Wednesday, October 21. 2009

Remote Sensing on a Shoe String Budget: The Icarus Project and $150

I spoke to Oliver Yeh, one part of the duo of MIT students that created Project Icarus. He along with fellow student Justin Lee sent a small digital camera into near space to get a bird’s eye view of eastern Massachusetts. Now, people have been launching objects skyward to photograph the earth for a long time. But, this only cost Yeh and Lee less than $150.

How did they do it? With a $30 digital camera they bought used on Amazon, a latex balloon from an online supplier (somewhat thicker than a party balloon), a Styrofoam cooler, some insulation, a small parachute, a prepaid cell phone with extended battery and antenna, and about 65 cubic feet of helium.

In order to track the balloon, the team downloaded an application that runs on the cell phone to capture the GPS coordinates and transmit the location data. The phone could not send information once above 3000 feet so it also stored the track of the balloon’s flight. Software was also downloaded to the camera with instructions to snap a photo every five seconds.

The result is a sequence of photographs of the balloons journey. The most amazing are those taken at the balloons apex of near 93,000 feet.

Oliver said they had a good idea how long it would last and the approximate altitude the balloon would reach. The entire flight took about two hours and he eventually retrieved the balloon when it landed in a small field.

You can see the photos and read more details about this amazing project at the space.1337arts website. What's next? Perhaps a transatlantic flight where Oliver says the challenge will be to try and maintain a more constant altitude during the journey.

Posted by Joe Francica in Remote Sensing at 20:46 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Center for Am. Progress: Open Up Classified Imagery for Human Rights

William F. Schulz, senior fellow for human rights policy at the Center for American Progress co-authored a report (pdf) recommending the government deploy social networking, satellite mapping and other technologies to combat oppression overseas. Schultz is looking for more National Science Foundation funding for human rights work.

One specific suggestion: "publishing parts of a classified Defense Department database of satellite imagery." Per NextGov:

The government either should update the public database or release specific portions of its classified, comprehensive system that cover at-risk areas such as Darfur, Burma and the Congo, according to the report.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Remote Sensing at 06:42 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, October 20. 2009

First WorldView-2 Imagery from DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe has released the first imagery available from WorldView-2.

Posted by Joe Francica in Remote Sensing, GEOINT 09 at 12:43 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, October 19. 2009

British Newspaper Files FOIA for NGA Imagery (What's Wrong with this Picture?)

The Express has filed the motion to get two year old NGA images of Portugal to try to help in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

“We hoped spy images may have captured the kidnapper watching the apartment prior to the event or even on the day itself. Obviously, having a picture would have speeded up the apprehension of the offender,” said a source from the Portuguese Police.

- The Examiner

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Remote Sensing at 06:00 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, October 14. 2009

Whose Logos were on WorldView-2 Rocket?

Bing's (Microsoft) and Nokia's. Google (corrected 10/15, originally said Microsoft) has an exclusive on the GeoEye-1 imagery, but will "share" the WorldView-2 data with Google.

- C|net

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Microsoft, Remote Sensing, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye at 08:43 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Feds Look to Build their Own Sats Even as they Tap Commercial Sat Vendors

A conference agreement between the House and Senate for the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill includes a provision directing the Defense Department to develop two commercial-grade satellites, one with a 1.1-meter aperture and a second with a more powerful 1.5-meter aperture. It's expected to pass both houses next week.

During the same period, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) put out a classified request to commercial players to determine how they could meet U.S. government needs.

- GovExec

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Remote Sensing at 08:33 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |