This new Spacepod video from Spacevidcast describes the Space Shuttle Exhibits
With the space shuttle fleet now retired, these majestic vehicles have been moved to museums. We’ll take a quick look at the remaining 4 (not 3) orbiters, the layout they are now in and where you can see them.
Benjamin Higginbotham at Spacevidcast gives a brief tutorial titled, “How do rocket engines work”
For more detailed tutorials, see:
Here is the August episode in our series of Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows with Amanda Bush . The programs are created by BINARY SPACE (www.binary-space.com) with story content from HobbySpace.com.
In this show, Amanda talks about the following :
00:56 — 02:41 Curiosity celebrates a year on Mars
02:42 — 03:33 Japanese cargo ship reaches the ISS
03:34 — 04:38 Commercial Crew Program Update
04:39 — 07:13 Vertical is in (V-TOLs)
The guests and programs for The Space Show this week:
1. Monday, August 19, 2013: 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): No show today as I am helping a friend with medical issues.
2. Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): No show today as I am helping a friend with medical issues.
3. Thursday, August 22, 2013,7-8:00 PM PDT (10-11:00 PM EDT, 9-10:00 PM CDT): TOM OLSON returns with new updates on the NewSpace Business Plan Competition.
4. Friday, August 23, 2013:, 9:30-11AM PDT (12:30-2 PM EDT, 11:30 AM-1 PM CDT). We welcome the new AIAA Executive Director, DR. SANDRA MAGNUS. AIAA is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. With more than 35,000 individual members worldwide, and nearly 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org.
5. Sunday, August 25, 2013, 12-1:30 PM PDT, (3-4:30 PM EDT, 2-3:30 PM CDT). OPEN LINES discussion. All space and STEM topics welcome. First time callers welcome. Please be succinct, to the point, and let’s make room for everyone who wants to call. Listeners, remember, we have only one toll free line. If the line is busy, please keep trying or email me that you are waiting for the line to become free.
See also:
/– The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
/– The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
/– The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs
The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.
Mike Coletta is a ham radio hobbyist who uses RF signals emitted by the Air Force Space Surveillance System (AFSSS), also known as the space fence, “to track near-Earth objects like satellites and space debris”: Tracking the International Space Station with metal coat hangers – gigaom.com
Coletta tracks all kind of near-Earth objects: the International Space Station, satellites, meteors. Signals picked up by the antenna, which is made of a 10-foot wooden board and metal coat hangers, are converted into tones that differ depending on the direction and location of an object. The tones, layered over a background of heavy static, grown louder and then softer as the object passes by, like a train traveling toward you and then barreling away. Listen to the sound of the ISS here.
This space fence is described in this recent article: Air Force Space Command to discontinue space surveillance system – U.S. Air Force
The AFSSS, which has been operational since 1961, is just one part of AFSPC’s global Space Surveillance Network. The system is designed to transmit a “fence” of radar energy vertically into space to detect all objects intersecting that fence. The operational advantage of the AFSSS is its ability to detect objects in an un-cued fashion, rather than tracking objects based on previous information. The disadvantage is the inherent inaccuracy of the data, based on its dated design. The new operating modes at Cavalier AFS and Eglin AFB will provide more accuracy than the AFSSS and still collect un-cued observations.
Coletta’s website SatWatch.org describes the hobby. For example, the diagrams at Orbiting Object RF Reflection 101 at SatWatch.org show the basics of how an amateur radio receiving station can pick up the reflections of the AFSSS signals when an object passes through the AFSS beams. He also shows the data displays for over 100 different objects that he has tracked.
As a money saving measure, the AF is planning to shut down the AFSSS and use a lower cost system until a new $3B “space fence” is built.
Coletta and other space fence hobbyists won’t have to hang up their receivers, though:
Now, he’ll have to turn his attention to another source of radio waves: Mexican television stations.
“Guess what: Those signals also get bounced down from satellites, meteors and what not,” Coletta said. “You use it just like a space fence.”
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Check out Mike Coletta’s SPACE GAB webcast program “where we Gab about SPACE”.