News

Intellectual Property: Pareto’s Enabler of Future Space

Most of us are familiar with the so-called “Pareto Principle”, the theory that 80% of the results derived from 20% of the activity in a given process. This is also known as the “rich-get-richer” principle or the “Matthew Principle” (“For to everyone that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him,…

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Navigating the Legal Challenges and Opportunities of Space Data Businesses

Data obtained or derived from space assets has enabled many current products and services, from GPS-driven apps dependent on precise geolocation to supply-chain inventory management systems driven by space-borne imagery. Businesses must access and analyze an exponentially-higher data volume from today, with data frequently obtained from low-Earth orbit small satellite constellations. Managing the resulting “big…

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Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Commons of Space

“If you build it, he will come.” Many of us are familiar with this famous line from the movie, “Field of Dreams”, the modern-day utopian fantasy about idealistic dreams and their fulfillment. But we – the tech-focused innovators – do not live in that dream world, but rather in the real world. And in the…

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Rendezvous Mission Risk Reduction Through Passively Safe Orbital Rendezvous

Abstract: Orbital rendezvous is a critical element of missions to perform satellite servicing, active debris mitigation, in-space manufacturing, cargo and crew resupply, and sample capture. One method for reducing risk in orbital rendezvous applications is to design the rendezvous mission elements to minimize the probability of collision if vehicle control is lost during terminal approach…

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The GOES-R Series: Earth in High Definition

Update of the GOES-R Program and satellites.

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Leveraging the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) Calibration Standard For Next Generation Defense Weather Missions

Weather poses significant economic, safety, and national security challenges to our military and civilian populations. As such, the US Airforce has commissioned Ball Aerospace to build the Next-generation defense weather satellite system. This system will require accurate measurements of top-of-atmosphere brightness temperatures to determine ocean surface vector winds, tropical cyclone intensity, and other environmental products…

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Development of Highly Competitive Liquid Rocket Engines in Time of Space Gold Rush

The competition in the launch industry is getting more tight and dynamic. At these circumstances, the launch vehicle development duration becomes extremely important as well as minimizing launch cost. The engine cost is the most significant fraction of total vehicle cost. One of the potential ways to reduce development duration and cost is through using…

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The Compact Hyperspectral Prism Spectrometer for Sustainable Land Imaging:

Space imagery provides a unique resource for addressing the earth’s challenges associated with land cover change, land use, disaster relief, deforestation, regional planning, and global change research. At Ball Aerospace, we are developing the Compact Hyperspectral Prism Spectrometer (CHPS) as a candidate imaging spectrometer technology for insertion into future Sustainable Land Imaging missions. The 2013…

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Blockchain Technology – Understanding its Place in Space

Blockchain, the technology which is underpinning the cryptocurrency revolution, offers business organizations and governments the means to decentralize intermediaries and conduct peer-to-peer transactions using a distributed ledger and immutable records that are cryptographically linked. We continue to hear how about how blockchain will revolutionize the business enterprise. This overview is intended to separate the hype…

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An Innovative, Near-real-time Approach to Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Data Simulation

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is vital to maintaining our Space Superiority. We present an innovative, high fidelity, time-based simulation tool, RT-PROXOR™ (Real Time Proximity Operations and Rendering), which supports SSA by generating realistic mission scenarios including sensor frame data with corresponding truth. This unique and critical tool supports mission architecture studies, new capability development and…

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