Late in the evening on January 28th, 2012 the rocket thrusters on the International Space Station roared to life. It was an emergency action, an evasive maneuver to protect the $100 billion floating laboratory from a collision that could have easily dislodged one of the delicate solar panels or torn apart one of the life-sustaining pressure locks. The cause of this maneuvering was not a competing satellite, shuttle, asteroid or alien craft but space junk left over from the destruction of a satellite 5 years earlier. Anyone familiar with the work of Donald Kessler and the Syndrome that bears his name was not surprised. For more than three decades advocates of the Kessler Syndrome have been preaching about the growing problem of leftover debris from satellites, command modules and discarded space craft: space trash. Read more.
When I began researching this piece, part of me hoped to stumble upon some potential Jetsons-esque robotic technology; some mechanical being that could make breakfast and pick out clothes in the morning — but no dice. That isn’t to say that robots aren’t doing far more admirable things than frying our bacon… for starters, they’ve been helping soldiers in dire situations. Read more.
From photography aficionados filling Flickr pages with latitude-and-longitude marked images, to chat sessions and blog posts linked to GPS data, the Web is increasingly anchored to the surface of the physical world on which we live. 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.