'Student project' satellite launched from Russia
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 28 October 2005

The first satellite to be designed and built entirely by European students on the internet was successfully launched from a site in northern Russia, paving the way for what its backers hope will be more pioneering student projects in space.

The micro-satellite, named Sseti Express, blasted off on the back of a Russian Cosmos-3M rocket from a cosmodrome in Plessetsk with satellites from China, Germany, Iran, Norway, Japan and Britain sharing the ride.

Nils Harmsen, one of the project's organisers from the University of Stuttgart in Germany, described the launch as a "complete success" and said the satellite had reached its orbiting height of 686km above the Earth without a hitch.

"It's responding and we can start work," he said after the satellite sent its first radio messages back to the European Space Agency's (ESA) control centre in the German city of Darmstadt yesterday.

Sseti Express was designed by more than 200 European students from 10 universities in nine countries under the ESA's Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative. The satellite was completed in less than two years. Although the students were assisted by the ESA, they relied on the internet as their principal means of exchanging data.

Graham Shirville, who headed the telecommunications side of the project, said the satellite was intended to show the world that students were capable of such a feat. "The prime purpose is to demonstrate that students can design and build a satellite that is well enough constructed to be flown together with other passenger satellites," he said.

Sseti Express is equipped with a camera which will relay images of the Earth back to Darmstadt. It also carries three tiny "cubesats", which will conduct experiments, and a transponder which will relay amateur radio signals. One of the cubesats will test internet data communication in space.

The agency's next student satellite mission is scheduled for 2008. ESA plans to send a student satellite into orbit around the moon by 2012.


http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article322840.ece

Scoble and Handy to headline IT@Cork
Blogger extraordinaire and Microsoft ‘technical evangelist’ Robert Scoble and business thinker Charles Handy will be the guest speakers at IT@Cork’s 7th annual conference at the end of the month.
Scoble, who maintains the popular blog, Scoblebizer, and is noted for his not-always-complimentary views about Microsoft, will share his expertise and insights into blogging and discuss emerging trends in software at a technical forum session in the afternoon. He will also attend an inaugural ‘bloggers dinner’ later that evening.

Speaking in advance of the conference, Scoble said, “Corporate blogging is changing how companies talk with their customers. Do it wrong and you could end up with negative PR. Do it right and you'll have happier employees, better products, and more informed customers. It'll be interesting to learn about the blogging that's happening in Ireland and I'll bring some of the top tips I've learnt working for Microsoft.”

Management guru and top selling author Handy will speak on the topic of entrepreneurship. Handy’s presentation will demonstrate how mindsets, organisational structures and management systems influence, inspire and conspire against the creative and entrepreneurial processes.

Michael O’Connor, CEO of Cork Business Innovation Centre and chair of the conference organising committee, commented, “It is widely recognised that Irish companies, particularly in the technology sector, need to enhance their entrepreneurship and innovation capacities and it is in this context that we invited Robert Scoble and Charles Handy to this year’s event.”

Eoin O’Driscoll, chairman of Forfás, Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland and Joe Gantly, chairman of Cork Airport will be among those chairing sessions and presenting at the conference.
The event will take place on Wednesday 30 November at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Co Cork. See www.itcork.ie.

By Brian Skelly