satellites

Echo II: When satellites were young and shiny (photo)

Back at the start of the Space Age, satellites weren't always the high-tech wonders that they are today.

Behold the 135-foot Echo II, NASA's "rigidized balloon," which served as a passive communications satellite. Here, it's seen undergoing a tensile stress test in a dirigible hanger at Weekesville, N.C. Microwave signals sent from Earth bounced off the orbiting metallic balloon to another point back on Earth.

NASA sent Echo II into orbit on January 25, 1964, and it was in service until June 1969, when it re-entered the atmosphere and burned up. Its predecessor, the … Read more

Princeton researchers use satellite images to track disease

Tracking where humans migrate and cluster in any given country from season to season is, in some places, a tall order. Which makes tracking the risk of infectious disease outbreaks that thrive in dense populations tricky as well.

Satellite images of nighttime lights could be the answer, according to researchers at Princeton, who report on their findings today in the journal Science.

Using nighttime images taken of Niger's three largest cities between 2000 and 2004 by a U.S. Department of Defense satellite, and checking those images against public health records compiled by Niger's Ministry of Health, they … Read more

Best Buy, Verizon, Dell launch Cyber Monday deals

Best Buy, Amazon, Verizon, and Dell launched Cyber Monday deals featuring discounted laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Best Buy is calling its sale "Cyber Week" and puts Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba laptops at the top of the list on its launch page. All three come with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Best Buy laptops listed on Cyber Week page:

Lenovo, $299.99: Model: 1450ABU. 15.6-inch LED-backlit display, AMD dual-core E-450 accelerated processor, 4GB memory, 320GB hard disk drive, and optical drive. HP Pavilion, $349.99: Model: g4-1229dx. 14-inch LED-backlit display, Intel dual-core "Sandy Bridge" Pentium B950 processor, 4GB memory, 500GB hard drive, and optical drive. Toshiba - Satellite Laptop, $379.99: Model: C655-S5305. 15.6" LED-backlit display, Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3-2330M processor (2.2GHz), 4GB memory, 320GB hard drive, and optical drive.

A high-res Earth from 512 miles (photos)

The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, onboard NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite acquired its first image this week, a stunning view of Eastern North America from Canada's Hudson Bay past Florida to the northern coast of Venezuela.

The low-Earth orbit satellite known as NPP carries five instruments as it travels at 16,640mph at an altitude of 512 miles. It was launched October 29 from Vandenberg Air Force base in California on a mission to observe Earth's environment and climate.

NASA says the tools aboard the NPP will be used in monitoring that planet's environment, … Read more

Satellite tech, app connect your iPhone anywhere in the world

Are you heading to a remote part of the world, where you're totally cut off from wireless networks? If so, bring your Apple device along, and you can actually stay connected to the Web.

Iridium Communications announced today that it has brought its AxcessPoint Mail & Web app to iOS. With the mobile Wi-Fi hot spot technology in tow, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch owners will be able to connect to the Web and check their e-mail on the 90 percent of the planet, where wireless networks aren't available.

There are some hurdles customers will need to overcome … Read more

$250 gadget helps you stay InReach when off the grid

If you're clinging to flotsam in the middle of the Pacific and need to send an emergency message, DeLorme has a rugged new satellite communicator that can do the job on the cheap.

Its InReach device is a two-way satellite hookup with GPS that lets you send messages from anywhere in the world for as little as $249.95 and a subscription with Iridium's global network from $9.95 monthly.

Used alone, the InReach can send an SOS or up to three preset messages, as well as remote-tracking data; it confirms delivery too. Users can designate recipients such as other InReach devices, e-mail addresses, or Facebook or Twitter accounts before they set out for northern Siberia. … Read more

Off the grid? No cat videos or Netflix for you

NICE, Calif.--The ads promise high-speed satellite Internet with "speeds that leave dial-up in the dust." What they don't tell you is that if you want a truly 2011 Internet experience--including a steady diet of cat videos and movies streamed from Netflix--you're almost certainly out of luck.

Having spent some time recently at my mother-in-law's mountaintop property in a very remote part of Northern California, I found myself snowed in and unable to return home. And that forced me to confront the reality of what Internet is like for those who live off the grid. … Read more

SiriusXM satellite 2.0 stereo coming in November

SiriusXM's Lynx radio is coming just in time for the holidays, according to CE Outlook. In a call with analysts, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin confirmed that the Lynx 2.0 radio will ship by the end of the year.

The Android-based radio is satellite 2.0-compatible and will be able to access the 30 new channels that SiriusXM debuted last month, and should be able to access the on-demand programming that launches next year. Priced at $249, the plug-and-play device will also be able to receive satellite channels over WiFi and stream music over a Bluetooth connection to … Read more

2012 Kia Rio sedan to start at $14,150

Kia Motors revealed the prices of the 2012 Kia Rio sedan starting at $13,400 MSRP (plus in $750 destination charges). The Rio comes in three trim levels: LX, EX and SX, all powered by the same 1.6-liter gasoline direct injection (GDI) that boasts 138 horsepower and 123 pound-feet of torque.

The base trim, the LX, comes with a six-speed manual transmission, or customers can upgrade to an a six-speed automatic transmission for $14,500. The top-of-the-line SX trim starts at $17,500 (plus destination charges). All three trims offer an estimated 30 mpg city and 40 mpg highway.… Read more

Hackers reportedly behind U.S. government satellite disruptions

Hackers are believed to have interfered with two U.S. satellites used to observe the Earth's climate and terrain four times in recent years, according to a draft report to a government covered by Bloomberg Businessweek today.

A Landsat-7 Earth observation satellite system had 12 or more minutes of interference in October 2007 and July 2008, and a Terra AM-1 earth observation satellite experienced two minutes of interference in June 2008 and nine minutes in October 2008, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission wrote in a draft of its annual report due for release next month. … Read more