The March issue of Scientific American provides an excellent overview of a new technology and its potential. Cognitive Radio: Smart radios and other new wireless devices will avoid transmission bottlenecks by switching instantly to nearby frequencies that they sense are clear.
One of the things I came away with at Satellite2006 (besides some pretty cool pictures) was a head full of acronyms that I still haven’t sorted out. I was reminded of that when I came across CNet’s “Wireless Alphabet Soup” post. I did a little poking around online, and found even more. I’m not sure how many of these I saw or heard at the conference, but it bears more than a passing resemblance to alphabet soup:
3G, 3GPP, BREW, BSS, CDMA, CDMA2000, CDPD, CME-CU, DVB-H, EDGE, ESS, EV-DO, FLO, GGSN, GPRS, GSM, HDML, HIPERLAN, HSCSD, HSDPA, HSUPA, IM1, MAC, MIMO, PKI, RAN, RASP, RU12, SGSN, TDMA, TD-SCDMA, UMTS, WAP, WCDMA, WEP, WIBRO, WIM, WLAN, WiMax, WTLS
I’m sure there are more that I’ve never even heard of before, but this is enough to wrap my brain around for now. If you know any that got left out, drop ’em in the comments. (And help a newbie out by throwing in a definition or two.)
Oh, and just for fun I made up a few of my own and tossed them in. Can ya find ’em? If so, good. Take notes. I have a feeling there might be a quiz of some sort later.
Sea Launch is lifting the 9,553 lb EchoStar X satellite into a high perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit today– and you can watch the launch live online.
3:35 pm PST marks the opening of the 49-minute launch window. Check out Sea Launch’s live webcam at any time.
Yesterday we wrote about SuitSat, the old Russian space suit stuffed with radio and electronics gear that was slated to be kicked out of the International Space Station. For a few days, SuitSat would serve as a satellite for amateur radio enthusiasts, before its batteries ran out and the pull of gravity brought it back into the mesophere, for prompt incineration as it fell back to earth.
The “launch” of SuitSat yesterday made big news; MSNBC has a video of astronauts giving the suit the boot here.
But is that suit still in fashion? Australian ABC reports that SuitSat has gone off air:
Plans to use an old Russian spacesuit launched from the International Space Station as a make-shift radio satellite have been short-lived.
American astronaut William MacArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev released the make-shift satellite, dubbed SuitSat, at the start of a six-hour spacewalk.
But before they were back inside, SuitSat’s mission was over.
NASA’s Mission Control Centre in Houston, Texas, says the transmitter ceased operating very quickly after its deployment.
An international team of ham radio enthusiasts who organised the educational project and built the hardware had expected SuitSat to last at least a few days.
The SuitSat website currently has a more optimistic– if guarded– report:
Current thinking is SuitSat is transmitting, but far weaker than expected. Several reliable reports of short snatches of the voice and SSTV signals have been reported. It is recommended that you continue to listen during passes over your area. Please report any positive contact only.
To find a map of SuitSat’s orbit, click here.
Call it orbital recycling:
Thanks to an innovative Russian recycling program, amateur radio fans expect to be hearing from a new recruit in orbit when an old spacesuit gets a new life as a satellite this week.
Beginning on Friday, SuitSat should be on the air, broadcasting on FM 145.990 MHz.
Rather than being launched, this satellite will just get tossed into orbit by the International Space Station crew during a spacewalk slated to begin on Friday evening…..
The old suit was destined for the trash bin until it came to the notice of an international team of amateur radio buffs, said Orlando, Florida, resident Lou McFadin of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp., or AMSAT.
A Russian colleague attending an AMSAT meeting in 2004 came up with the idea of putting a radio inside a soon-to-be decommissioned spacesuit and having astronauts boot it out the hatch. The all-volunteer effort, aided by corporate donations of equipment and by Moscow, is largely educational.
Space station flight engineer Valery Tokarev will do the honors, with assistance from U.S. astronaut and current space station commander Bill McArthur….
The suit is expected to drift away from the station and begin its short life as a radio satellite.
It will not take calls, but only relay prerecorded messages and transmit an as-yet mysterious digital picture. Batteries will power SuitSat’s radio and electronic gear for up to 90 hours, McFadin said.
Eventually, the suit will be pulled into Earth’s atmosphere and be incinerated.
Satsuit! Now that’s pretty cool.
I myself have got a couple of suits that should be incinerated. They transmit a not-so-secret message of tackiness.
If you’re in or near Denver, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science has released a cool new film at the Gates Planetarium, Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity:
In this Museum-produced show, zip through other-worldly wormholes, experience the creation of the Milky Way Galaxy, and witness the violent death of a star and subsequent birth of a black hole. Mathematical equations, cutting-edge science, and Einstein’s theories fill in holes along the way, providing the most complete picture yet on this mysterious phenomenon.
A Windows Media trailer of the film is available here.
(Via the Bad Astronomy Blog.)
