Space Products & Innovation
Governance, Education, and Infrastructure
Egypt’s Secrets Unveiled In Alabama Using Infrared Satellites
Scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham used infrared satellite images to reveal more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements in Egypt, including 17 lost pyramids, generating excitement among archeologists, tourists, and local governments interested in uncovering these forgotten buildings.
Space Products and Services – TSR 2011
Keeping an Ion Explosive and Chemical Agents
Technology designed to detect life on Mars has been developed into a portable device that can detect explosives and chemical agents. The technology is based on ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), a fast and sensitive method for separating and identifying gaseous molecules.
Nipping Fleet Problems in the Bud with GPS
Satellite GPS tracking data is helping to recover stolen automobiles and increase employee accountability. General Motors has installed a Stolen Vehicle Slowdown capability in 1.7 million of its new vehicles since the service’s creation in 2007.
Woodchoppers Fall: Catching North Korean Illegal Logging Operations
In May 2010, a researcher at Purdue University used a combination of NASA satellite imagery and information from Google Earth to determine that North Korea was conducting illegal logging operations in a U.N.-protected forest.
Protecting Global Heritage with Open Initiative
The Open Initiative on the Use of Space Technologies to Support the World Heritage Convention is a program sponsored by ESA and the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Open Initiative focuses on the use of satellite imagery to identify and protect U.N.-designated world heritage sites and alert local authorities to changes that could pose a threat to those sites.
Benefiting the GLOBE By Working Together
Since 1995, NASA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have operated the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program.
5th/7th Graders Learn How to Use NASA Mars Exploration Instruments
In June 2010, it was announced that data returned by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft had been used to discover a previously unknown cave on the Martian surface. This discovery was made not by NASA scientists, but by a group of 16 seventh-grade science students at a middle school in Cottonwood, California, through the joint NASA-Arizona State University Mars Student Imaging Program (MSIP).
Space Products and Services – TSR 2010
City Governments Use Earth Observation Imagery for Land Management
Many public service applications require fusion of information from a variety of sources, including space. A few examples include emergency response, land use planning, and the monitoring of critical infrastructure.