The DC-X Anniversary and Workshop event in New Mexico finished yesterday. Find notes and reports on the event at
Today sci-fi writer and computer guru Jerry Pournelle writes about his role in bringing about the DC-X project: SSX, DC/X, Star Wars – Jerry Pournelle/Chaos Manor.
An announcement from the The Philip K. Dick Film Festival:
Science Fiction Comes To Anthology Film Archives As The
Special Program For Newfilmmakers Series
The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival’s Director Curated The Highly Anticipated One-Night Only Event
Brooklyn, N.Y. August 13, 2013 – A night science fiction will be presented at Anthology Film Archives as part of the center’s NewFilmmakers series. Daniel Abella, the famed director of The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival led the curation for the momentous special program to be held on Wednesday, August 28. The one-night only lineup features four thrilling film shorts from the minds of talented filmmakers who showcase the infinite world of science fiction.
Special Program Schedule of Events
Wednesday, August 28 at 6:00 PM
SILENT THREAT: PRELUDE
By Aldo Romero
(2013, 15 Minutes)
A former reporter who came across a Roswell-type wreckage of a space craft in 1986 joins the social media site “Silent Threat” dedicated to UFO abductees to spread his message of extraterrestrial existence after years of censorship.
THE EXIT ROOM
By Todd Wiseman Jr.
(2013, 10 Minutes)
In 2021, imprisoned journalist Joseph Michaels faces government execution as he contemplates a desperate escape attempt in order to return to his wife and newborn.
MICROTIME
By Nir Yaniv
(2013, 15 Minutes)
Bernie Eckstein, a young physics PhD student is about to test the time machine he built out of the microwave oven in his kitchen. He sets a camera to document the experiment but the machine begins to jump into the future and he must stop it before things go too far.
THE HOUSE
By Marcia Goetsch
(2013, 15 Minutes)
A woman and an artificially intelligent house are shackled by their symbiotic relationship in world of the future.
The science fiction special program will lead an entire night of films as part of Anthology Film Archive’s NewFilmmakers series on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 at 32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003 beginning at 6pm. For more information including further scheduling and film listings please visit http://anthologyfilmarchives.org and always be sure to stay informed of all ongoing announcements from The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival on the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival and Twitter page at https://twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest.
For more information please contact:
Daniel Abella, Curator/Festival Director
Program Office: 917-362-9337
Email: info@thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com
Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/The-Philip-K-Dick-science-fiction-Film-Festival/
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/philipkdickfilmfestival
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.
I’ve posted about the FUNcube Dongle before but it’s worth a repeat. This small device plugs into a USB port and when combined with a program like SDR# “A Software Defined Radio in C#” your computer becomes a fully functional radio tuner. With a proper antenna and preamplifier you can pick up satellite transmissions such as weather satellite images.
The FUNcube Dongle came out of a AMSAT UK project to allow students and hobbyists an easy system to use to receive signals from the FUNcube UK Amateur Radio Educational Satellite, which is expected to be launched this fall.
More at
See also the See HobbySpace Space Radio section and the HobbySpace Weather Satellite Station.
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.”
===
Check out Mike Coletta’s SPACE GAB webcast program “where we Gab about SPACE”.
