Recuento del Taller & exhibición Orbitando Satelites [OS]. Realizado en plataforma0 – LABoral (Gijon). 60 paginas que reunen muchas de nuestras ideas alrededor del tema de los satelites.

This last weekend we had the chance to present the Manual of Orbitando Satelites [OS]. We handed copies to friends and people participating on the Santa Monica synergy meeting. But we made it also to zzzinc. Fuimos tambien a un lugar llamado zzzinc, donde esta semana realizaron la reunion de desarrolladores con OpenFrameworks (oF): http://zzzinc.net/2011/3er-encuentro-de-desarrolladores-openframeworks/

Text by text and one by one, we shared and disscused the so many views and perspectives our manual collects; a very lively presentation by Laura, Reni, Cristina, Nuria, Lucia, Fabi, Pedro y la banda trapera del rio que nos lleno de energia la noche anterior. It’s difficult to wrap all what happened this weekend in Barcelona that included a few tries to get the voices over the sats from overseas.

Aca su payload/contenido:
Orbitando satélites (About this manual)
NAUKA00, EL SATELITE DISIDENTE
Cartografiando / The Cartographer
Sábado 19:00hs.
Astrologia artificial: geoestacionários
Astrologia artificial: o arabsat-5a e as revoltas árabes
Manifesto del Movimiento de los Sin Satélite #MSST
La Declaración de Bogota (1976-today-hoy)
Gpredict>OSC>din>pd (the OpenSoundControl patch)
Software Defined Radio: Gnuradio+FUNcube dongle
El Arte de las Aéreas
Construccion de un satelite
Azimuth-altitud-zenit_
Agoræ
Mateur
Sgaan Materia Obscura
Spatial aesthetics
Radio Magic(rev.02)
Rarae Aves (act.1)
INDEPENDENT SPACE TRAVEL
Exposición Orbitando satélites

Here is a 6 megas file that you could download and share. Descarguelo aqui/get it from here: http://bogotadeclaration.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/os_manual_lowres.pdf

We should now collect the addresses of people who participated on this little manual so to send them copies.

+un video de Pedro Soler comentando el taller y exposicion [OS]:

After UARS, come ROSAT, now is time for Phobos !

*”November 11 developments*

All efforts to contact Phobos-Grunt proved futile and the attention of the
press was quickly switching to the inevitable uncontrolled reentry of the
spacecraft into the Earth atmosphere, expected sometimes from the end of
November to the middle of December. NORAD reportedly projected the reentry
of the spacecraft on November 26.

According to known technical specifications of the Phobos-Grunt
mission, the 13-ton vehicle contains more than 10 tons of toxic propellants -
unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (fuel) and nitrogen tetroxide (oxidizer).
Although most of the fuel and oxidizer would burn during the initial phase
of reentry, the size and mass of the spacecraft practically guarantees that
surviving metal debris would reach the Earth surface. In addition, a
capsule for soil samples designed to survive a hard landing would be
reentering alongside the spacecraft. Due to its insulated design, the
capsule would likely be torn off from the rest of the vehicle early into
the reentry and its impact would likely take place away from the rest of
the debris along the reentry path. The crash could take place anywhere from
51.4 degrees North latitude to 51.4 degrees South latitude.”

source: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_launch.html#11_11

Notes from ROSAT:

ROSAT was launched in 1990 and ended it’s mission in 1999:
http://space.ku.dk/news/2010/next_falling_satellite/

Notes from UARS:

“And we believe it’s going to be 26 different components that will hit the surface of the Earth somewhere, with a total mass a little over 500 kilograms.”

“Because this is a U.S. government satellite, any object that does reach the surface of the Earth, should it be found, is still the property of the United States,” said Nick Johnson, chief scientist of NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “You do not have the luxury of trying to sell it on eBay.”

Any parts found must be surrendered to the government. Pocketing pieces as souvenirs could lead to charges of theft of government property.

If debris rains down outside the country, or splashes down in the ocean and later washes ashore on foreign soil, then the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty could still offer the U.S. the option of requesting the debris to be returned. Any of the 100 nations that are party to the 1967 convention would be required to comply, though the U.S. would be responsible for any transportation costs.”

via: http://www.space.com/13064-falling-satellite-debris-uars-nasa-property.html

COASTAL WARNING N1403/10

NORTHEAST OF CABO CASSIPORECHART 10(INT.216)
MILITARY MANEUVER – POSSIBLE FALL OF ROCKET DEBRIS PERIOD:

28/OCT TO 28/NOV – FROM 1640 TO 0140 UTC
AREA DANGEROUS TO NAVIGATION AMONG POSITIONS:

A) 06-12.00N 047-33.00W 05-41.00N 047-29.00W05-34.00N 048-27.00W 06-05.00N 048-31.00W

B) 06-04.00N 045-57.00W 05-46.00N 045-55.00W05-38.00N 047-36.00W 06-56.00N 047-38.00W

CAUTION

The Image above shows the regions of the plantet (grey color) where people will be free to own any satellite part or space weapon that by chance falls into their territory as stated on the Outer Space Treaty regulations. That was 1967 and Colombia did not signed the treaty. 9 years later, in 1976, Colombia hosted a summit where they came up with a new treaty known today as the Bogota Declaration. Both treaties seem to coincide on the grounds that declare the space and the moon as part of the commons of humanity. But the reality today of that range that sits just above earth’s near atmosphere is that it became filled by satellites that operate at Low Elevation Orbit (LEO), plus of course, thousands of cataloged parts flying at high speeds and also known as space debris. Is in such place that both treaties don’t coincide. In the name of the ‘commons‘ the Outer Space Treaty served to just allow powerful nations to conquer and control LEO, MEO (medium elevation) and GEO (geosynchronous) “territories”.

From wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty:
The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications (Art.IV). However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit. The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and shall be free for exploration and use by all States.

The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are the Common heritage of mankind. Art. II of the Treaty states that “outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object. The State is also liable for damages caused by their space object and must avoid contaminating space and celestial bodies.

Taller de escucha y localizacion de satélites.
Workshop on Satellite Spotting and listening.
dock18 – rote fabrik – zurich october 1st 2010:

And here the slides:

Chaotic space traffic needs rules, less secrecy: US general
by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) May 13, 2010

A top US general on Thursday called for international rules to control chaotic space traffic, warning satellites are increasingly at risk of collision.

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was no longer possible for the United States and other countries to keep vast numbers of orbiting satellites a secret.

“We’re going to have get to some level of regulation. Nobody wants to do that,” Cartwright told a conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank.

The general said he is daily faced with the question: “How many people are going to run into each other in space today if we don’t cajole, plead with somebody to move out of the way in the next orbit cycle?
“How many people are going to step on each other’s signals?”

A collision last year between a Russian and US satellite underscored concerns over a lack of traffic controls in space and the growing amount of space debris.

More than 50 years after the start of the space age there are still no globally agreed rules for orbital tracks, as there are for flight paths for aircraft.

“We’re going to have to get some sort of a management construct for how we do business out there,” he said.

Cartwright said the military was not out to “take over” space as some have warned, but he said the number of satellites was growing and there had to be a “shared understanding” among countries so “we can do business in a safe way out there.”

Cartwright, who is taking part in the drafting of a new US military space strategy review, also said covering the defense space program in a blanket of secrecy was damaging the country’s commercial interests.

“By keeping it secret, what we have done is so disadvantage our own industry that we’re becoming non-competitive in this environment, because we can’t do what we need to do in technical and intellectual capital to go out there and compete in the global market.

“Our ability to build components etcetera is lagging,” he said. “Our ability to compete on the international market for commerce in space has really taken a dive.”

He compared the current secrecy applying to military space satellites to flying a fighter jet over New York City without paying heed to other air traffic in the area.

NASA monitors space debris, possible close approach to International Space Station with initial decision to put crew in Soyuz craft for debris encounter.

Pending additional analysis, flight controllers told the six-member crew of the International Space Station to plan on taking refuge in the lab’s two three-seat Soyuz lifeboats late Friday for the expected close approach of a piece of space debris around 10:48 p.m. EST. (11/6/09)

The debris, of unknown origin or size, could pass within about six-tenths of a mile of the lab complex toward the end of the crew’s normal sleep period. Because all objects in low-Earth orbit, including the space station, are moving at roughly five miles per second, close encounters, or “conjunctions,” are carefully monitored and subjected to extensive analysis.

During the evening planning conference Friday afternoon, the astronauts were told to plan on getting up a few minutes early so they can make their way to the Soyuz lifeboats by around 10:30 p.m.

“The ballistics are saying they are looking at conjunction with space debris,” Russian mission control radioed. “As you know, this is something we are prepared for. In the past, we have performed avoidance maneuvers, but this time maneuvering away from the path of the debris is not an option.

“Because we cannot perform avoidance maneuver, you will have to ingress Soyuz vehicles. Both Soyuz crews should be in their vehicles. This is what we have. We are going to work on the ballistics data to get greater precision, but right now we are in the red box. The probability of collision is non zero.”

NASA flight controllers told the astronauts the tracking data is uncertain and that engineers did not yet have confidence in the trajectory projections. But pending an additional analysis later in the afternoon, the crew was told to play it safe and plan on boarding the Soyuz lifeboats after shutting internal hatches in the U.S. segment of the lab complex.

“We have data that indicates we might be heading to a conjunction, however we do not have enough data to have any confidence in the outcomes we’re predicting at this point,” Ricky Arnold told the crew from mission control in Houston. “We’re hoping we’re going to be a lot smarter at 2200 (GMT), but right now we have to plan for an indication that we will have a conjunction.”

If the initial predictions hold up, “we would like to close all the hatches inside the station,” Arnold said. “We’re also going to be configuring our cooling to two loops. We’re going to need you guys to do some steps on board to get to dual-loop mode.”

With both of the station’s cooling systems active, the lab would be protected against an impact that might cause a leak in one of the lab’s critical ammonia coolant lines.

Under the current plan, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk and European Space Agency commander Frank De Winne would make their way to the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft docked to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module between 10:15 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EST. Cosmonaut Maxim Suraev and NASA astronauts Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott would seek safe haven in the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft docked to the aft port of the Zvezda command module.

Flight controllers plan to make a final decision on how to proceed around 5 p.m., after getting another update on the object’s trajectory.

“Unfortunately, the particular object is not easy to track, it’s not visible by all the different tracking stations every time, and so there’s not a lot of confidence in the data on the exact location of this piece of debris,” NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said earlier Friday.

Last March, the station’s three-man crew – Mike Fincke, Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus – faced a similar situation and briefly took refuge in the lab’s single Soyuz lifeboat when another piece of debris from an old rocket motor made a close approach.

There are more than 18,000 pieces of space junk in low-Earth orbit the size of a baseball and larger. U.S. Strategic Command prioritizes radar tracking to protect manned spacecraft first, followed by high-priority military and civilian payloads.

NASA monitors an imaginary volume around the space station roughly the shape of a pizza box measuring 0.466 miles thick and 15.5 miles square.

“Initially, we have a screening box, which is .75 kilometers radial miss, which would be up or down, by 25 kilometers in cross track, which would be left or right, by 25 kilometers down track, which is either in front or behind us,” space station Flight Director Ron Spencer said in September.

“Space Command will alert us of any debris objects out there that are going to get that close to us. Then they increase tasking on those objects to try to get a better solution and decrease the uncertainty. Then we calculate a probability of collision based on the data Space Command gives us.”

Spencer said NASA has two levels of concern.

“We have two thresholds, yellow and red,” he wrote in an email exchange. “The yellow is 1-in-100,000 and the red is 1-in-10,000. We will not take any action if it is below the yellow threshold. If it between the yellow and red, we will only take action if it is easy to do so without impacting the mission. For a red threshold violation we will take action in most cases.”

Se retira uno de los satelites geoestacionarios que mas funciones ha cumplido. Puesto en orbita en 1983, ha sido utilizado en un numero muy diverso de aplicaciones, desde emitir en vivo desde el polo norte a pasar imagenes del lanzamiento de uno de los transbordadores espaciales. Tal vez lo mas interesante en su historia es que cuando fue puesto en orbita derivo por el espacio fuera de control casi 10 mil millas pero logro ser reubicado despues de meses usando sus pequeños propulsores.

Aca esta toda la historia (en ingles)
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0910/13tdrs/

[from Jonathan's Space Report No 615]

Indosat’s Palapa D satellite was launched by a Chinese Chang Zheng 3B rocket on Aug 31. The CZ-3B reached a low parking orbit, and the third stage reignited for a second burn towards geostationary transfer orbit. However, the engine shut down early leaving the Palapa D in a 217 x 21138 km x 22.4 deg orbit. The satellite on Sep 2 used its own on-board propulsion to reach the correct 216 x 35687 km x 22.2 deg transfer orbit; this maneuver will however reduce its operational life. By Sep 8 the satellite orbit was 9616 x 35670 km x 7.8 deg.

Indonesia has one of the developing world’s more extensive satellite fleets. The early Palapa satellites were owned and operated by Indonesia’s state telecom agency Perumtel, later Telkom. In 1996 a privatization move put the Palapa satellites in the hands of the Satelindo company, and in 2003 that company was absorbed by Indosat. Meanwhile, Telkom operates a new series of satellites (Telkom 1 and 2); Media Citra Indostar and Paskifik Satelite Nusantara  (with its ACeS joint venture) also operate telecom satellites, and the LAPAN space agency launches sounding rockets and operates the LAPAN-TUBSAT low orbit satellite built with German assistance.

 Indonesian satellites:
 Satellite     Model            Operated
 Palapa A1     Hughes HS-333    1976-1986
 Palapa A2     Hughes HS-333    1976-1986?
 Palapa B1     Hughes HS-376    1983-1995
 Palapa B2     Hughes HS-376    1984      wrong orbit, recovered by Shuttle
 Palapa B2P    Hughes HS-376    1987-1996 Sold to Mabuhay 1996
 Palapa B2R    Hughes HS-376    1990-2001 refurbished, relaunched B2
                                         Sold to Newsat 2001
 Palapa B4     Hughes HS-376    1992-2005
 Palapa C1     Hughes HS-601    1996-1999 Sold to HGS 1999
 Palapa C2     Hughes HS-601    1996-     At 113.0E
 Indostar 1    Orbital Star 1   1997-     At 107.5E
 Telkom 1      LM A2100         1999-     At 108.0E
 ACES Garuda 1 LM A2100AXX      2000-     At 123.0E
 Telkom 2      Orbital Star 2   2005-     At 118.0E
 LAPAN TUBSAT  TUB              2007-     In 618 x 638 km x 97.8 deg orbit
 Palapa D      Thales SB4000B3  2009-     wrong orbit

Hoy, 27 de Agosto del 2009, Joanna en Belfast (ISEA2009) presentara esta iniciativa que pretende ser una invitacion a revisitar un texto llamado la Declaracion de Bogotá de 1976. Tal como en el caso de la Declaracion Universal de los Derechos Humanos esta tambien podra ser considerada como otra carta de Amor jamas enviada, manifesto que se lo llevo el viento o mentira medial del segundo.

La declaracion que aca nos ocupa se interesa por el espectro de la atmosfera o la soberania aeroespacial que corresponde al lugar donde se ubican los satelites geoestacionarios.

Para que más satelites en el espacio? si, “ya no hay mas espacio en el espacio!”.

Alrededor del planeta la cuenta oficial de Geoestaconarios va en 433, y la de desechos cuenta casi los 20mil objetos-basura, algunos considerados altamente toxicos. Todos orbitando la tierra casi adinfinitum esperando “por error” cruzarse en el camino y chocar para generar una nube de basura aun mayor y mas dificil de mapear. Peligro inminente para cualquier otro aparato en la orbita, la estación internacional espacial o hasta para la hipotetica mision de querer intentar salir de este planeta.

Existe otro factor relavante a considerar, la mayoria de equipos que operan a dicha altura (36.000 km) lo hacen para servir como espejo de sistemas comerciales de television barata, es decir, muchos de los canales de TV que vemos provienen de un pais del primer mundo que ejerce asi un tipo de practica colonizadora gracias a la presencia medial.

Hace apenas un año colombia lanzo un pico satelite, patrocinados por un programa internacional, los estudiantes de una universidad de la capital lograron poner en orbita un pequeño aparato que parecia querer recordar el año1957 cuando el sputnik orbito la tierra y puso al gobierno norteamericano a invertir tiempo y recursos en la carrera espacial. Desde entonces han sido los Rusos (dias gloriosos de la URSS en el espacio), los Norte Americanos y un par mas de paises Europeos los que se han dedicado sin permiso de nadie a usufructuar lo que podria ser considerado como un preciado recurso natural de los paises ecuatoriales, la orbita de gran altitud donde es posible ubicar un satelite geoestacionario.

Las teconologias de los medios de comunicacion han sido desde decadas ya una inversion altamente comercial cuyos intereses estan muy lejos de motivaciones comunes por lo social o cultural, Esto a dejado el arte a su propia deriva, al artista ya no como figura bohemia sino como heroe en su tumba. Surge tal vez de esta tension el encanto que muchos vanguardias artisticas demostraron hacia la redaccion de manifestos. En los que se intentaba recuperar el sentido de los medios y de las tecnologias. Esta bien claro que hoy ya es tarde para esto y que en lugar de manifestos se deben escribir manuales de como hacer (HowTo).

Entonces, para que reclamar esta porcion tropico-atmosferica? No se trata de una intecion politica, en Colombia por ejemplo esta claro que no existe un partido al cual se le pueda adherir dicha motivacion, y tampoco se trata de crear el partido en un pais donde sino es Uribe es bala.

Tampoco se trata de construir via Open Hardware la tecnologia, como lo propone OSSI. Pero de lo que si se trata es de mirar hacia arriba, de ubicar esas ondas del espectro electromagnetico que nos usan como antenas receptoras, que no solo nos atraviezan el cuerpo y la mente de manera constante, sino que nos mapean, trazan y predicen como caprichos del mercadeo.

Luchamos entonces contra la inercia de una maquinaria de control que se expande a traves de la industria militar y del entretenimiento?. Que sentido tiene tomar una posicion frente a lo que los medios y la cultura popular nos presenta como alternativa de vida, como estilo de vida? Siendo esta una pregunta nada mas que etica, no hace falta intentar aca responderla, esta solo en la capacidad de quien lee este texto saber que hacer. Por lo pronto nosotros solo presentamos este proyecto como una manera que nos permita identificar las fuerzas que disponen la economia de valores en la que hoy vivimos.

Los satelites en su lejana orbita no estan para nada desconectados de dicha economia. Esta es la razon por la que nos disponemos a mapearlos, no solo en terminos de lat° , lon°, elevacion, azimuth..etc, sino en terminos de operacion, ya sea observacion cientifica, militar, climatica, transmision de datos, espionaje, basura a la deriva.

Es esta entonces la presentacion de un set de datos para aprender a ubicarlos en su penumbra, es una invitacion para reaccionar y responder con un grito, una frase, una cancion, una pintura, un objeto, un sonido, un ruido o cancion. Cualquier gesto que sirva para mapear a esos que nos intentan mapear valdra como puerta de escape.

Si Ud. quiere compartir con nosotros, no dude en escribirnos ya sea via los comentarios de este post en este blog o via email:

jomagriff AT gmail.com
alejoduque AT gmail.com