Japan launches new spy satellite

Tokyo (AFP) Sept 23, 2011

Japan launched a new spy satellite into orbit Friday, officials said, in its latest effort to beef up surveillance against the threat of North Korean missiles.

The Japanese H-2A rocket carrying a new information-gathering optical satellite lifted off at 1:36 pm (0436 GMT) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan.

"The rocket was launched successfully and the satellite was separated into an orbit around the earth later," Naoki Takarada, an official of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said by telephone from Tanegashima.

The new satellite, equipped with optical sensors, can distinguish objects on the ground with a resolution of some 60 centimetres (24 inches) from an altitude of around 500 kilometres (310 miles), according to media reports.

The government decided to build an intelligence-gathering system following North Korea's missile launch in 1998 into the Pacific over the Japanese archipelago.

In defiance of international pressure, North Korea launched again what was believed to be a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile in April 2009, with an estimated range of 6,700 kilometres (4,100 miles).

Japan's new satellite was the seventh to be placed into orbit since 2003 under the programme.

Of the previously launched four optical and two radar satellites, only three optical ones are still operating. The latest satellite will replace one of them which has passed its expected life of five years.

Optical satellites can capture images in daylight and in clear weather.

In the next two years, Japan plans to launch two radar satellites, which can capture images at night and in cloudy weather.

For security reasons, the government has refused to divulge details about the functions of these satellites.

The development cost of the latest satellite has reached 36 billion yen ($470 million) with its launch expenses amounting to 10 billion yen, according to the government.

The rocket had been initially scheduled to be sent into orbit on August 28.

But the state-run JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had to postpone the launch three times due to poor weather conditions with the approach of a powerful typhoon and the discovery of a system glitch.

Related LinksMilitary Space News at SpaceWar.com

Help NASA Find Life On Mars With MAPPER

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 28, 2011

Since the PLRP 2011 field season MAPPER has been open to the general public, enabling anyone to explore Pavilion and Kelly Lake as full-fledged members of PLRP's Remote Science Team.

Would you like to participate in NASA's analog research program? Interested in helpingscientists pinpoint where to look for signs of life on Mars and elsewhere in the universe? Now you can, with an exciting new citizen science website called MAPPER that was launched in conjunction with the Pavilion Lake Research Project's 2011 field season.

The Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) has been investigating the underwater environment of Pavilion and Kelly Lake in British Columbia, Canada with DeepWorker submersible vehicles since 2008. Now with MAPPER, you can work side-by-side withNASA scientists to explore the bottom of these lakes from the perspective of a DeepWorker pilot.

The PLRP team makes use of DeepWorker subs to explore and document freshwater carbonate formations known as microbialites that thrive in Pavilion and Kelly Lake. Many scientists believe that a better understanding of how and where these rare microbialite formations develop will lead to deeper insights into where signs of life may be found on Mars and beyond. To investigate microbialite formation in detail, terabytes of video footage and photos of the lake bottom are recorded by PLRP's DeepWorker sub pilots.

This data must be analyzed to determine what types of features can be found in different parts of the lake. Ultimately, detailed maps can be generated to help answer questions like "how does microbialite texture and size vary with depth?" and "why do microbialites grow in certain parts of the lake but not in others?". But before these questions can be answered, all the data must be analyzed.

Orbiter Resumes Use of Camera

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 09, 2011

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter completed its primary science phase in 2008 and continues to work in an extended mission.

Operators of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are resuming use of the mission's highest resolution camera following a second precautionary shutdown in two weeks.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument powered off on Aug. 27 and again on Sept. 6. In each case, commanding for an observation was not properly received by the memory module controlling one of the instrument's 14 electronic detectors (CCDs, or charge-coupled devices).

Between those two incidents, the camera successfully resumed observations for five days using its other 13 detectors. The second entry into the power-off, thermally protected mode occurred during an attempt to add use of the 14th detector. The camera is resuming observations with 13 detectors today while plans are developed for other diagnostic tests.

Astrotech Subsidiary Wins Contract for NASA Mission

Austin, TX (SPX) Sep 23, 2011

LDCM is the seventh mission awarded to Astrotech under the IDIQ contract. LDCM is part of the Landsat Program, which provides repetitive acquisition of high resolution multispectral data of the Earth's surface on a global basis.

Astrotech has won a fully-funded task order under the previously announced Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract.

The Company will provide facilities and payload processing services from its VAFB location in support of NASA's Landsat DataContinuity Mission (LDCM) scheduled to launch in December 2012.

On June 25, 2007 Astrotech announced the award of a $35 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with NASA for payload processing support services associated with potential future missions.

LDCM is the seventh mission awarded to Astrotech under the IDIQ contract. LDCM is part of the Landsat Program, which provides repetitive acquisition of high resolution multispectral data of the Earth's surface on a global basis.

This mission will obtain valuable data and imagery to be used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government.

From Titusville, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Astrotech Space Operations provides all support necessary for government and commercial customers to successfully process their satellite hardware for launch, including advance planning; use of unique facilities; and spacecraft checkout, encapsulation, fueling, and transport. ASO has supported the processing of more than 290 spacecraft without impacting a customer's launch schedule.

Astrotech is one of the first space commerce companies and remains a strong entrepreneurial force in the aerospace industry.

source: http://www.spacedaily.com
Related LinksAstrotechEarth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

Russia may launch its first Earth remote sensing satellite in 2012

Arkhangelsk, Russia (RIA Novosti) Sep 26, 2011

The Resurs platform.

Russia's first Earth remote sensing satellite, the Kondor, may be launched in January 2012, a space official said on Thursday.

"We are developing Kondor and Arkon [satellites]," deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos Anatoly Shilov said. "Arkon is a distant future, but Kondor will hopefully fly in January."

The Kondor is an 800 kg Earth remote-sensing spacecraft designed to provide high-resolution radar imagery and terrain mapping in real-time. It will be launched as part of the so-called Arktika Earth observation satellite grouping.

"As a rule, 90% of the time the Arctic region is covered with clouds or remains in darkness due to long polar night season. In such conditions these satellites are indispensible," Shilov said.

The official added that Russia was planning to launch in 2012 two Earth optical observation satellites - the Resurs-P and the Canopus-B - to provide precision monitoring of natural and man-made disasters, particularly wildfires and environmental pollution.

Source: RIA Novosti via http://www.spacedaily.com

Big Black throws a party

     A KH-7 on display at the NRO’s 50th anniversary party Saturday night. 

(credit: D. Day) 

by Dwayne A. Day

Monday, September 19, 2011

On Saturday night the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a major bash at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport. The spooks definitely know how to throw a party.

The event was remarkable in some ways because for the first 31 years of its life the NRO was a secret organization and the government did not even admit that it existed—blacker than black. But in the past 20 years the office, by fits and starts, revealed more of what it does. Today although most of its current operations remain classified, the NRO acknowledges the broad outlines of its activities, taking images and intercepting signals using sophisticated and expensive satellites. The NRO has had its share of scandals in the past couple of decades, some of which became public, but lately it seems to be on a roll with a number of programmatic successes, and so they held a party, and have something to celebrate.

Spy satellite hardware on display. (credit: D. Day) 

Officially sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the event was attended by approximately 4,000 people who enjoyed (excellent) catered food, an open bar, an orchestra, and several fortunately not-terribly-long-winded speeches. But the highlight of the event (for me, anyway) was the declassification of two major Cold War-era reconnaissance satellite programs, the KH-7 and KH-8 GAMBIT and the KH-9 HEXAGON (see “Flashlights in the dark”, The Space Review, September 12, 2011). The NRO even brought in things to show off—an engineering mockup of the massive KH-9 and what is apparently a leftover flight version of the KH-7, which ceased operations in the latter half of the 1960s. Both objects were viewable for only one day, although only the KH-9 was open to viewing by the general public during the day (the KH-7 could be seen by visitors who went up to a museum walkway).

NASA Gives Public New Internet Tool to Explore the Solar System

by Staff WritersPasadena CA (JPL) Sep 06, 2011

NASA's new Web-based application, "Eyes on the Solar System," gives people the power to journey through the solar system without leaving their computers. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA is giving the public the power to journey through the solar system using a new interactive Web-based tool. The "Eyes on the Solar System" interface combines video game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft and explore the cosmos.

Screen graphics and information such as planet locations and spacecraft maneuvers use actual spacemission data.

"This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in real time," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "It demonstrates NASA's continued commitment to share our science with everyone."

The virtual environment uses the Unity game engine to display models of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft as they move through our solar system. With keyboard and mouse controls, users cruise through space to explore anything that catches their interest. A free browser plug-in, available at the site, is required to run the Web application.

"You are now free to move about the solar system," said Blaine Baggett, executive manager in the Office of Communication and Education at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "See what NASA's spacecraft see - and where they are right now - all without leaving your computer."

Users may experience missions in real time, and "Eyes on the Solar System" also allows them to travel through time.

The tool is populated with NASA data dating back to 1950 and projected to 2050. The playback rate can be sped up or slowed down. When NASA's Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, users could look ahead to see the mission's five-year journey to Jupiter in a matter of seconds.

Point of view can be switched from faraway to close-up to right "on board" spacecraft. Location, motion and appearance are based on predicted and reconstructed mission data.

Dozens of controls on a series of pop-up menus allow users to fully customize what they see, and video and audio tutorials explain how to use the tool's many options. Users may choose from 2-D or 3-D modes, with the latter simply requiring a pair of red-cyan glasses to see.

"By basing our visualization primarily on mission data, this tool will help both NASA and the public better understand complex space science missions," said Kevin Hussey, manager of Visualization Technology Applications and Development at JPL, whose team developed "Eyes on the Solar System."

"Eyes on the Solar System" is in beta release. It has been demonstrated at science conferences, in classrooms and at the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas.

Designers are updating "Eyes on the Solar System" to include NASA science missions launching during the coming months, including GRAIL to the moon and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

source: www.spacemart.com


go to JPL's Eyes on the Solar System

NRO Maintains US Intel Satellite Edge

by Karen ParrishWashington DC (AFNS) Sep 19, 2011

NRO's ability to fuse various streams of intelligence data - including image, signals and geolocation - into a single, usable result has increased by an order of magnitude, but is five orders of magnitude below where it needs to be.

The National Reconnaissance Office is 50 years old this month, but its mission of designing, building, launching and maintaining America's intelligence satellites is always future focused, its chief said yesterday.

Bruce A. Carlson, a retired Air Force general and NRO's director, told defense reporters here the office's current missions range from identifying roadside bombs in Afghanistan to tracking activities in China and North Korea.

The National Reconnaissance Office has launched six satellites in seven months, "the best we've done in about 25 years," the director said.

As recently as two years ago, more than 30 percent of the organization's programs were rated yellow or red for improper performance. All the NRO's major system acquisition programs are now in the green - delivering on schedule, on contract and on price, Carlson said.

Carlson said NRO's mission is getting more challenging because space is becoming increasingly congested where the satellites work.

"Other countries are launching a lot of stuff, and it's becoming more competitive," he said. "We all have to operate in the same space."

And it's no secret the Chinese are becoming more active in space, the director added. "That concerns us because we're not absolutely sure of their intent," he said.

NRO and Air Force Space Command have a joint space protection program, Carlson said, which is the "ace in the hole" should "somebody try to do something."

"We also use the space protection program to work around the congestion problem ... make sure we don't run into something else up there," he said.

China and Russia both contend with the United States for room in space, Carlson said.

In satellite surveillance as with night fighting, deep strike capabilities and special operations expertise, "they have to focus on our strengths," the director said.

China and Russia don't try to compete with U.S. capabilities, but to counter them, Carlson noted. "That's why we have a space protection program," he said.

China is a focus for his organization's surveillance efforts, as is North Korea, Carlson said.

"I remain concerned about [China's] intent and exactly what it is that I do not know," he said.

North Korea also works "really hard to deceive us," Carlson noted. "We work really hard to make sure we don't let them deceive us. So it's sort of a cat-and-mouse game. It's very serious for us."

The NRO's three main lines of business are imaging, signals collection and communications, the director said. The science and technology, or developmental and demonstration program, underlies all three, he added.