From the moment a child first recognizes his or her reflection, their sense of self awareness is forever changed. So too was humanity’s when we got our first look at the planet from space. It was a life-changing event on a species-wide scale — our microcosm suddenly became extremely macro and we were able to finally see ourselves against the grander backdrop of the universe.
Last Friday May 10th marked the anniversary of the first colour pictures taken of Earth from space. Captured by the Apollo 10 crew, it marked the first time we were able to bring back images of our blue marble, in full colour.
As cool as unmanned aircraft are, the idea of small drones taking freely to our skies can make many shift in their seats. But the integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into our airspace doesn’t necessarily need to be a scary thing. With enough regulations in place to maximize safety and minimize fear, there’s much to gain from these unmanned fliers. Read more.
Chances are that you’ve used a GPS device, watched a live television broadcast of a major event on the other side of the world, laughed or cried at the status update of a social media friend, or checked the weather forecast — events all made possible by the almost indispensable satellites that impact many lives across the world.
Yet those satellites are threatened by the now thousands of pieces of satellites and spacecraft that have broken apart in orbit – many times accidentally, some times not – and are speeding through space at several hundred kilometres per second.
This threat gets potentially worse with each new satellite or rocket launch.
by Theras Wood If a future civilization were to begin flipping through our history (e)books, how would they interpret our society’s treatment of the Earth? Would they regard us with scorn? Perhaps they’d laud us for our stalwart self-interest.
by Theras Wood Concern for the future of the world is something each generation grapples with, in its own way. For the last six years, Earth Hour has been amplifying those concerned voices by ‘uniting the world to protect the planet.’ Organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour encourages businesses and individuals to flick offRead more…
It was the closest asteroid flyby in our recorded history.
But as close as it was, Asteroid DA-14 didn’t plummet towards Earth today. People didn’t parish in its wake. Economic centres didn’t crumble. Ecosystems weren’t devastated.
Coincidentally, a meteor did burn-up over, and eventually hit, Russia today. And it could have just as easily hit anywhere else on the world — a densely-populated, major economic centre, for instance.
While the two phenomena are not related, what these close encounters have done is reignite discussion around the need for a plan to deal with asteroids and meteors, should one ever become a threat to Earth.
Ah, the mystery of birds. First, they inspire man to fly. Now the ingenuity of their interior may provide us with a foundation for returning to the moon.
As you may already know, the UrtheCast Web Platform is currently being developed in our San Francisco office, in the heart of California’s bursting tech scene. Our web engineering team is hard at work, taking the satellite imagery that our cameras will be capturing and “turning that into a web experience that lets users exploreRead more…
You might have felt it, but here’s your proof: Since 1880, there’s never been a hotter year in the U.S. than 2012.
And NASA’s finding could have been even more powerful had the temperature records extended beyond the last 132 years (beginning in 1880).
2012′s temperature readings got scientists talking for another reason: 2012 is now ranked by NASA as the ninth warmest year on record, across the entire world. The immediate problem with these high temperatures is the extreme weather that comes along with them — including widespread drought and monstrous bush fires.
by Theras Wood Take it from an astronaut: when you “look at the Earth for the first time, you’re overwhelmed by how much more beautiful it really is,” says Nicole Stott, Shuttle and ISS Astronaut, in Overview. Last year marked the 40th launch anniversary of Apollo’s last lunar mission, whose crew snapped the iconic — and everRead more…
