Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 15—decrypting the world with waves of color

Finally, we get to discuss the colors used for DigitalGlobe’s imagery satellites—or satellite, as we will be focusing (no pun intended—these satellites can’t really focus, remember) on WorldView-2. According to DigitalGlobe’s Basic Imagery literature, WorldView-2’s image sensors use eight different colors to look at the Earth: Coastal, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, Red Edge, Near-IR (InfraRed)1, […]

The mini Death Star and its song

Engadget posted a nice, short article about Telstar 1. It’s not about the song (video of it played here), which was played by the Tornados and quite popular. Both were launched in the 1960’s, the song named after the satellite. Telstar 1 looked quite a bit like a space station from a certain popular sci-fi […]

Finding the source of space weather with satellites

Space Daily posted this interesting tidbit yesterday. Researchers are using 8 different satellites to help figure out space weather. Yes, that is a thing and it can affect satellite operations. These researchers found a link for determining the source of space weather. This link was that the Earth’s magnetic field stores the energy of the […]

Sometimes it’s good to have a bulge–in space!

A few smart folks have found that the Earth’s bulge is beneficial to satellites orbiting it. In this article, they explain why a perfectly spherical Earth would’ve been bad for a lot of satellites, resulting in plenty of satellite carnage (satellites falling from orbit more quickly). But it turns out that our spinning, bulgy planet […]

Documenting that sinking feeling

Just like the Italian economy, since it’s very founding Venice has always sort of headed in the wrong direction–underwater. Not that the inhabitants needed any more proof of sinking. But, according to this article on BusinessInsider, a polar low earth orbiting satellite zipping 319 miles around the Earth called TerraSAR-X, is documenting Venice’s neighborhoods downward trends. […]