Ground Control to Major You: for a mere $300 you, too, can send a satellite into space. How? Well, a young man from Ithaca, New York (it’s gorges) is planning on sending a box of tiny, self-contained, solar-powered radio transmitters into space – about 300 in all – and watch them as they transmit from near orbit. Like a murder of tiny space crows, the Sprite satellites will peep out their location… → Read More
Leave it to Germany to create the most detailed 3D map of the planet that has ever existed. Two satellites, TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X, are flying above the surface of the planet to create the map. The thing is, the satellites are extraordinarily close to each other, getting as close as 350m away from each other as they cruise at a fine speed of 7km/s. → Read More
We first blogged about Ikaros, a solar powered “space yacht” developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in September last year. The idea was to use solar photons to propel satellites in outer space to boost energy-efficiency. That yacht was eventually launched on May 21, and now we have the first pictures of Ikaros moving through outer space. → Read More
It’s your daily space (Space?) update. The subject today: Iran, a country we in the United States are programmed to hate (I’ve never met an Iranian, but I’m sure they’re friendly people), may well launch three new satellites in the near future. Be afraid, I guess. → Read More
Word on the street is that Iran is making seven new satellites, to complement Omid, the satellite it launched on February 2. Some worry that with Iran’s current nuclear ambitions the development of advanced satellite and launch technology may be used for warhead delivery instead of scientific purposes. According to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the satellites represent a break from the… → Read More
Mobile satellite phone service provider Iridium found one of its orbiting satellites knocked offline when it collided with a non-working Russian satellite 500 miles above Siberia on Tuesday. According to NASA, debris from the accident is potentially dangerous although it’s “very small and within acceptable limits.” The debris will be tracked by scientists. → Read More
Google launched its own satellite, the GeoEye1, last month and this here is its first photo. It’s a shot of Kutzton University in Pennsylvania. The GeoEye1 satellite will serve a number of clients, including the U.S. government (and Google itself). Naturally, the government will be able to access higher resolution images than you and I. That said, the new images that you and I will have… → Read More
There’s a real ruckus about photographer Trevor Paglen’s project to document all those secret satellites. It makes you forget sometimes that there are plenty of legitimate, non-spy satellites up there doing lots of good work. For instance, NASA has just successfully launched the Jason-2 satellite, which will be set up to monitor ocean currents, weather patterns, and all that good stuff… → Read More
I doubt this will really effect us non-evil mastermind types, but WIMAX use frequencies that could interfere with satellite communications, rendering some services unusable. While I’m sure the WIMAX folks already have a fix for this, it’s important to become alarmed and post without thinking regarding the threat to our precious satellite connectivity. Long-range Wi-Fi threat to… → Read More
[photopress:071015iodkizuna04.jpg,full,center] While the USA is busy shooting satellites out of the sky, Japan is launching new Internet service birds. It just orbited the WINDS, or Wideband Internetworking Engineering test and Development Satellite. Clever acronym. The goal of the spacecraft is to deliver high-speed access to far-flung corners of Asia where traditional, wired Internet access can… → Read More
[photopress:_44438948_sm3launch_usnavy_203.jpg,full,left]We did it. We shot a potentially dangerous object from orbit around the Earth with a sea-based missle and destroyed it as it plummeted to kill us. Hear that, Martians? Bring it! Navy missile hits dying spy satellite, says Pentagon [CNN] → Read More
[photopress:subsat.jpg,full,left]The NSC has lost control of a satellite. It’s lost propulsion, and will crash into the Earth at some point, but nobody can say where or even when it will do so. It’s large, and will likely cause much damage, and there’s no way to stop it. Carry on, citizen! Dead spy satellite could hit Earth [MSNBC] → Read More
Ok, so beyond poisoning us with lead-filled children’s toys, China is getting ready to blow our GPS satellites out of space. China is claiming that space above its country is its property, and is prepared to say “stay off my lawn” with star wars toys it’s currently developing. The only way that we, as the last remaining superpower, can respond is with bad-ass X-Wing-style… → Read More
Hot damn, the XM signal is back online! Now we can get back to not listening to Opie & Anthony, though I guess Oprah & Friends does have its fair share of hilarious moments, too. XM had been having signal problems for the last day or so. Users had been complaining that they weren’t able to tune in at full strength. XM’s contingency plan was to tell people to listen online. But… → Read More
If your apartment is anything like our apartment, meaning small, cramped, and with token “windows,” then you might benefit from this “Healing Moon” by Brando. We’re not sure if it actually heals anything, but it does make a half-way decent artificial moon, if that’s your thing, mimicking the 12-phases on cue via an IR remote. The real point of this thing is lost… → Read More
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