgold and its mines in Guinea and West Africa. [SYS-CON Media – 09/26/2013]

H2A launch – Space News

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Tokyo gets breakthrough contract to launch the Telstar 12 Vantage telecommunications satellite for Telstar.
[Space News – 09/26/2013]

Galileo satellite – Space News

Ground testing delays push back initial operational Galileo launch well into 2014.
[Space News – 09/26/2013]

IDATE releases latest edition of its report devoted to the future of TV, predicting changes in viewer behavior and evolving business models as the new industry player hierarchy is now taking shape.
[Satellite Markets & Research – 09/26/2013]

The first of the three Astrium-built Swarm research satellites is on its way to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia on an Ilyushin-76 aircraft.
[Satellite Evolution Group – 09/26/2013]

iDirect Government Technologies’ Evolution TRANSEC meets the Department of Defense’s transmission security requirements.
[Via Satellite – 09/26/2013]

DigiGone video communications system and software platform is approved for use with Thuraya’s IP terminals.
[MarineLinke.com – 09/26/2013]

LEO Television Network of Pakistan has commenced distributing three television channels on AsiaSat 3S.
[Satellite Evolution Group – 09/26/2013]

L-3 TRL Technology is working with Avanti Communications to provide secure high-speed0 Ka-band satellite services to government and military agencies. [Yahoo Finance – 09/25/2013]

MEASAT’s Senior Vice President – Space Systems Development Dr. Ali R. Ebadi receives 2013 Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
[SatNews – 09/25/2013]

Lockheed Martin submitted its competitive proposal for the U.S. Air Force’s Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) initiative aimed at leveraging commercial satellites for some government missions.
[Via Satellite – 09/25/2013]

Satellite built by University of Hawaii students is headed into space courtesy of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program. [University of Hawaii System News – 09/25/20]

Colorado flopd damage – GCN

Army Air National Guard units use variety of devices to communicate during Colorado flood efforts, including pocket-sized satellite communicator and personal tracking devices.
[GCN – 09/25/2013]

Despite expected hits to satcom due to government and military budget cuts, government and military satellite communications are expected to reach $5 billion in revenue growth by 2022 according to NSR report.
[SatNews – 09/24/2013]

Space shuttle Atlantis – Space News

SpaceX, which had been seeking exclusive use of old space shuttle launch pad at Cape Canaveral, now says it would make the pad available to NASA and other users if it is allowed to lease the facility.
[Space News – 09/24/2013]

U.N. Broadband Commission releases latest country-by-country data on the state of broad-band access worldwide.
[Via Satellite – 09/24/2013]

Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) acquires STM, Global IP and Vodanet Brasil.
[Via Satellite – 09/24/2013]

Arianespace, one of the sponsors of the Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC) 2013, will use the platform to reaffirm its position as the benchmark satellite launch services provider in the region.
[ISPCS – 09/24/2013]

COM DEV Europe’s satellite terminal passes important milestone in completing inter-satellite communication link.
[Yahoo Finance – 09/24/2013]

SES and Arqiva sign multiple transponder contract.
[Satellite Spotlight – 09/24/2013]

Blue Sky Network, a supplier of satellite tracking and communication solutions for aviation, land and marine, has launched the HawkEye 7200 portable M2M tracking solution.
[Via Satellite – 09/24/2013]

Global Eagle Entertainment and THAICOM announce Memo of Understanding to offer in-flight connectivity services in the Asia-Pacific region.
[Yahoo Finance – 09/23/2013]

Telenor Satellite Broadcasting’s new CEO highlights Maritime as a major growth opportunity.
[Via Satellite – 09/23/2013]

Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and Hummerlton Security Services (HSS) have signed a multi-transponder agreement on ABS 2 and ABS 3 satellites.
[Via Satellite – 09/23/2013]

StarTimes Communications Network Technology of China signs 10-year capacity agreement with SES to expand TV reach in Africa on SES 5.
[Via Satellite – 09/23/2013]

Harris Broadcast to automate upgraded HD playout and content management center of Tel Aviv’s SatLink.
[Via Satellite – 09/23/2013]

General Dynamics gets $15 million contract to provide up to 80 Ku-Band terminals with Ka-Band and X-Band conversion kits to the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for an evaluation of Comms on the Move effort.
[Signal online – 09/23/2013]

Boeing sends protected government signal through ViaSat-1 commercial Ka-band satellite.
[Hispanic Business – 09/23/2013]

Australia’s Abbott is expected to appoint former head of Telstra to lead the NBN Co., after the entire board resigned on Monday.
[The Satellite – 09/23/2013]

Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Cygnus capsule docking with ISS aborted due to computer data link trouble.
[R&D Magazine – 09/22/2013]

 WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services

This is totally awesome: using optical analysis to replicate recorded sound from old media (wax, paper, vinyl).

Read about Carl Haber’s MacArthur Fellowship…

Carl Haber is an experimental physicist developing new technologies for preservation of inaccessible and deteriorating sound recordings. A vast amount of the world’s cultural heritage has been captured on fragile or obsolete recording media such as wax cylinders; shellac, lacquer, and metal discs; and tinfoil. Collections of experimental, musical, ethnographic, and historic content in libraries and museums around the world can no longer be regularly accessed by the public and are in danger of being lost forever.

Using insights from his work on imaging subatomic particle tracks in high-energy physics experiments, Haber and colleagues developed IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.), a non-contact method for extracting high-quality sound from degrading or even broken analog recordings on two- or three-dimensional media. A disc or cylinder is placed in a precision optical metrology system, where a camera following the path of the grooves on the object takes thousands of images that are then cleaned to compensate for physical damage; the resulting data are mathematically interpolated to determine how a stylus would course through the undulations, and the stylus motion is converted into a standard digital sound file.

How long before somebody dumbs-down the tech to make it affordable for regular people to optically scan their old records and convert them to MP3s in seconds instead of babysitting the analog conversion.

How cool would that be?

We get the frog photobomb from Wallops, but I can’t seem to find the armadillo getting toasted at The Cape (at 0:23)…

CBS Baltimore reports on the Comet ISON, which could prove to be quite a spectacle. The northern hemisphere, for example, will get to see the comet around 11 December 2013

The comet was discovered by ISON (Пулковская кооперация оптических наблюдателей), hence the naming. NASA Science put together this story, explaining it comprehensively…

So it all depends on whether the Sun obliterates it on the go-around.

Remember to check the Hubble ISONblog for updates.

SES 8 launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 suffering delays – Space News
Launch providers say the market is in state of chronic oversupply – satellite operators see another side of the coin, as they experience launch delays and struggle to secure launches.
[Space News – 09/20/2013]

Eutelsat’s ‘smart LNB’, a new-generation electronic feed connected to an antenna with an embedded transmitter for a new broadcasting ecosystem, wins EUsatcom innovation award.
[Satellite Spotlight – 09/20/2013]

ViaSat 1 broadband satellite – Via Satellite

Boeing demonstrates potential for military to access more communications pathways at lower cost, transmitting a government-developed, frequency-hopping signal through a commercial satellite.
[Via Satellite – 09/19/2013]

All 11 UHF, S, C and Ku-band transponders of India’s first exclusive defence satellite GSAT-7 have been turned on and are operating normally.
[India TV News – 09/19/2013]

European Space Agency delivers its SuperSites Exploitation Platform designed to enable the analysis and interpretation of large volumes of satellite data in order to better understand the processes causing geohazards.
[Satellite Evolution Group – 09/19/2013]

SES and CETel sign multi-transponder capacity deal to provide service to meet escalating demand in the Middle East.
[Yahoo Finance – 09/19/2013]

Orbital Sciences Antares Rocket – R&D Magazine

Orbital Sciences launches its first ever supply ship to ISS, becoming second private company to do so.
[R&D Magazine – 09/18/2013]

MIlitary satellite – Defense One

The PLA of China and the Pentagon are both testing and improving Anti-Satellite capabilities.
[Defense One – 09/18/2013]

The third Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) protected military communications satellite for the U.S. and its allies is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral.
[Space Fellowship – 09/18/2013]

OHB contracts Astrium to build German radar reconnaissance satellite to be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
[Space News – 09/08/2013]

Bentley Walker extends its service coverage towards Libya using Newtec’s Ka-band VSAT broadband platform.
[Satellite Spotlight – 09/18/2013]

Rebortbuyer.com publishes “The Global Military Satellites Market 2012-2022 – Country Analysis: Market Profile” offering detailed analysis of the global Military Satellites Market over the next ten years.
[News Channel 5 – 09/18/2013]

NASA photo – R&D Magazine

MIT researchers are investigating how space weather may affect components of geostationary satellites.
[R&D Magazine – 09/18/2013]

Global VSAT Forum’s VSAT certification program is expanded to West Africa with partners NetHope and iDirect.
[Green Technology World – 09/17/2013]

Algerian hopes a new contract signed by Newtec and the Algerian Telediffusion d’Algerie will boost communications infrastructure for the North African country.
[IT News Africa – 09/17/2013]

Iridium announces the first turnkey hosted payload solution, Iridium PRIME, to host third-party payloads on stand-alone satellites leveraging the connectivity afforded by the Iridium NET satellite network.
[Satellite Spotlight – 09/17/2013]

KVH signs expanded capacity agreement with SES to meet rising demand for maritime communications.
[Satellite Spotlight – 09/17/2013]

Capacity on two Eutelsat satellites mobilised by Media Broadcast for coverage of German Federal Elections.
[PR Newswire – 09/17/2013]

Latin America will be fastest growing region in the world in terms of subscriber and revenue growth in the DTH market in the next 3-5 years according to NSR report.
[NSR – 09/174/2013]

Gilat announces release of Wavestream Ka-band Matchbox mini block upconverter.
[Wall Street Journal – 09/17/2013]

Arbitral Tribunal decides that Intersystem Coordination Agreement (ICA) signed by SES and Eutelsat in 1999 does not bar SES from using disputed Ku-band spectrum where Eutelsat does not hold the “regulatory” right to operate in these bands – SES agrees that Eutelsat would use those bands where it holds “regulatory” right.
[SatNews – 09/16/2013]

Inmarsat and Onixsat Telecom partner to provide BGAN M2M service to Brazilian banking sector.
[Via Satellite – 09/16/2013]