SPAC 511 - Earth Observation and Remote Sensing

Over a thousand active satellites are in orbit around the Earth with applications including navigation, the transmission of data and satellite remote sensing; a space-based technology providing data accessible to everyone. The Practical Handbook of Remote Sensing offers a complete understanding of the basic scientific principles needed to perform practical remote sensing at home or at work, using a personal computer. This book contains the information needed to effectively find, download, analyze, and view environmental data. Written by an expert with more than 15 years of experience along with the perspective of a non-expert navigating his way through remote sensing for the first time, it serves as a guidebook for anyone wanting to use remote sensing technology without becoming an expert on the subject.

Advances in Remote Sensing for Natural Resources Monitoring provides a detailed overview of the potential applications of advanced satellite data in natural resource monitoring. The book determines how environmental and - ecological knowledge and satellite-based information can be effectively combined to address a wide array of current natural resource management needs. Each chapter covers different aspects of remote sensing approach to monitor the natural resources effectively, to provide a platform for decision and policy. This important work:

• Provides comprehensive coverage of advances and applications of remote sensing in natural resources monitoring
• Includes new and emerging approaches for resource monitoring with case studies
• Covers different aspects of forest, water, soil- land resources, and agriculture
• Provides exemplary illustration of themes such as glaciers, surface runoff, ground water potential and soil moisture content with temporal analysis
• Covers blue carbon, seawater intrusion, playa wetlands, and wetland inundation with case studies
• Showcases disaster studies such as floods, tsunami, showing where remote sensing technologies have been used

The result of a workshop bringing together an international advisory board of experts in science, satellite technologies, industry innovations, and public policy, this book addresses the current and future roles of satellite Earth observations in solving large-scale environmental problems. The book showcases the results of engaging distinct communities to enhance our ability to identify emerging problems and to administer international regimes created to solve them. It also reviews the work of the Policy and Earth Observation Innovation Cycle (PEOIC) project, an effort aimed at assessing the impact of satellite observations on environmental policy and to propose a mission going forward that would launch an "innovation cycle". The achievements of such a mission would feed back to innovations in next-generation observation technology, thus contributing to global policy demand for policy-relevant information. This book is open access under a CC BY  license. 

Hyperspectral Satellites and System Design is the first book on this subject. It provides a systematic analysis and detailed design of the entire development process of hyperspectral satellites. Derived from the author's 25-year firsthand experience as a technical lead of space missions at the Canadian Space Agency, the book offers engineers, scientists, and decision-makers detailed knowledge and guidelines on hyperspectral satellite system design, trade-offs, performance modeling and simulation, optimization from component to system level, subsystem design, and implementation strategies. This information will help reduce the risk, shorten the development period, and lower the cost of hyperspectral satellite missions. This book is a must-have reference for professionals in developing hyperspectral satellites and data applications. It is also an excellent introductory book for early practitioners and students who want to learn more about hyperspectral satellites and their applications.

This SpringerBrief explores the technological, economic, physiological, and psychological comparisons between a journey to the Moon versus a journey to Mars, taking into consideration the national and international perspectives at play. The author spent over six years interviewing leading space experts from around the world to learn why lunar habitats and the creation of a permanent presence on the Moon are an essential next step to human exploration and settlement in space. Practical reasons related to energy, telecommunications and networking, robotic systems, medical and scientific research, material processing, and more show why it must be the Moon First and Mars Second.

For several decades it has been widely accepted that human space exploration is the exclusive domain of government agencies. The cost of performing such missions, estimated in multiple reports to amount to hundreds of billions dollars over decades, was far beyond what private entities could afford. That arrangement seems to be changing. Buoyed by the success of its program to develop commercial cargo capabilities to support the International Space Station, NASA is becoming increasingly open to working with the private sector in its human space exploration plans. The new private-public partnership will make 'planet hopping' feasible.  This book analyses the move towards planet hopping, which sees human outposts moving across the planetary dimensions, from the Moon to Near-Earth Asteroids and Mars. It critically assesses the intention to exploit space resources and how successful these missions will be for humanity. This insightful and accessible book will be of great interest to scholars and students of space policy and politics, international studies, and science and technology studies.

As humanity begins to move in earnest towards becoming a multiplanetary civilization, the social science questions of what will be required of that civilization begin to emerge. This work seeks to highlight these questions and to provide some answers about the economic, political, and social predicaments of space civilization.