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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? Hurricane Earl, a gunman at the Discovery Channel headquarters, Obama trying to broker peace in the Middle East…wow, lot’s happening this week. So much so, that we totally forgot about the three-day weekend that lay ahead of us. Rather than doing another Labor Day FFT post, we decided to dive a bit deeper and highlight the role our 5 (or perhaps 6) senses that we have and how our sense shape our perceptions of the world. Why this topic? Well, it’s kind of cool and hopefully it will give you some “food for thought” as you head off into the weekend.

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Many of us got to experience some pretty fun things while in college. From travels abroad to sports and let’s be honest, some good old-fashioned college partying. But, we have yet to run across any college students who get the rare privilege of crashing a NASA satellite. University of Colorado at Boulder undergraduates were lucky to have the opportunity to crash (come on now – how cool is that?) the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, in the Arctic. The satellite had been in orbit for seven years – and UC Boulder students have been controlling the satellite for that time period. Why did they crash the satellite? The satellite had outlasted its targeted design life, before its primary sensor – a laser device intended for measuring ice thickness, forest cover – failed last year. So, yes, while college can often include learning how to do keg stands, it can also present an incredible opportunity like this for students. Go U.C. Boulder.

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Once again, the editorial staff of got geoint? is faced with a dearth of news GEOINT-related news to share – and thus the new, and emerging “Wednesday News Round Up” post. They say that celebrities can sell anything and and this certainly rings true in today’s post — with news of Google collaborating with indie super group Arcade Fire (pictured) and veteran actress Sigourney Weaver. In addition, we have some news from DigitalGlobe and more. And to re-hash our ever-popular Monday morning expression: fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.

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The scaling back of the US military mission in Iraq means Washington’s spies will have fewer “eyes and ears on the ground” in the country, a senior intelligence official said Tuesday. US military units operate with their own intelligence resources, including translators and officers assigned from spy agencies such as the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. But the drawdown of US forces to less than 50,000 troops will curtail the reach of US intelligence services, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. Read the full AFP story here.

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We often take for granted the fact that most of our cars have a built in GPS systems, and it is soo pervasive that even grandma knows how to use one. GPS gets us where we need to go, and it removes the most common road trip challenges: getting lost. So, we were a bit stumped when we came across this NY Times story about how American Airlines just NOW followed a satellite-based approach to Bradley International Airport near Hartford last week. According to the article, it was a momentous occasion, at least according to the pilot. Wouldn’t one assume that airlines would be using one of the most ubiquitous technologies available? Yes, rhetorical question. The reason for the delay is that the American air traffic infrastructure is so well established, and change is well, hard. Check out the full NY Times story here.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post. We hope everyone enjoyed the last official August weekend of 2010. Whether you were watching Entourage, or watching the Emmy Awards (go Modern Family!) last night, the inevitable was going to happen: Monday morning would eventually arrive. But fret not. We have pulled together all the news you need to ease the transition back into the real world. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought Post on got geoint? Yes, it is Friday and you are merely a few hours away from spending two precious days away with friends and family. Or perhaps you have a weekend date with your DVR to catch up on your favorite TV shows. Eitherway, congratulations. You made it to Friday. Earlier this week, we did a post about situational GEOINT awareness for the average consumer. So, we thought the concept of “situational awareness” and just how “aware” we can be to our surroundings. Oh, and yes, we apologize for the Mike “The Situation” photo – could not help ourselves. Happy Friday!

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We admit that much of our coverage is about looking at our great planet from space. Well today we are going to turn the tides and look in the other direction – from Earth out into space. After six years of intensive observations, astronomers have identified a distant solar system with at least five Neptune-class worlds orbiting within 130 million miles or so of the parent star–closer than Mars is to the sun. According to CNET, two other planets are believed to be present, including one just 1.4 times as massive as Earth. So what does this mean? This planet would be the smallest yet discovered, additional proof that Earth-size planets are falling within the reach of current Earth-based instruments.

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As our faithful got geoint? readers know, we often like to do a mid-week news summary post – especially when there is just soo much news to cover. For this installment, we have a completely mixed bag of stories related to the GEOINT world. From Apple acquiring a geo-location patent, to analysis on how aerial mapping will continue to grow despite the recession, as well as a story about some NASA satellites for measuring ocean plant life being on their last legs. Although we often use this expression for the Monday Morning post, here we go. Fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

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USGIF Member company GeoEye is always on the leading edge when it comes to providing exceptional quality imaging products. Earlier this month, GeoEye announced that it won a $3.8 billion contract award from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for increased commercial satellite-imaging capacity. The contract is part of the agency’s EnhancedView program, which uses high-resolution images gathered by commercial satellites. Following is an exclusive podcast Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s CEO and President and USGIF board member, who discusses this contract and other GeoEye updates.

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