Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 9–cutting the cheese

Hopefully the beer was tasty and nutritious. The question I posed in my previous post to you, dear (inebriated?) reader: Why is it that moving the plane of a satellite’s orbit against the direction of the Earth’s rotation (backwards) is helpful to those operators of imagery ilk? Let me clarify some terms here before we […]

United States Government adding to the polar low earth orbiting constellation

This article caught my eye, if only because of the inaccuracy of the headline. The nation’s largest rocket was actually the Saturn V. When someone prints a headline like that, it normally means they just took the public release, and reprinted or copy/pasted it. I think they mean the nation’s largest, currently, which might be […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 8–synchronizing flying pumpkins and suns

Sorry, this isn’t about a tribute band for 90’s alternative/grunge music, at least not “Today.” This is all about polar orbits and polar sun-synchronous orbits. But before I get into those topics, let me warn you that if you delve too far into this, understand the math involved, the terms used, and worst of all worlds—enjoy […]

Wait, what did they do??? Terminators are in orbit and Skynet is the victim.

No, not British SkyTV–I mean Skynet, from the “Terminator” movie series. So don’t worry, UK citizens, your TV is safe (not necessarily a good thing) and still over-hyped. But China has made some interesting moves in the past few days. China has a very aggressive space program. They’ve stated more than a few times how […]

MORE POWER!!!

Okay, okay…this article’s idea has been floating around for a few decades. Given, that in my imaging operations posts we’ve only talked about low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites, and imagery ones at that, there are a few issues with this that you might be acquainted with. But the premise is right. You could set a […]