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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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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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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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It was only a matter of time when GEOINT technologies would permeate our daily lives. While the use of GPS and technologies like Four Square are used everyday by many, there is a new movement where complete situational GEOINT awareness is provided by Smart Phones. This past weekend, the NY Times did a story about Smart Phone applications that allow the average user to gain a deep understanding of the world around them. Want to know the artist responsible for the print hanging in that restaurant? The name of the building with the enormous gargoyles? The last selling price of that house up ahead? Just point your Smart Phone in that direction and you will have that situational data at your finger tips. All we can say is very cool. GEOINT continues to take over and will continue to make our lives better. Welcome all thoughts and feedback.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you had a restful weekend and were able to spend time with family, friends and loved ones. It seems that 2010 has been a major year for the IC. General Clapper is the new DNI. Letitia Long now heads the NGA. And, Robert Cardillo will now be serving in a deputy role at the ODNI. Be sure to check out our 2009 podcast with Mr. Cardillo here. And of course, be sure to fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.

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Perhaps it is a reaction to the current administration, but Ayn Rand, the Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright and screenwriter who penned Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged has gained in influence these days. So much so that one fan decided to spread the “Read Ayn Rand” message globally, well, um, at least on the globe itself. Nick Newcomen drove 12,328 miles across the United States to “write” this message that can only be seen on Google Earth. According to worldsbiggestwriting.com, he used a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X)3 to record his “writing.” He turned on the device when he wanted to write and turned off the device between letters. He then input the recorded GPS data into Google Earth resulting in the image you see in this post. What is next? Google Earth being used to spread political messages from all walks of life?

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We knew it would only be a matter of time before the business world and Wall Street collided with the GEOINT world. Did you know that Wall Street analysts now use satellite images to asses how well a business is doing? Neither did we. But, according to a most interesting CNBC article, UBS analyst Neil Currie had been looking at satellite data on Wal-Mart during each month of 2010, and he’d concluded that there was enough correlation between what he was seeing in the satellite pictures of Wal-Mart’s parking lots to the big-box chain’s quarterly earnings, that he was ready to incorporate that data into UBS’ report on Wal-Mart, which releases its earnings today. The way this works is that both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe sells these types of Wal-Mart images to an analysis firm, which scrutinizes the images and sell the aggregated data to hedge funds and Wall Street analysts. Wall Street and GEOINT come together.

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