The Australian government sets new guidelines for its space policies, which seem very unambitious, emphasizing only earth observation systems and communications satellite ground infrastructure:
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Sarah Brightman discusses space and her new album
Sarah Brightman talks in this BBC video (not embeddable here) about her planned trip to the International Space Station and how her interest in space influenced her new album: Sarah Brightman: Space love influences new album – BBC News.
Golden Spike Indiegogo campaign update
Golden Spike needs a big boost soon for its Indiegogo campaign. They only have $9,352 of the $240,000 goal. (The goal value represents one dollar per mile for the distance between the Earth and the Moon.)
Note, this campaign was intended not to raise money for directly funding development of their lunar exploration systems. They need a few billion dollars for that. Rather, the idea was to use the campaign to obtain some real data on public interest in lunar exploration. Golden Spike’s primary target market consists of developed countries, especially newly developed ones, who want to have their own human spaceflight programs. GS planned to use the Indiegogo data to help convince such countries that there is great public enthusiasm for lunar exploration. Unfortunately, the tepid response to the campaign doesn’t back up that contention. I think the poor response has less to do with a lack of public interest in private lunar adventures than it does with people thinking the campaign is for funding the GS project and that seems to them to be unrealistic and unreasonable.
Here is a video with Gerry Griffin, Chairman of the Board of the Golden Spike Company and “former director of Johnson Space Center and Flight Director in Mission Control for all of the Apollo Missions”:
Sunspot count update
Bob Zimmerman discusses the latest data on the solar cycle: The weak solar maximum continues – Behind The Black
![sunspot130408-e1365440644674[1]](https://i0.wp.com/hobbyspace.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/sunspot130408-e13654406446741.gif)
Satellite imagery used to predict locust swarms
A message from DMC International Imaging Ltd.:
Satellite imagery helps fight locust plagues in North Africa
DMC International Imaging (DMCii) is helping The Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) to predict the spread of locust plagues across North Africa as part of a pro-active approach to tackle the destructive phenomenon using satellite imagery.
Every year, North Africa is subjected to locust plagues that threaten to decimate crops and endanger countries’ food security. The satellite imagery is used to assess vegetation conditions, which helps to predict the locations of locust breeding grounds. The imagery, from the UK-DMC2 satellite, is used in conjunction with weather data to help create locust forecasts and focus the application of pesticides to prevent the spread of swarms.
Last year, in a six-month summer campaign to fight the spread of locusts, DMCii acquired monthly images of regions in Southern Algeria, Northern Mali and Northern Niger for ASAL. Now, imagery is being acquired before the summer season starts, to predict as well as monitor the threat of locusts.
Mr Karim Houari, International Cooperation Director of the Algerian Space Agency commented: “The use of satellite imagery has helped us in the past, during the invasion period, to identify and control areas at risk of locust swarms. This year, in terms of locust risk prediction in remission period, we used DMCii data for the ecological assessment of locust breeding areas (biotopes). It is an important contribution for the rationalisation of local response and to reduce damage of this destructive phenomenon.”
Paul Stephens, Director of Sales and Marketing at DMCii, said: “The ability to get timely imagery of large areas is vital because locust swarms can develop quickly and travel about 100km a day. Our 650km wide images allow large areas of land, spanning multiple countries, to be rapidly monitored, helping the local authorities combat locust swarms before they can migrate across the continent.”
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DMC images enable regular monitoring of very large areas at high resolution, allowing
detection of small areas of new vegetation after any rainfall. These show up as false colour
red patches in the desert. The circular areas are irrigated crops which, as often the main
source of vegetation in some areas, are put at special risk from locust swarms. Images
which show sudden increases in vegetation can help identify potential hatching and
swarm areas for locusts, enabling preventative action to be taken.
Image credit: Image of Algeria acquired by UK-DMC2 satellite © DMCii, 2013.
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