Category Archives: Highlight

ISS-Above and Lightsail-Above

Bill Nye LightSail You may have already heard how Bill Nye The Science Guy is obsessed with his ISS-Above(s). We’re taking that obsession to the next level and at Bill’s request I created a special version of the ISS-Above code that will act as Mission Control for their LightSail project. This version of the system is of course called LightSail-Above. It was a special reward on their Kickstarter

Every ISS-Above customer who is also a Planetary Society Member will be able to have their ISS-Above also track the Lightsail when the “full” version launches in 2016.

Wait What? LightSail-Above?

Bill Nye LightSail You may have already heard how Bill Nye The Science Guy is obsessed with his ISS-Above(s). We’re taking that obsession to the next level and at Bill’s request I created a special version of the ISS-Above code that will act as Mission Control for their LightSail project. This version of the system will of course be called LightSail-Above. It’s a special reward on their new Kickstarter – please head over there and check it out. Become a backer and help The Planetary Society and Bill Nye – CHANGE THE WORLD!

Become a Planetary Society Member (or back their Kickstarter at a reward level that includes membership) and any ISS-Above customer will be able to instantly switch their device to track the LightSail II when it launches in 2016

Chelsea Wine Bar Texas is getting an ISS-Above. Why is that a big deal?

I’m heading back to Houston, TX tomorrow to hang out with some friends – and while there I will be setting up a very special ISS-Above.

Just a couple of miles away from NASA Johnson Space Center is a very special place called Chelsea Wine Bar.

During my last two visits to Houston the NASA folks I was with had an “after-event-social” at this very lovely establishment. I even setup a demo ISS-Above unit – and experienced or the first time what happens when you have an ACTUAL ISS Astronaut in the room with you when the ISS-Above is flashing away and doing all it does during an overflight of the ISS.

Astronaut Scott Kelly (far right) visiting Chelsea Wine Bar on Jan 15 2015 chatting with a #NASASocial group who had just attended the One Year Mission briefing at JSC

Astronaut Scott Kelly (far right) visiting Chelsea Wine Bar on Jan 15 2015 chatting with a #NASASocial group who had just attended the One Year Mission briefing at JSC

Despite Mission Control for the ISS being just a few miles away – very few people really understand how frequently the ISS is in their skies. This is my way of making people more aware – and providing a great thing for all the friends of past / current and future astronauts who happen to be visiting.

I also wrote a press release to let the locals in Houston know this is happening.

Chelsea Wine Bar near NASA JSC celebrates the installation of an ISS-Above on April 8th, 2015 5pm

With #1YearInSpace crew launch – updates to ISS-Above

Expedition-43-iss-above
With the launch earlier today I’ve updated the Expedition Info Panel for ISS-Above to now show the full Expedition 43 Crew – with a special reference to the #YearInSpace crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko.

Message to all ISS-Above HD customers – be sure to update your system to get the new info panel.

http://issabove.local/check-version*

*replace issabove.local with the ip address for your device if you this link does not work.

Learn how you can impact the world by gaining an “Orbital Perspective” – read the book by Ron Garan

Orbital Perspective : Book by Ron Garan

The Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles (By Ron Garan Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.)

Is it really possible to learn how to make a difference in the world by reading a book by an Astronaut?

That was a question I had before reading a pre-release copy of “Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles”

I had met with the author Ron Garan on several occasions over the past few years and heard the story of how his time in space provided an existential transformation about what it means to be human. In Ron’s case (like many – but not all astronauts) that was the catalyst that propelled him to a life now which is committed to personally impacting the quality of life for all of humanity. This is evidenced through the many projects he has been directly involved with.

I have to admit however to having some pre-conceptions about what the book would actually be about – and what I would get from it.

I was expecting the story of an “existential awakening” from being exposed to views of the earth by being IN SPACE. I was expecting the tales of international collaboration (specifically US/Russian) that made the building of the ISS possible.

What I had not quite expected was the bottom line.

The bottom line is that Ron is saying the KEY to making a difference is never about governments. In the end it’s not even about Institutions (e.g. NASA / Roscosmos).

It’s never about “This organization” or “That organization”.

In the end it is about ordinary people who through whatever means manage to lift their views of what is possible to an “Orbital Perspective”. Out of that level of “Elevated Empathy” a new future becomes possible that disregards the short term gains that might otherwise be in the way of a sustainable solution to a critical issue in the world.

Who are these ordinary people? You and Me. #TheKeyIsWe

Read the book for the full scoop.

I hope you too can become present to what’s possible if we all raise ourselves up to the level of an “Orbital Perspective” and tackled our issues from that view.

note: As part of the “OP Crew” I was given early access to the book for the purposes of being able to write this review.

Liam Kennedy
Inventor of the ISS-Above
Space Geek since forever.

ISS Above Pumpkin

ISS-Above Pumpkin – Raspberry Pi based system that flashes when the International Space Station is nearby

I created this special version of the ISS-Above – Pumpkin edition. Kids who come by our house this Halloween will get a different kind of a treat – with live views of the earth from the International Space Station with light displays from an LED strip with 144 RGB LED’s – all controlled via Bluetooth LE.

Here is a little edited video of what the display looks like during an active pass of the ISS

More detailed photos of the pumpkin here->

note: Kids visiting on Halloween will also get the usual candy treats too 🙂

ISSAbove – Worldwide Map outgrows Google Maps.

We now have  312 ISS-Above locations worldwide – and that is 12 more locations than are allowed on a the free Google Maps system.  Here is the latest map showing how far the ISS-Above has reached.

[advanced_iframe securitykey=”da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709″ src=”https://maps.espatial.com:443/esPublicWebApp/pages/map.jsp?geoMapId=1206&lp=c&TENANT_ID=100616″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen width=”640″ height=”480″]
View a larger version of ISSAbove Locations – June 2014

Note:  The locations shown have had a random “fuzziness” factor applied to shift their location up to a couple of miles away from their actual location (this is for privacy reasons).

 

Kickstarter Update – Tweeted for all Non-Reward backers.

Although every one of the physical Kickstarter rewards were shipped months ago – I am embarrassed to admit that I never got around to sending the Tweet messages I promised for all non-physical-reward backer levels.

For all non-physical reward backers I promised to send a tweet on your behalf via the @ISSAboveYou account when the ISS passed over your location.

To do that I needed to develop a special program that would handle this.   I did that a few days ago – and ever since then I’ve had one of my ISS-Above’s here running the code and dutifully sending the tweets whenever the ISS passed by their location.

This graphic shows the distribution of those tweets over the past few days

bkWorldMap-Tweets-FINALAnd here are some of those tweets

tweet-thxtweet-thx2 tweet-thx3It has been a lot of fun to see these tweets going out.

Thanks to ALL the backers of the ISSAbove Kickstarter.

 

 

 

Yes – THE @BadAstronomer (Phil Plait) has an ISS-Above

It’s only fitting.. as in a way Phil is responsible for me developing the ISS-Above.  You see – three years ago he posted a link to a project he heard about called ISS-Lamp (which actually became a Kickstarter called ISS-Notify).    

badastronomer-iss-lamp

 

You will even see on that page a comment I MADE about the article.

I followed that link in June 2011 and became a backer of THAT project.   Three years later – and no sign of that device – so I decided to build my own version (of very different design and capabilities).

I remembered Phils interest in that project – and his comment about his (lack of) soldering skills (something we share in common).

badastronomer-iss-lamp-02

So I sent Phil his ISS-Above earlier in the month – and he must have turned it on today.. as it has just started to send Tweets when the ISS passes by Boulder, CO.

badastronomer

How flipping nerdawesome is that?

 

 

As promised the release code now supports @Raspberrypiface C&D plus the Blink(1) from @thingm

Before the ISS-Aboves are shipped I have been adding a lot of much needed features to the code – one thing I promised during the Kickstarter was to include support for a couple of new display devices.

I am pleased to announce the release code will support the PiFace  Control and Display which is an add-on 16 char x 2 line display – plus it will also support the Blink(1) from ThingM.

AWESOMESAUCE!

Video will be posted later.