This article originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Friday, December 30th, 2011
By: Jeff Kroeker, Globe and Mail
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THE CHALLENGE
There are always many unknowns when launching a product no one has seen before. Read more.
When the switch is thrown next year on UrtheCast’s orbital high-definition video cameras, scientists stand to access valuable data from the near real-time images the devices deliver and archive. It’s data that could be synched with ongoing wildlife and climate tracking projects.
What might be in store for Earth-based researchers? Let’s turn to some researchers who considered several prospective uses in December. Read more.
You could call it one small step for UrtheCast or one giant leap for Soyuz, but one thing is certain: the Soyuz System, the only rocket fleet on Earth available to reach the International Space Station, is back in action. Read more.
What a year it’s been – from UrtheCast’s incorporation in December of 2010, to signing vital contracts with UK Rutherford Appleton Labs and the Russian Federal Space Agency, to the acquisition of the social media platform GroundMap, UrtheCast leaps ever closer to beta launch in Summer 2012. In addition to the excitement surrounding beta launch, 2012 will see us expanding our stellar team and testing our camera, Iris. If you’ve been living under a space rock for the past year and haven’t been able to keep up with all the blogs, tweets and news releases, we want to remedy that. Here’s a look at what we’ve done and where we’ve been over the past 12 months: Read more.
VANCOUVER, Dec. 21, 2011 – UrtheCast is pleased to announce the acquisition of GroundMap – a media geo-archiving and aggregator tool – which will allow for seamless social media aggregation into the UrtheCast Platform. As part of the acquisition GroundMap will be merged into UrtheCast to lead development of the UrtheCast web platform. Read more.
Imagine that it’s March 12, 2011: you’re sipping morning coffee number one, the toast pops, the baby cries, and the dog barks. But you don’t notice. The newscaster on the radio just announced that northeastern Japan was rocked by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Catastrophe. Read more.
While Dr. Suess thought that adults are “just obsolete children”, he understood that a child’s imagination is limitless. It was upon this premise that Dr. Suess created literature that touched on common values and provided morality disguised as quirky characters and simple rhymes. In a creative collaboration, born of a common desire to guide children towards nature, the USDA Forest Service and Universal Pictures have joined forces to revive an almost forgotten Suess character. Read more.
With a bird’s eye view on the world, the International Space Station gives educators a unique tool to spark students’ interest in not only science and math, but also in the world around them.
ISS already is a hub for research and look for those uses to expand as its Multilateral Coordination Board identifies new ways to utilize the space station. Read more.
Our world is constantly changing. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions serve to remind us that the Earth is shifting beneath our feet. Hurricanes and lightning-caused wildfires demonstrate the magnitude in which Mother Nature works. While exposed to man-made changes in the form of construction and demolition, the youth aren’t always exposed to the effects of a natural disaster. In the classroom, many events, such as a comet crash that decimates a way of life or a volcanic eruption that destroys a city, are solely referenced by textbooks. UrtheCast can change the way that we teach. Read more.
