Landsat 8 is up and running - and the data is free

Landsat 8 officially opened for business yesterday (May 30, 2013).  The satellite weighs in at 4,566 lbs (2,071kg), not including the instrument weight - and can image in nine spectral bands as well as measuring the heat signature of Earth features in two additional bands.  The Landsat 8 replaces the aging Landsat 7 which has been providing Earth imaging for more than 14 years (albeit with some ongoing mechanical issues with the Scan Line Corrector) - the Landsat satellite program has been providing Earth images for over 41 years - and Landsat 8 is expected to continue that work for at least another 5-10 years under the direction of the USGS.  Landsat 8 will circle the Earth 14 times a day, and complete a full Earth scan every 16 days.  Landsat images have been used in a video time-lapse by Google to display recent Earth climate changes.  Images from the satellite are available from: glovis.usgs.gov

ETSIT: Cabinet approves license for Egyptian vehicle tracking company

The Egyptian cabinet has agreed to grant a 2 year license to a new entity called the Egyptian Tracking Services and Information Technology (ETSIT) company allowing it to provide AVL to non-military commercial services in the region.  ETSIT has been endowed with capital of about $14.3M USD (EGP 100m), and will be owned and managed by several entities, including Dahab Services and Supplies Co, the Egyptian Company for Investment Projects, the Healthcare and Social Services Improvement Fund, and by Telecom Egypt.  The Egyptian Armed Forces have tentatively agreed to the license under the stipulation that the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) be solely responsible for providing or approving similar services to the Military.

Colorado at center of new global positioning technology GPS III: A nice summary from the Denver Post about the upcoming upgrade of the US GPS system starting in 2012 - with specific references to businesses in the Colorado Springs, Aurora, and Boulder communities.

Some of the additional features include the new L1C signal and higher signal strength as well as the increase in location accuracy (from 3m to 1m), the new search and rescue distress signals, jamming resistance, satellite life expectancy (increased from 7.5 years to 15 years), launch and deployment of multiple satellites (dual launches) with a cost savings of nearly $50 million per satellite.

The article also discusses the impact on users from a variety of markets; Agriculture, 911 and Emergency First Responders, Road Construction, Aviation, Weather, as well as the monitoring of tectonic plate movements by geologists.  This includes the capability of the system to accurately time the processing of several different types of market transactions using their on-board atomic clocks.

PhoneSat - NASA tests Smartphones as satellite technology: NASA launched three consumer smartphones into space this year to test how existing consumer technology can be incorporated into low-cost satellites (video).  Pictures from the devices were retrieved by amateur radio 'hams'.  The three smartphones were aptly named, 'Alexander', 'Graham', and 'Bell', and were housed in a CubeSat chassis about 4 inches per side.  The cost of the satellites varied between $3,500USD and $7,000USD and used Nexus S (Samsung) phones - with the phone interface removed and replaced with the ham radio interface.  Each system included a GPS receiver, radios, multiple acceleration and rotation sensors, a compass, 1-2 cameras, memory - as well as Lithium-Ion batteries, and magnetorquer coils and reaction wheels to control satellite orientation.  All three were launched aboard the Antares 110 rocket. A similar British built satellite called STRaND-1 was put into orbit earlier this year, and was powered by a Google Nexus One phone. 

Push for new GPS stalking law: There is a saying that any useful tool can also be used as a weapon - and GPS is not excluded from that rule. When clients new to vehicle tracking ask us about tracking their vehicles or assets, they will sometimes ask us about whether or not to inform their employees of the tracking system - and we tell them that they should always inform anyone driving a vehicle with a tracking system that they are being tracked.  There is nothing wrong with tracking your own assets or vehicles - but I certainly believe tracking someone else's person, phone, or vehicle without their permission should be considered a violation of their privacy.  I fully support this new law and would like to see it implemented on a national level.

Interplanetary GPS: Here is an interesting article about a proposed GPS system using x-ray pulsars to help navigate the solar system.  However, I'm more surprised that we we don't have a plan for conventional GPS or GNSS satellite systems for places we plan to visit in the near future - like the Moon, or Mars.

That said, there may be reasons why this isn't practical at the moment.  One issue is the lack of a significant magnetic field around either Mars or the Moon to help deflect solar or cosmic radiation.  This could significantly reduce the life and health of conventional GPS satellites.

Another issue, for at least the Moon is that the satellite constellation could make exploration of the Moon, and navigation to and from the moon more difficult in the near term.  Transportation coordination for Mars would also need to be worked out - we wouldn't likely launch the satellites one at a time like we do for the Earth orbits.  We'd need to send them in adequate groups to conserve on energy (but small enough to promote redundancy in case of a significant transport issue); and management of the satellites on Mars may require that a base be setup first.

Finally, it's also a question of timing; having the right resources in place at the right time.  Still it would be nice to see a plan for GPS tracking on either the Moon or Mars (or both) in the near future.

Oversized Truck causes bridge collapse:  It would be interesting to know if current technology could have helped or if it hurt this particular situation.  

Did the vehicle have a tracking system?  Did it include a driver navigation system, and if so, did it include enough information to determine that the bridge was probably not part of a good route for an oversized load (too wide and possibly too tall as well in this case)?  Fleet and Vehicle technology is increasing by leaps and bounds - but they are not without fault; nor is the uptake of this new technology occurring that rapidly.  The broader question is what can we learn from this, and how do we prevent it from happening again?

It's possible that even with current technology that this might not have been prevented - human error could have caused a miscalculation in the entry of the data into the navigation system - or the actual dimensions of the bridge could have been recorded incorrectly.  

But for $15 million to replace the bridge, there needs to be a lesson learned here somewhere.