SpaceX Flight with SES-8 Satellite Makes It Safely Into Orbit

As reported by Thomas Grounds with additional information from NBC News: After several days of delays, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the SES-8 communications satellite into orbit today.

The launch was broadcast live over the Internet.  I've included several shots of the live broadcast.

Today's launch marked SpaceX's third attempt to launch the SES-8 spacecraft for satellite communications provider SES World Skies. SpaceX aborted the two earlier launch attempts last week, first on Monday and again on Thursday, because of technical glitches. [Mission Photos: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launching Landmark Satellite Flight]

"All known rocket anomalies have been resolved," SpaceX officials wrote in a status update Monday.

SpaceX had much riding on a successful launch Tuesday. Sending the 6,918-pound (3,138 kilograms) SES-8 satellite into its intended orbit, which ranges from 183 miles (295 kilometers) above Earth at its nearest point and 49,709 miles (80,000 km) at its highest point, will mark the company's entry into the commercial satellite market. The SES-8 satellite is a hybrid Ku- and Ka-band spacecraft built to provide high-definition telecommunications services to customers across the South Asia and Pacific region.

"The entry of SpaceX into the commercial market is a game-changer," SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell told reporters in a Nov. 24 teleconference before SpaceX's first launch attempt. "It's going to really shake the industry to its roots."

SpaceX has launched six Falcon 9 rocket missions since the booster's debut in 2010, but most of those were either test flights or missions for NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station using the company's unmanned Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly 12 cargo missions to the space station for NASA. Two of those delivery flights have already been launched.

The two-stage upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, called the Falcon 9 V1.1, stands 224.4 feet (68.4 meters) tall and is designed to loft both satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. Its protective payload fairing is 17 feet (5.1 m) wide, large enough to fit a bus inside. The rocket made its first test flight on Sept. 29 to launch a space weather monitoring satellite for the Canadian Space Agency from SpaceX's pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

That mission successfully tested several major upgrades to the Falcon 9 rocket, including more powerful Merlin 1D rocket engines (also made by SpaceX), a triple redundant avionics system and enhancements made as part of the company's reusable rocket program. Unlike early Falcon 9 rockets, which arranged their nine first-stage engines in a three-by-three block, the Merlin 1D engines on the upgraded booster are placed in a circular "Octaweb" pattern for better performance, SpaceX officials have said.

The only glitch on the September test flight was the failure of the Falcon 9's second stage to restart in orbit, a capability it must perform to make today's launch a success.

SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Officer  Elon Musk has said the glitch was traced the cause to a frozen igniter fluid line. The affected system has been shored up with additional insulation to prevent freezing on the SES-8 satellite launch, he added.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of developing affordable and reliable rockets and spacecraft. SpaceX currently advertises standard Falcon 9 rocket launches for $56.7 million.

GPS Technology Helping Police Fight Theft

As reported by rtv6-ABC: It is becoming more common for police officers to use GPS systems to find cars that have been stolen. Police are using the tracking technology to quickly solve cases and fight theft.

In Indianapolis the technology helped track a car that was stolen by a 14-year-old boy on Monday. The car was equipped with a tracking device and officers were behind the suspect within minutes.

"One of the things that was integral in this particular pursuit was the fact that GPS was involved. The vehicle had a GPS tracking system. We are finding that it can be a benefit," Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Chris Wilburn said.

Many cars come standard with GPS tracking devices that can easily be activated to locate a car in an emergency.

Several insurance companies offer GPS services, but it can be purchased online for as little as $25.

"We’re even finding too that some of the technologies in your iPhone like Track my iPhone can be of aid to us," Wilburn said.

By simply downloading an app or calling a tracking company, law enforcement officials are able to fight auto theft and quickly find what has been stolen.

GPS tracking devices can also help save money on auto insurance. Many companies look at GPS trackers as a form of asset protection and recovery and offer discounts of up to 30 percent.

Marines Test Real-Time Intelligence Dissemination via Smartphones

As reported by the Federal News Radio: Over the past decade, the military has exponentially increased the amount of battlefield intelligence data it collects via unmanned aerial systems and other platforms. Unfortunately, it hasn't developed all of the processes it needs to turn that fire hose of data into real-time, actionable information for small units of war-fighters on the ground.

The Marine Corps started to tackle that problem in a technology demonstration last month in Hawaii. Dubbed "Agile Bloodhound," the project, a cooperative effort between the Marines, the Office of Naval Research, the Naval Research Laboratory and others, offers the promise of delivering vital real-time data that front-line Marines have never had on the battlefield before, officials say.

"We want to be able to deliver relevant content quickly to lower-echelon operators, and at the same time we want to prevent the information overload problem by not providing them information they're not interested in while they're fighting," John Moniz, the Agile Bloodhound program manager at ONR said in an interview with Federal News Radio. "Another big difference is at the higher echelons they're very well connected, similar to what you might expect from the commercial Internet. When you get to the company-level and below, we're doing everything wireless, and it's not with the robust infrastructure we have in the cellular phone system."

So the Marine Corps and ONR are experimenting with ways to deliver autonomously-generated intelligence reports and imagery that don't need to be handled by a human intelligence analyst at a higher headquarters.

In the demonstration, officials showed they could push the data to commercial smartphones connected to the Marines' existing tactical radio system.

"It can be things like alerts as events unfold and we learn more, or the adversary does something unexpected that can quickly flow down to these warfighters," Moniz said. "We're trying to tailor the product to the need of the user and the capacity of the network. So if a relevant video feed becomes available, maybe we could send the entire video depending on the condition of the network. But maybe the user's need is embodied just in a screenshot of that video. Or an automated system that can analyze the object in that video and generate a quick message that says there's been a tank spotted at this distance in this direction."

The capabilities that would make up such an automated intelligence delivery system for small units are not mature enough to deploy thus far however, Moniz said. The Marine Corps' acquisition community could begin procurement work on some elements within a year or two, but others still are perhaps six years away, he said.

At the same time, officials are expanding the bandwidth that small groups of marines would have available to them on the battlefield, Moniz said, including perhaps making use of the commercial cellular data transmission technologies that smartphones already use.

"We're working on those types of capabilities, but the problem with the cellular system is that the Marine Corps is not going to be able to bring in the infrastructure with the towers and the fiber connections between the towers to give us a viable extended cell phone network in the battlespace. It's just not viable," he said. "So we have to rely on other technologies to try to deliver information, be it networks of tactical radios or in some cases just delivering higher capacity radios that allow us to push more information."

Hyderabad Officials Ready Draft Plan for Intelligent Transport System

As reported by the New Indian Express: The master plan for an intelligent transportation system for the Hyderabad metropolitan area, a first of its kind in the country, will be implemented in in three phases spread over 10 years at a cost of Rs 1,180 crore ($189.3 million USD).

The draft master plan for ITS is ready and has been put up for public review by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for suggestions and objections.

For the first time, HMDA has initiated the ITS master plan for HMA, with an aim to reduce risk in transportation and traffic accidents, enhancing communication and response in emergency, reducing energy consumption and increasing efficiency with regard to reaching a particular destination.

Also they plan to increase national and regional economic output through better utilization of their transport facilities, reducing travel time and travel costs by providing reliable real time information through ITS, investing efficiently in traffic related infrastructure and road use, reduce cost of road management and enhance appropriate management of ITS data.

For implementation of the ITS pilot project, HMDA entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in April 2011. JICA’s consultants submitted the final draft master plan last month.

HMDA officials told Express that JICA’s study team, after conducting several surveys and traffic studies and collection of data, has identified issues and causes, and suggested measures to enhance safety, improve road environment, comfort in road usage and formulated the ITS master plan.

For implementing the project, JICA proposed 10 User Service Bundles that include traffic management and operation, public transport emergency, transport related electronic payment, road transport-related personal safety, weather and environmental conditions monitoring, disaster response management and coordination, ITS Data management, maintenance and construction management and law enforcement to be implemented in three phases at a cost of about `1,180 crore.

The first phase will cost about `150 crore ($24 million USD), the second phase (6 to 10 years) nearly `425 crore ($68 million USD)and the third phase (after 10 years) around `605 crore ($96.8 million USD).

As per the plan, the ITS will have 692 Automatic Traffic Counter-cum-Classifiers (ATCC) at 346 locations have been proposed, CCTVs (879 locations), Variable Messaging System (213), Traffic Signals (622), Pedestrian Signals (1,500), Flood Sensors (125), Weather Stations (63), Pollution Sensors (21), a Probe Car System that include buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws (3,750), electronic road pricing (10), lane control (20) and parking systems at 20 locations in HMR.

The Paper Airplane 2.0: A Module That Turns a Paper Plane Into a Remote-Controlled Drone

As reported by TechCrunch: There's something intrinsically appealing about a choreographed blend of low and high tech. To wit, meet PowerUp 3.0: a Bluetooth 4.0 device that turns a bog-standard paper airplane into, well, a smartphone-controlled lean, mean flying machine. Or so its makers claim. And if those claims stack up pranking your teachers is about to get a whole lot more sophisticated.

What exactly is Power Up 3.0? It's a Bluetooth module that connects to a paper plane to act as both frame, propulsion/steering device, and Bluetooth communications hub - meaning the user can control the plane via their smartphone. The Micro-USB charged module is apparently good for 10 minutes of flying per charge, and has an 180 feet/55 metre comms range (i.e. between it and you, piloting it via Bluetooth link to your smartphone). Max speed is 10mph.

So far PowerUp 3.0′s aviation enthusiast makers have a working prototype and an iOS app but they've taken to Kickstarter to get the project off the ground (ho-ho). The campaign launched on Saturday and blasted past its $50,000 target in just eight hours, according to inventor Shai Goitein, so there's clearly considerable appetite for disruptions to paper-plane throwing mechanisms.

Or for a lower cost way of bagging yourself a remote-controlled airplane, which is basically what this is - albeit, not an ‘all weathers' aircraft. Soggy paper planes aren't going to go anywhere, app or no app.
At the time of writing PowerUp's Kickstarter funding total is soaring north of $135,000 (and climbing steadily) - if they reach $150,000 an Android app will also be backed.

The basic PowerUp 3.0 package costs $30 but all those pledge levels have been bagged by early backers, so the kit now costs from $40 - or more if you want extras like rechargeable power packs.

The current iOS app, which has been in the works for more than a year, includes a throttle lever for ascending/descending, and a tilt to steer function - which manipulates a small fin on the rear of the module to shift the plane's in-air trajectory. There can't be a paper-plane folding kid in the world that hasn't wished for such trajectory bending magic.

The module's frame is made of carbon fiber, so it can survive the inevitable crash landings - as well as be light enough for flight.

Backers of the PowerUp 3.0 can expect to be disrupting their lessons come May next year, when the kit is due to ship. After the Kickstarter campaign, Goitein says the plan is to sell the module via retail outlets from June next year, with an RRP of $50.

Latest SpaceX Launch Postponed

As reported by CNN: SpaceX scrapped the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket at the last minute Thursday, calling it off for the second time in three days.

"We called manual abort," tweeted Elon Musk, the private space program's founder. "Better to be paranoid and wrong."

The rocket had been set to head skyward Monday from Florida's Cape Canaveral before that launch was scrubbed. It didn't go off Thursday after exhibiting what Musk -- a storied entrepreneur (thought by some akin to a modern day Howard Hughes - the inspiration for Tony Stark, or Iron Man) -- described as "slower than expected thrust ramp."

Falcon 9 was then brought down from the launch pad so it could be inspected.

"Likely a few days before next attempt," read a post on SpaceX's website.

The mission was to be the latest foray for SpaceX, a company that itself launched in 2002 "to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets," according to its website.

SpaceX so far has made two of its 12 scheduled flights to the International Space Station, beginning in spring 2012 when its Dragon capsule became the first private spacecraft to successfully reach this manned orbiter.

This month's scheduled launch was not related to the space station, however.

Rather, it was to put an SES-8 -- a 7,000-pound telecommunications satellite that will focus on the South Asia and Asia Pacific regions -- into orbit 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

"SES-8 will be SpaceX's first launch to a geostationary transfer orbit ... and most challenging mission to date," the company noted.

Full Speed Ahead for Connected Cars, But Are They Going the Wrong Way?

As reported by NBC News: Why is it, Tarun Bhatnagar was wondering, that the "beautiful screen in the instrument cluster of my rental car can't provide me with a connected and safer driving experience?"

Bhatnagar, Google's director of Maps for Business, was describing how he used his phone's navigation app to get to the Los Angeles Auto Show last week. For the whole drive, he said, he had to balance the phone on his lap.

"That needs to change," Bhatnagar said in a keynote address at the show, which prominently featured a pavilion devoted to car tech.

Finding ways for drivers to safely use their cherished electronics is big business: What's called the connected car industry is projected to grow at a rate of 35 percent through 2019, to $132 billion, Transparency Market Research, an international market analytics firm, calculated last month.

The idea is to keep drivers' hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road. But safety experts insist that's beside the point — your brain simply isn't built to concentrate on two (or more) activities at once, so it's impossible to make electronics safe to use behind the wheel, no matter how much money and technology you throw at it.

"All this creates a dilemma for automakers," acknowledged Derek Kuhn, vice president of QNX Software, which makes an operating system used in many of the leading car systems. "How do they place a bet on the future?"

The challenge, according to Kuhn, is to develop "a balanced environment where smartphones bring apps into the car, consumers enjoy the integration they desire, and automakers deliver a consistent, branded experience."

Scores of companies are spending a lot of money to meet that challenge:

• Ford Motor Co.'s Sync technology — which lets drivers make calls, play music, get directions and even send and receive texts, all by voice — will be available in more than 90 percent of Ford's 2014 vehicles, the company said at the L.A. Auto Show, where Jim Farley, the company's global vice president for marketing, called your car "the ultimate mobile device."

• General Motors Co.'s OnStar embedded system, which does many of the same things, will connect with your smartphone so you can run apps by voice at the wheel.

• Apple Inc. is already putting "eyes-free" versions of Siri and iTunes in some cars, designed to let drivers control them with buttons on the steering wheel. But Apple has far grander plans — it hopes to turn your car into a full four-wheeled Apple computer by embedding iOS 7 beginning next year.

Other in-the-works or planned technologies could turn your car into something out of "The Matrix" or "Minority Report".

• A startup called The NeXt Co. is raising money to produce Heads UP — which wirelessly projects your smartphone's screen onto your windshield, where you can use it by voice and gestures:

• Mitsubishi Electric is already on the second generation of its EMIRAI concept car, which senses your surroundings and biometrics and can pop up any of 18 function buttons on the steering wheel as it determines you need them. It even includes an armrest touch screen where you're supposed to write out commands with your finger.

• Government-funded researchers at Germany's Free University of Berlin are working on the "BrainDriver" — a soft head covering that reads your brain waves and translates them into driving commands. It's still in the demonstration phase; unfortunately, in road tests there's still "a slight delay between the intended command and the actual reaction of the car," the researchers say.

It's exciting stuff, but skeptics point to more than a decade of research that establishes that dividing your concentration on anything but the task of driving creates too much competition for mental processing.

This is true not just when you take eyes off the road to deal with a beeping, brightly lighted screen, they argue, but even when you listen to information without diverting your gaze. That means wearable tech like BrainDriver and Google Glass likely won't solve things.

Researchers call it "inattention blindness": You may be looking where you're going, but you don't really see it because your brain is crunching different data. That's true for simply listening to the radio, which can delay your reaction time by a half-second, researchers at the University of Utah concluded in June in a report for AAA's Foundation for Traffic Safety (.pdf).

(Half a second might seem trivial, but "a fraction-of-a-second delay would make the car travel several additional car lengths," the congressionally chartered National Safety Council found in a 2010 survey of data on distracted driving (.pdf). "When a driver needs to react immediately, there is no margin for error.")

Talking on the phone hands-free and using devices through speech recognition further lengthen that delay, the Utah report found. What makes the new data especially alarming is that the study controlled for manual distraction; that is, all of the tests specifically recorded tasks that drivers could perform without taking their hands off the wheel.

"This clearly suggests that the adoption of voice-based systems in the vehicle may have unintended consequences that adversely affect traffic safety," the report concluded.

Research like that is why the National Transportation Safety Board is pushing Congress and state legislatures to ban all drivers from using electronics, including phones — even if they use hands-free technology.

If anything, said Robert Rosenberger, an assistant professor at the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, whizbang tech like iOS in the car and BrainDriver makes things worse because "it encourages people not to be cautious."

"They send the wrong message to drivers," Rosenberger told NBC News. "It implies to drivers that these things are safe."

David L. Strayer of the University of Utah, a lead researcher on the AAA study, put it more simply: "Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it," he said.