How Digital Mapping is Changing Your World
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
by AJ Plunkett
These days, finding that cool new restaurant, or a clear road to avoid congested highways, is often just a click away.
Posts Tagged: AJ Plunkett
Tracking Tsunami Debris via Satellite
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
by AJ Plunkett
Using satellite imagery to look for tsunami debris floating across the Pacific Ocean toward the west coasts of North America — it’s not as easy as you might think.
A U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) official was grilled last month by U.S. senators. The senators wanted to know what was being done to keep track of the estimated four million-plus tons of debris washed into the ocean by the March 2011 tsunami that engulfed the coast of Japan. Read more.
Scramjets in Action: Hypersonic, Here We Come
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
by AJ Plunkett
It’s a tough job when it’s the seconds that you celebrate.
A few weeks ago, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, as well as Australian scientists and engineers, took another step toward hypersonic travel by taking a scramjet engine from Mach 6 to Mach 8 — for 12 seconds. Big deal, say you? Didn’t NASA power its unmanned X-43A scramjet to a record-setting Mach 9.6 back in 2004? Yes, but only for 10 seconds. Didn’t the Air Force announce a couple of years ago that the X-51A scramjet had flown for about 200 seconds? Yes, but only at Mach 5.
So what’s the celebration for now? The HIFIRE team’s engine achieved combustion and higher speeds with a lighter weight and simpler to use fuel. That opens up possibilities for longer flights or heavier payloads. And maybe a more affordable way into space. Read more.
‘X’ Marks the Lunar Prize
Monday, June 18th, 2012
By AJ Plunkett
It’s neither cheap nor easy to build a robot capable of landing safely on the moon — one capable of roving at least 500 meters and transmitting high-definition images and other data from the lunar surface back to Earth.
Yet there are 26 teams representing 46 localities across the world who think they can do it. They also think they can be the first to get there and claim the $20 million grand prize from the Google Lunar X Prize competition. Read more.
Spotlight on Chris Hadfield: Astronaut & All-Around Fun Guy
Thursday, June 14th, 2012
by AJ Plunkett
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield just knows how to have fun.
First, Hadfield said he’d help Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson write the official song for Music Monday 2013 – while in space! Now he’s offering to accompany all sorts of folks around the country just so they can pose with him for photographs and enter the Canadian Space Agency’s first ever photo contest! OK, well, not really him, it’s his 2D image. But it’s still pretty awesome. Read more.
To Mars & Beyond: Our Space Energy Options
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
We can talk about going to Mars, or asteroids, or beyond, but the orbital track to getting there is going to require a lot of problem solving. Answers to even the basic questions — how much food, fuel, oxygen, water, or equipment you need to pack – all depend on how fast it takes to get there. Read more.
Crowdsourcing Asteroids: Kids Scan Skies for Danger
Friday, June 8th, 2012
Not too anxious at the moment? Here’s something to think about: The chance we might meet our demise when the next major asteroid strikes the Earth is only one in 40,000! Fortunately, that’s probably only going to happen every million years or so. Read more.
Earth Observation Instruments in a Slump: Why Should We Care?
Thursday, June 7th, 2012
Firstly, what are Earth observation instruments? Secondly, why do we need them?
A recent report suggests a decline of U.S. Earth observation instruments within the next eight years, and it’s caused quite a buzz — especially over concerns that the losses could seriously hinder weather forecasting. In particular, the ability to spot tropical disturbances early and track their formation into hurricanes. Read more.
Who Owns the Moon?
Friday, April 20th, 2012
As more and more commercial enterprises head for outer space and more nations join a growing list of planned and proposed missions to the Moon and Mars, the question will inevitably recur: Can anyone own the Moon? Read more.
Creating Video From Space Data
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Young fans of the Academy Award-winning movie “Hugo” may have been surprised to learn that movies once had to be projected onto a screen using a hand-cranked machine and color was to be added to each film by hand, frame by frame.
Today video comes to your computer or monitor with the click of a mouse. Or so it seems.
While much more automated, there still is a lot of work that has to be done between capturing a moving image and displaying it to an audience. And doing that from space in almost real-time is even more complicated.
It all begins and ends with data. First, you need a few things: a way to capture the image data (say a camera), and a way to transform the data into digitized form and a place to put that data (say a computer). That computer, then, is going to need a high-speed processor, lots of storage space, and lots of memory, because it will also need software to process and edit the image data. Read more.