DIY Space: Help NASA with Zooniverse

NASA is experiencing too much of a good thing with its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite. The team is apparently overwhelmed with the number of images one of the satellite’s payloads is producing (why this problem wasn’t anticipated, I don’t know). But you can help with this problem. First, a little about the LRO. The […]

30th Space Symposium Pictures

The 30th Space Symposium is done. It was fun and there were a lot of interesting displays. Every company present was chest-thumping–some more than others. Some booths were quite big. Others were of typical size. I realize the ticket prices are a little steep and some of you don’t have the option of volunteering. So […]

Dinner for the Space Technology Hall of Fame Nominees

The 30th Space Symposium is almost at an end. The whole event ends tonight with the Space Technology Hall of Fame Dinner at the Broadmoor. The dinner is all about recognizing nominee contributions and picking a winner. The nominees have developed products from satellite and space technology that help make life easier for folks here on Earth. One […]

Why Space Matters: HEO Satellite Operations, Part 4–Moley, Moley, Moley, Molniya!

During the last lesson, you might have been enlightened with the information that even though the Soviets have used, and Russians do use, geosynchronous (GEO) orbits for satellites, they seem to have a special place in their vodka-filled hearts for the highly elliptical orbit (HEO). And that last lesson enumerates the reasons why they like it. For one particular […]

KickSat Kicks the Bucket

According to update #73 on the KickSat Kickstarter page, KickSat is no more. The nanosatellite had experienced a single event upset (SEU) and the Watchdog Timer reset (those terms are explained in this article, here). The result of those two events was a reset of a crucial timer that was supposed to release the smaller […]