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Here's an update on U.S. Vice President Gore's idea to launch a small satellite that would provide live pictures of the Earth (Sat-ND, 13.3.98.)
By the way: the term "live pictures" isn't to be taken too seriously. According to initial plans, one new image would be downlinked every few minutes to one of three simple, low-cost ground stations equally spaced around the globe.
Of course, the proposed spacecraft would be called neither GoreSat nor GoreCam, as others have dubbed the project. Instead, it would be named Triana after Rodrigo de Triana, the sailor who first spotted the 'New World' on the journey with Christopher Columbus, a catholic Spaniard. [Really an extremely bad choice. You probably know what happened to the native Americans after the Europeans arrived there. I'd prefer to call that an unprecedented and unique genocide, and it indeed started with Columbus and his crew. They took some people from the 'New World,' which they actually believed was no 'New World' after all but India, back to Spain as a proof they had been there, and for the sake of Jesus Christ anyway. As I mentioned, they were catholics. I'll spare you the details of native American women being raped on Columbus' ships and being thrown overboard afterwards because it just makes me wanna puke my guts out. Few of the male native Americans survived that trip, either, and those who did were later presented to the Spanish court and displayed in public just like animals. Actually, this is one of the most darkest chapters of European history. Mr Gore, or whoever had the idea of naming the satellite 'Triana,' seems to be rather unaware of all that. In my view, this is a slap in the face of every native American, even though there aren't much left.]
Secondly, the satellite actually is to be located at a point some 1.6 million kilometers away from Earth -- an idea that is rather absurd although it has a background. At that point in space, the gravitational effects of the Earth and sun are balanced, allowing the satellite to remain in a stable orbit. As a side effect, it would also be able to constantly view the sunlit hemisphere of the globe. However, you can't see too much of the Earth from there, even though he satellite is to be equipped with a high-definition camera and a 20-cm telescope.
Maybe that's why Pat Dasch, executive director of the U.S. National Space Society, was quoted as saying that "the scientific value of this proposal is very limited," and that that the only educational value of the space camera project would be in its design and construction. She added "they would be better off with a camera on the space station, if they wanted science."
NASA meanwhile said in a statement that it plans to issue educational, scientific and possibly commercial announcements of opportunity within the next few weeks, following the Vice President's call to design, build and launch the satellite by 2000. And it seems they may also be looking for sponsors. So, if you access the GoreCam Web site in 2000, maybe you'll get not just a picture of the Earth but also an ad banner for Windows 2001.
Useless fact: A day on Jupiter is about 9 hours, 50 minutes, 30 seconds at the equator.
Russian scientists have discovered a method of tracking more than 80 top-secret U.S. spy satellites in low Earth orbit, reported Interfax news agency.
Alexander Bagrov of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Astronomy said the tracking method involved measuring how light was reflected by the satellites. Their analyses had shown that the U.S. electronic interception (ELINT) satellites known as Ferret have a diameter of three meters and work in pairs.
Bagrov said Russian scientists planned to make their method available to the UN Institute for Disarmament to ensure international agreements on space were being respected.
There's not much available on the World Wide Web about those Ferret satellites, except that they are in use by the U.S. Air Force since 1962. Their task is to find anti-aircraft and ABM radars and detect their operating modes as well as their signal characteristics from an orbit of 300 to 800 kilometers. Modernised Ferret satellites are obviously still in use.
Useless fact: Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.
Comsat Corporation said that it is pleased with the Inmarsat Council's plan to privatise Inmarsat. The Council, which met this week, will present its plan for approval by member governments at an Assembly of Parties meeting in April.
The bad thing is that just have this Comsat press release; Inmarsat does not seem to have published anything. So, it's a bit unclear what's really planned except that, as Betty C. Alewine, president and chief executive officer of Comsat Corporation put it, "the action plan developed by the Inmarsat Council is an excellent road map for the formation of a private company from Inmarsat's assets by January 1, 1999. A public offering is planned within approximately two years of that date."
Comsat is the U.S. signatory to the international satellite organisations Intelsat and Inmarsat. Inmarsat has already spun off some of its assets to a commercial unit called ICO.
Useless fact: The celibacy requirement for priesthood was adopted by the Lateran Council in 1215.
Scott Dance wrote that the "bit on the Aerosonde intrigued me and I came up with [a] resource describing the program.
"The figures in your article are a bit off from the specifications published in the web page. You obviously got the marketing version of the press release."
Thank you very much! I don't always have the time to search the Web for related links. No press release involved, by the way-- just a news report and admittedly some speculation. On the other hand, government Web sites usually aren't updated that often ;-)
Useless fact: Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.
A guy by the name of Mike sent me his comments on what he thinks is "American bashing" in Sat-ND. The complete message is a bit lengthy, so here are the edited highlights:
"There is a small point that I would like to make regarding your outside-of-the-satellite-industry comments. I am beginning to get sensitive to the American bashing.
"Your remarks about VP Gore were a good example. When I read in your newsletter what Gore's vision was (GoreSat), I got very excited and actually felt some respect for the man. That was new. Your comments however, detracted not only from what I think is a great idea, (that really may help world peace,) but it also detracted from your editorial halo.
"So I don't want you to stop bashing the U.S. but how about spreading it around a little. Like, 'the French are contrarians just to be contrary, the Dutch are negative, the Spaniards are arrogant...' there is so much easy stereo-typing around that you can use to bash others, I hardly think you need my help."
Any input on that? Just send your comments to pck@lynet.de. I won't mention your email address anyway, because I know what it means to be subjected to a constant wash of spam e-mail; and if you don't want your name to appear here either, just tell me. [That applies to any contribution, by the way.]
Okay, well, I'll tell you my opinion on that issue later -- once I've received, say, at least ten comments from my well-beloved readers, but no earlier. [Yes, I can be cruel.]
Average number of days a West German goes without washing his underwear: 7.
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