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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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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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On September 9-10, more than 100 leaders from the Earth Observation community including senior executives from satellite operators, manufacturers, government agencies and service providers, will be gathering in Paris for Euroconsult’s upcoming Symposium on Earth Observation Business, which takes place during World Satellite Business Week. This high-profile event is a unique meeting place to discuss market trends and the opportunities and challenges ahead in the growing and changing Earth observation sector. Following is an exclusive podcast with Adam Keith, Director, Earth Observation, Euroconsult about this event and other EO trends and topics.

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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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While technological advances in the areas of geospatial imagery, full-motion video, and other raw data have increased the volume of information available to decision makers and warfighters, the intelligence community (IC) still struggles to ensure that data is timely and truly actionable. In many ways, this is the Achilles’ heel for our nation’s overall intelligence capabilities. With the help of industry, the IC has built out the most innovative and forward-thinking intelligence-gathering solutions through imagery and mapping, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data collection, and video, but none of this innovation is of use if it does not help advance our missions abroad.

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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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The USGIF Awards Program annually recognizes the exceptional work of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft’s brightest minds and innovators. The nomination process is open and the deadline is one month away (September 17, 2010). So, hurry up and be sure to be a part of this prestigious awards program. Today, we are speaking with Kevin Jackson, USGIF Awards Subcommittee Chair, and is the Vice President Business Development Geospatial Engineering and Development Operation for SAIC, about why this awards program is so vital to the GEOINT community.

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