COMMUNICATION
SATELLITES
· Equatorial oil platform
to launch satellites
Boeing Commercial Space Company and its European partners plan to launch their first satellite carrying rocket from a former oil drilling platform. The 30,480 tone floating launch pad, named Odyssey, will provide a reliable and cost effective lunch service from the Pacific equator. Launching from this location gives the satellite extra boost into orbit as this is where the speed of the Earth’s rotation is greatest and the distance to the vital satellite orbit of 38,500 km (23,908 miles) is the shortest.
· Two way satellites will make
Communication easier
Teledesic, a new telecommunications company backed by the Boeing Company and Microsoft, launched its first low orbit test satellite in 1998. The company plans to launch 288 satellites 1,368 km (850 miles) above the earth to provide an advanced two way broadband service across the globe by 2002. this will enable anyone in the world to transmit voice or computer data at a much faster rate than existing methods. Current one way communication satellites are usually too high (35,880 km or 22,300 miles) for adequate two way services.
· Balloon transmission station
to ease cell phone traffic
A US designed ‘transmission station in the sky’ in the form of a balloon could help Japan’s cellular phone users by lightening communication traffic. Launched some 20km (12miles) above Tokyo in the early 21st century, the unmanned balloon will be solar powered and able to carry mobile phone and data transmissions. The current system used to transmit and receive mobile phone calls multiple black boxes mounted on telephone poles throughout the country is proving inadequate as more and more people gain access to mobile telephone technology.
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
· Mapping cyberspace to view
our world of information
New ‘cartographers like Greg Staple, who runs the US based company Telegeography, and Martin Dodge of London, UK, who is compiling a Web-based Atlas of Cyberspace, are attempting to plot the current information flows in order to graphically represent our globe from a communication point of view. Using telecommunication statistics, the innovative data maps present the multitude of connections being made through the internet, satellites and telephones.
· New fuel could make
cellular calls last longer
One of the most frustrating problems with mobile phones is that most of them need to have their nickel cadmium batteries recharged after only about 2 hours of conversation. However, Dr Robert Hockaday, formerly at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, US has invented a remarkable new form of fuel cell using methanol. Used in conjunction with mobile phone, it should allow much longer use.
