Really Rocket Science

The FCC has proposed allowing new satellite service in the 17 and 24 gigahertz band spectrum — a proposal which, if passed, could add new competition to satellite radio and other emerging broadcast industries, Billboard Radio Monitor reports:

 In an email exchange with Billboard Radio Monitor, one high-level engineering source wrote that “the ‘Ka-Band’ frequencies (18 GHZ to 40 GHZ) usually suffer from extreme susceptibility to rain-out and fog failure conditions. On the plus side, the satellite antennas (up in orbit) can send more spot-area signals to different parts of the [continental U.S.], potentially creating individual market coverage signals, which can’t effectively be done at 2.3 GHZ.”

Radio Monitor sources and industry observers estimate that the shortest possible timetable for a new satellite service to make its way through the FCC, onto the launch pad and into space would be five or six years.

The FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for establishing a new satellite service was originally going to be part of the commission’s Open Meeting agenda but it was deleted at the last minute. Instead, the FCC’s commissioners handled the vote later in the day, with all five commissioners approving the NPRM.

An FCC press release about the Notice says the service “holds the potential of bringing a new generation of innovative satellite services to American consumers—providing a mix of video, audio, data and multimedia services to residential and business subscribers.”

There’s little doubt that satellite technology has transformed aviation. From the widespread use of GPS technology to the in-flight weather updates provided to pilots through services like XM Satellite Weather, satellite-delivered content and information has greatly increased the situational awareness of pilots and, in turn, made aviation safer.

Yet any gadget is only as useful as the underlying information, which is why the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Stereo Airfield Collection program has awarded Dulles-based GeoEye a $3.7 million contract to image 365 airfields and produce Airport Mapping Databases (AMDB) over a 12-month period:

GeoEye is now the world’s largest developer of airport geospatial information support, terrain and obstacle databases with several hundred airfields mapped to date. Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s president and chief executive officer said, "We are a leader in providing airport geospatial solutions to key customers like the NGA and the USAF at the best price and with the best performance in the industry."

An Airport Mapping Database is a geospatial database that contains significant features of an airport such as runways, taxiways, buildings, obstacles and terrain surrounding an airfield. This information supports the safe movement of aircraft and helicopters on runways and taxiways. These products can also be used to support training, mission or contingency planning and visual simulations for ordinary operations or crisis situations. GeoEye is uniquely positioned to fulfill this contract for North American and international airfields by virtue of its IKONOS satellite’s ability to generate a three-dimensional image from stereo data collected during a single orbital pass. The result is a three-dimensional map-accurate image of an airport that can be quickly and cost effectively acquired.

Do you know the way to your friendly neighborhood spaceport? Yeah, me neither. If you’re like me you probably had to first ask “what’s a spaceport?”. Well, the commercial space travel industry is heating up and spaceport — where commercial spacecraft launch, I guess — are popping up all over the place. And if you live in Oklahoma, there may be a spaceport coming to your neighborhood.

The Federal Aviation Administration has given its OK for commercial spaceflight operations at Oklahoma’s spaceport, a former military air base that is expected to begin hosting test flights of a new suborbital spacecraft next year.

“We are the planet’s newest gateway to space,” Bill Khourie, executive director of the Oklahoma Space Development Authority, told MSNBC.com after the FAA’s announcement on Tuesday.

The launch site operator license, issued Monday, gives Oklahoma an edge in the nascent space tourism industry — a market also being targeted by California, New Mexico, Florida and even Wisconsin, as well as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. However, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation would have to issue separate licenses to companies wishing to operate from Oklahoma.

With the Oklahoma spaceport scheduled to start an extensive test site schedule in 2007, one already operating in the Mojave, and activity picking up at the New Mexico site, I have jut one question. Is living near a spaceport anything like living near an airport?

Is Sirius looking to expand its product offerings? That’s the question that lingers between the lines in yesterday’s news reports that Sirius has agreed to a $260 million contract with Space Systems/Loral to launch a fourth satellite:

 Loral Space & Communications Ltd.’s (LORL) Space Systems/Loral unit, which built Sirius’s three existing in-orbit satellites and a fourth back-up satellite in storage, is constructing the new satellite – the FM-5. It is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2008. Once completed, the satellite will be launched on a Proton rocket under an existing contract with International Launch Service.

Sirius said the new satellite will help enhance overall coverage, particularly for stationary applications at home or in the office. Unlike the company’s current satellites, which travel in a figure-eight pattern above and below the equator that is known as an "elliptical geosynchronous orbit," the FM-5 will stay in a fixed position above the earth – a "geostationary orbit." Sirius said having a satellite in the different orbit will complement existing coverage. Rival XM Satellite Radio Inc. (XMSR) has all of its satellites in geostationary orbits.

With this new satellite, Sirius and XM will have the same number of satellites. XM is currently building a fourth satellite that is expected to launch in the second half of the year. It also has a spare under construction that is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007.

A good explanation of how Sirius’ current satellite system works can be found here. Bell Labs did some work for Sirius (see here), and the question on analysts’ minds is whether the new geosynchronous satellite signals (no pun intended) an intention by Sirius to move into the market of providing video as well as radio to cars and buses. 

Time will tell. 

Last week I was reading an article on the 2^nd anniversary of the introduction of broadband Internet service on Lufthansa aircraft. 

The online, in-flight service — which has proven so popular that Lufthansa is now offering it on nearly 80% of its long-haul flights — is provided by Connexion by Boeing (CbB). The CbB system uses geosynchronous satellites to connect to the Internet, with a Wi-Fi hotspot on the aircraft itself. SES AMERICOM plays a critical role in delivering the airborne internet; Connexion by Boeing utilizes our AMC-23 satellite to provide high-speed access to customers flying over the Pacific Ocean. (AMC-23 was designed and specified in conjunction with CbB to provide Ku-band coverage of major air routes across the Pacific Ocean).

That satellite connection — and SES is proud to play a role in delivering it — is changing the way people travel, and becoming a “must have” amenity for many business travelers. One recent study conducted by Boeing found that:

• 83 percent of those surveyed said that the availability of the Connexion by Boeing service will have an impact on future travel plans and their choice of airline carrier;
• 94 percent said they plan to use the service again on a future flight;
• 78 percent said that the service’s speed met or exceeded their expectations.

As for how people are using the service, the study found:

• 90 percent of respondents said they accessed their work e-mail, most of whom use a virtual private (corporate) network;
• 76 percent accessed their personal e-mail;
• 69 percent said they browsed the Internet;
• 41 percent engaged their friends and family via instant messaging or live chat applications.

Using IM and email to stay in touch with others while crossing the oceans is a great way to increase business productivity. But as I read the article and study about Lufthansa’s experience with Connexion by Boeing over the last two years, I was reminded of a personal experience I had on Lufthansa flight earlier this spring.

Because I travel so frequently,  and I like to stay connected with “hometown” news, I purchased a Slingbox device. Slingbox enables you to tune in to your TV service at home via the Internet. On this occasion, I was flying on an overnight Lufthansa flight to Luxembourg via Frankfurt, and had gotten online using CbB.

Like most business travelers, I initially got online to check my work email, and I spent some productive time catching up on business matters. But then I had a thought — I wondered if I could use CbB to connect to my Slingbox and to try tuning in the news program — from 35,000 feet. It worked!

“Tuning in at home” while over the North Atlantic was made possible by many technologies — twice by satellite. First, the video signal was carried by an AMERICOM satellite and downlinked by a cable operator in New York. Then, an AMERICOM satellite was used to provide Internet service to the aircraft. In between, there are the new technologies: the Slingbox and CbB. Oh, and of course, there’s the Internet.

That, to me, is what is truly amazing about the combination of satellite technology with the Internet. Productivity is nice, but being able to sit back and relax with your favorite local programming while flying across time zones — that’s the type of future we’ve long imagined. And thanks to satellite technology, that future is here. This really is rocket science.

You might have thought, after the demise of Napter and the ensuing deluge of RIAA lawsuits, that satellite radio was a pretty safe bet. After all, you’re not so much downloading music as you are catching it as it falls from the sky. Kinda like collecting rainwater. As consumer, you’d be right. You’re relatively safe, for now. It’s the providers that could be in trouble, as XM radio learned upon getting sued by RIAA.

The recording industry on Tuesday sued XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:XMSR – news), alleging its Inno device that can store music infringes on copyrights and transforms a passive radio experience into the equivalent of a digital download service like iTunes.

The suit accuses XM Satellite of “massive wholesale infringement,” and seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month. XM, with more than 6.5 million subscribers, said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.

…

“…Because XM makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, XM subscribers will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs’ sound recordings,” the lawsuit says referring to the hand held “Inno” device.

The suit says that XM has touted its service’s advantages over the iPod and cites XM’s advertising literature that says “It’s not a Pod. It’s the mothership.”

 At $150,000 a pop, you’d better be careful what you beam down from “the mothership.” But, as the guys over at Gizmodo suggest, you might want to get yourself an Inno before they disappear forever. (Though the folks at XM say the lawsuit is just a negotiating tactic.)

In slightly related news, if you’re a Sirius Radio subscriber you’ll can listen to Bad Astrology blogger Phil Plait on Discovery Channel Radio at 9:00pm EST. He’ll be talking about the likelihood of Earth having a run in with a comet sometime next week…

This past March, the EU issued a report on the urgent need for broadband connectivity throughout Europe. A new project announced on May 15^th is designed to bring high-quality broadband service in less developed areas to address this demand with the HYLAS satellite.

For Giuseppe Viriglio, Director of European Union and Industry Programmes for the European Space Agency, “HYLAS will play an important role in demonstrating the advanced technological capabilities of European space companies which are truly competitive on a global scale. It also makes significant progress in solving the social problem of poor broadband coverage in many parts of Europe and serves as a template for future large scale projects ".

 

 Responding to the i2010 initiative, the satellite will use Ka-band for broadband data communications and Ku-band for HDTV broadcasting. Considering the report does not include new EU Member States added in 2004 (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia), space-based broadband connectivity will play a key role in less-developed and rural communities around the world.

How appropriate as Wednesday is the first World Information Society Day.

NAB2006— the world’s largest electronic media show– is underway today at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Besides the slots, the big hit of the day is IPTV. Communications Daily (subscription required; 30 day trial available) reports:

 IPTV and mobile TV are to this year’s NAB convention here as HDTV was a decade-plus ago. "You can’t walk on the [NAB show] floor without hitting your head on IPTV," said Sebastian Moeritz, pres. of the MPEG Industry Forum, which is working with the Internet Streaming Media Assn. (ISMA) and others on IPTV (Internet protocol TV) specifications and standards.

The U.S. market for mobile TV is "huge," said Michael Schueppert, pres. of Modeo, now running a mobile TV trial in Pittsburgh. He said initial data indicate at least 10% of U.S. cellphone users will add mobile TV capability the next 6-7 years. Schueppert said that could mean about 20 million U.S. mobile TV users, "substantially more" than today’s total of XM and Sirius users…..

 PC World also wheighs in on nascent industry of delivering content to IPTV:

WHEN STEVE JOBS announced last fall that iTunes fans could buy episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives for $2 a pop, a market for portable TV shows emerged overnight. And services like MobiTV and Verizon’s Vcast let cell phone owners watch TV on the go.

If your eyes can handle TV shows playing on screens as small as an inch on the diagonal, MobiTV’s $10-a-month service (available in the United States on Cingular, Sprint, and a few regional carriers) streams content from CNN, MSNBC, and other stations to a supported handset.

Verizon’s $15-per-month Vcast lets you watch live TV, but only on phones that support Verizon’s high-speed EVDO wireless service–and only in markets that offer it. Cingular recently announced plans to offer 18 channels of video as part of its $20-a-month Media Net package. The service will include 3- to 5-minute clips from popular programs such as King of the Hill and That’s So Raven. 

We’d love to hear about cool things you’re seeing at NAB. Tell us what’s going on (besides losing the nest egg) in the comments below. 

No, I don’t mean the song by Devo. But there’s gonna be some more junk up there, do you need to get one of those hats the band used to wear back in the day, on the off chance that some of that junk finds it’s way back down here? Apparently the FCC ruled that U.S.-licensed satellites launched after March 22, 2002 have to go into disposal orbit when they’ve beamed down their last signal. The latest is the Spacenet 4 satellite, which was launched in 1985.

I’ve blogged about the satellite graveyard before, and apparently we’ve left a lot of stuff up there in the past 25 years or so; more than 9,000 man-made objects, which can break into little pieces and cause problems for current space missions. It looks something like this.

I’ve also blogged before about how stuff gets knocked around up there. And it’s not all that unusual for some of it to fall to earth. It can land in your garden, or even on you. Don’t believe me? Ask Devo. 

She was walking all alone
Down the street in the alley
Her name was sally
She never saw it
When she was hit by space junk

At least now we know why they wore these. 

Either wear a helmet or practice catching the stuff. 

I’ll enjoy the latter for now. In the meantime can someone tell me, now that this stuff is up there what are the chances it’s gonna stay up there?

Not that I’ll need that service any time soon, but apparently Masten Enterprises are the people to call if you need to send something into space. For a fee, they’ll blast your stuff into the stratosphere. There’s even a video of how it works.

The prices seem pretty reasonable at first glance. 

350 gram CanSat – $99
1 kg Custom Payload – $250
2 kg Custom Payload – $500
5 kg Custom Payload – $1250

If you’re like me you’ll need a translation. 

0.77 lbs – $99
2.20 lbs – $250
4.40 lbs – $500
11.02 lbs – $1250

Then again maybe not. Seems like a lot of money to send something ranging from the size of a soda can to a well-fed cat into space. And how do you get your stuff back once it’s up there? Or do you just send up stuff that you no longer need? And if so, this is better than throwing it away or recycling it how? 

It sounds like a cool idea, but unless someone can explain to me just how useful it is, my advice to anyone who has something they no longer need and want to send into space is pretty simple: hold a garage sale.

Via Make.