Online NASA Toolkit for Satellite Data

While NASA’s policy of free and open remote-sensing data has long benefited the scientific community, other government agencies and nonprofit organizations, it has a significant untapped potential for commercialization. NASA’s Technology Transfer program has created an online resource to promote commercial use of this data and the software tools needed to work with it.

With the Remote Sensing Toolkit, users will now be able to find, analyze and utilize the most relevant data for their research, business projects or conservation efforts. The toolkit provides a simple system that quickly identifies relevant sources based on user input. The toolkit will help users search for data, as well as ready-to-use tools and code to build new tools.

“This new tool makes finding and using NASA satellite data easier than ever before, and we hope it sparks innovation among the entrepreneurial community and leads to further commercialization of NASA technology and benefits people across the world. Our mission to bring NASA technology down to Earth is expanding with the release of this remote sensing toolkit.”

— Daniel Lockney, NASA’s Technology Transfer program executive

Through its constellation of Earth observation satellites, NASA collects petabytes of data each year. The variety of open source tools created to access, analyze and utilize the data from these satellites is familiar to millions of science users, but accessing and utilizing this data remains daunting for many potential commercial users.

For example, NASA’s remote-sensing data and tools are spread out across dozens of sites. The NASA Technology Transfer program reviewed more than 50 websites and found that no source provided a comprehensive collection of information or a single access point to begin a search.

While the Remote Sensing Toolkit is new, using NASA satellite data to create commercial products isn’t.

“Over the years, many organizations around the world have found innovative ways to turn NASA satellite data into beneficial information products here on Earth. Remote Sensing Toolkit will help grow the number of users who put NASA’s free and open data archive to work for people.”

— Kevin Murphy of NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington.

NASA Spinoff LandViewer, a subscription-based software, relies on a variety of data, including NASA satellite data, to provide daily updates on the state of corn vegetation. The result is a prediction of future corn production on national, state and county scales.

The Technology Transfer program will host a tutorial of Remote Sensing Toolkit. To participate, potential users should sign up to be notified of future webinars.

NASA’s Technology Transfer program, managed by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, ensures technologies developed for missions in exploration and discovery are broadly available to the public, maximizing the benefit to the nation.

For more information about the Remote Sensing Toolkit and NASA’s Technology Transfer program - https://technology.nasa.gov/

Alaska Launch for Unicorn-2A PocketQube

UK-built PocketQube satellite, Unicorn-2A, developed by radio amateurs at Glasgow’s Alba Orbital, will launch later in 2018 from Alaska.

Three radio amateurs at Alba Orbital worked on Unicorn-2A, which will have downlinks in the 437 MHz and 2400 MHz bands. One of the transmission modes will be LoRa, a patented wireless communication technology. A 3rd quarter 2018 launch is planned on a Vector Launch Inc. rocket from Kodiak, Alaska, into a 350 × 350 kilometer 98° orbit. The mission will last about 45 days.

A Dutch PocketQube, Delfi-PQ, downlink 436.650 MHz, is expected to be a fellow passenger on the launch. Alba Orbital is collaborating with the University of Aachen in Germany and its Amateur Radio group DL0FHA to trial Unicorn-2A operations and act as a backup, to help students to learn about communication with a real mission.

Brown University CubeSat Now in Space

EQUiSat satellite built by students at Brown University in Rhode Island has been launched to the International Space Station

On the small satellite are LED lights. These lights will be so bright that they will be able to seen blinking from Earth while the satellite is passing more than 400 km overhead. They will be as bright as the north star, according to Manav Kohlie, a Brown University student.

Once it is deployed from the Space Station this summer, EQUiSat will use the Earth's magnetic field to orient itself so the LED lights face Rhode Island.

It will transmit a CW beacon and 4FSK 9k6 telemetry on 435.550 MHz.

EQUiSat’s Communication System - http://brownspace.org/radio/

AMSAT-UK - http://amsat-uk.org/