[Robotgroup] Cool NASA News

[Ed Xavier Gonzalez]

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>* Cell Phone Sensors Would Detect Bio Threats and Attacks
>* Naval Academy Develops Satellite for NASA Instruments
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>CELL PHONE SENSORS
>The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is researching the use of 
>cell phones equipped with sensors that could detect biological 
>agents such as anthrax, as well as radioactive isotopes and toxic 
>chemicals. Since fixed sensors can't be placed everywhere, the 
>solution could soon be in everyone's hands.
>
>Gentag, a Washington, DC-based company, is working with the 
>government on a patented technology that modifies a cell phone to 
>serve as a low-cost radiation and/or chemical sensor to discover 
>external threats. The technology incorporates both modular 
>(removable) sensor modules and built-in sensors.
>
>The DHS program, called Cell-All, would link cell phones equipped 
>with the detection sensors via the Global Positioning System (GPS). 
>If a detector sensed a threat, the GPS would transmit the location 
>and time to local emergency responders and the DHS operations 
>center. According to the DHS, if the program works, it could be a 
>"game-changer" in how the nation detects and responds to a deadly attack.
>
>Visit http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20070605A2 for more information.
>
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>NAVY REMOTE SENSING
>A partnership between NASA and the U.S. Naval Academy is offering 
>students the chance to build a satellite called "MidSTAR-2" through 
>a U.S. Department of Defense program that will carry four 
>experiments into space in 2011 to look at different parts of Earth's 
>atmosphere, gamma rays, and solar winds. Scientists
>at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland are taking 
>advantage of the opportunity to carry promising technologies into 
>orbit for evaluation.
>
>The NASA experiments that will fly on MidSTAR-2 are part of the 
>Internal Research and Development Program at NASA Goddard. The 
>program lets NASA send instruments into space without waiting for 
>another mission. "This is a program where everyone wins," said Dan 
>Powell, MidSTAR program manager at NASA Goddard. "Students get an 
>opportunity to build and integrate a satellite bus and our
>scientists' instruments get a free ride."
>
>One of the instruments taking that ride is the Remote Sensing of the 
>Thermospheric Temperature instrument that will be used to take the 
>temperature of Earth's thermosphere to determine how much it can 
>slow low-altitude spacecraft. The thermosphere is Earth's outermost 
>layer of atmosphere, located about 50 to 340 miles above the 
>surface. Because of the thin air, scientists can't measure 
>temperature directly, so they measure density of the air by seeing
>how much drag it puts on satellites.
>
>For information about the MidSTAR program, visit:
>http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20070605A8
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<The right to Free Speech does not diminish the value of remaining silent>

Ed Xavier Gonzalez
Oak Hill Laser
ohlaser at swbell.net
(512) 288-5243