Year: 2009
Satellite Collision graphics in 3D
After posting my kmz file of the Satellite Collision Debris, Tom Wagner of Iowa turned it into a 3D image. The picture has been published on spaceweather.com. Here is the image (links to spaceweather.com post).
Read More »Understanding Satellite Two Line Element Sets
(This page is a work in progress. It will be complete once all of the individual values are described in full.) The orbital elements of the satellites tracked by NORAD are supplied in a “Two Line Element” format….
Read More »New Zealand Scanner Frequencies
Yes, I still have New Zealand scanner frequencies on my website. Look down the right hand side, they’re still there. The link is /scannerfreq/.
Read More »Code: Shortest distance between any two line segments
I recently needed to find the shortest distance between any two line segments in 3D space. I managed to find some C++ code online at http://softsurfer.com/Archive/algorithm_0106/algorithm_0106.htm which I converted to C#. It’s fairly easy to use. If you…
Read More »Satellite Collision – Google Earth KMZ File
Including the original two satellites, the collision between COSMOS 2251 and IRIDIUM 33 has so far resulted in 514 pieces of debris. these are slowly spreading out around the planet. I’ve created a google earth file of the…
Read More »OCO Satellite Launch Failure
About 9:00am this morning I was online watching the live launch of OCO, the orbiting carbon observatory. It was launched at 9:55am and initially looked like a nice launch. Within minutes the payload fairing failed to separate (The…
Read More »Two satellites collide in orbit – Update
Following on from my post a few days ago, some of the pieces of debris have now been catalogued. So far, pieces 33757U through to 33770U (14 pieces) have been logged for Cosmos 2251, and pieces 33771U through…
Read More »Two satellites collide in orbit
It’s been all over the news – Two satellites collided in orbit. It happened on the 10th February 2009 at 16:56:00 UTC. The satellites involved were the out of order Russion Kosmos 2251 (93-036A) and the still working…
Read More »Mac OS X – Developer toolbar in Safari
Did you know that the latest version of Safari has a built in developer toolbar? You can change your user-agent, disable styles, disable javascript, etc?
Read More »SQL Tips – Identifying which version of SQL Server you are using
If you need to find out the version of SQL Server you are using, simply use the following script: SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(’productversion’), SERVERPROPERTY(’productlevel’), SERVERPROPERTY(’edition’)SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘productversion’), SERVERPROPERTY(‘productlevel’), SERVERPROPERTY(‘edition’)
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