Out of Many, One (Synthetic Image, that is)

This Defense Update post sounds like something I may have talked about before–using a flock of small maneuvering satellites, with each satellite within the flock taking an image and using each image to build a big, high resolution image–one a bigger, more expensive satellite might get with a big imagery sensor. NASA’s contractor, Aurora Flight […]

What’s Old Is New Again

From childhood, I’ve had this weird fascination with dirigibles. Not blimps, but dirigibles. The kind of airships people associate with the words, “Oh, the humanity!!” In spite of the horrific Hindenburg episode, I always thought the zeppelins produced in Friedrichshafen, Germany, were always majestic in movement. It also looked like a relaxing and luxurious way […]

Pictures of a Decaying Satellite

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) -run Landsat 8 Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) imagery satellite’s primary job is to take pictures of the Earth. But occasionally, like teenagers with new camera phones, Landsat 8 feels compelled to take pictures of other satellites. Really—you can see the evidence here […]

Explorer 1, the First US Satellite

January 31st, 1958. 56 years ago, and the United States had finally succeeded in launching its own satellite, the Explorer 1. According to this Yahoo! Travel post, the launch of Explorer 1 was linked to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The big deal about that, as explained in this wiki entry, is the IGY marked the beginning […]

The Satellite “Brown Note”

The DailyMail posted this article about the European Space Agency’s (ESA) use of sound in satellite development. The ESA likes to use satellites that can withstand the rigors of a rocket launch. One of those rigors is the loud, vibration-prone environment a satellite payload sits in during a rocket launch. Like the Mythbusters test to […]