Interesting article

I stumbled across this article and thought it was interesting...

Shuttle launch Will be Center Stage at UND open house Friday

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is scheduled to launch Space Shuttle Endeavour---STS-126---Friday at 6:55 p.m. Central Standard Time. The Shuttle will be carrying the UND-designed and -built Agricultural Camera (AgCam) for delivery to the International Space Station. AgCam is a high-tech specialty camera designed, built, and delivered to NASA by a team of UND students and faculty from several departments, including UMAC, Space Studies, and the School of Engineering and Mines. This is Shuttle mission number STS-126. This will be the third UND-connected space mission this year. (See AgCam background below. Web link: http://www.umac.org/agcam AgCam background and missionAgCam-designed and crafted to exacting NASA space flight standards by students from several UND departments, including space studies, engineering, and earth system science-will capture on-demand images of land and other topographic features across the upper Midwest. These images will be used as a decision support system resource by farmers, ranchers, tribal resource managers, and researchers. Among many other uses, AgCam multispectral images can be used to analyze crops, forest resources, and other plants. Educators also will have access to these images for in-classroom use as part of environmental, geography, and related curricula. The Agricultural Camera (AgCam) will take frequent images, in visible and infrared light, of vegetated areas on the Earth, principally of growing crops, rangeland, grasslands, forests, and wetlands in the northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. Images will be delivered within two days directly to requesting farmers, ranchers, foresters, natural resource managers and tribal officials to help improve their environmental stewardship of the land for which they are responsible. Images will also be shared with educators for classroom use. The Agricultural Camera was built and will be operated primarily by UND students and faculty. AgCam has been in the making since 2001. When the multispectral camera is installed aboard the International Space Station, it will relay high resolution images of Earth in near-real time for use in agricultural and geological applications at the request of farmers, ranchers, foresters, natural resource managers, and tribal officials in the Upper Midwest Region. The student-run UND Science Operations Center (SOC) has been set up and will become operational in the coming months. From there, students will send commands to AgCam aboard the International Space Station to take photos and then process and deliver the images taken from space.
The AgCam system will be operated from the UND Science Operations Center (SOC) in Clifford Hall (part of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences complex).

Ag Leader Announces new Display

In case you haven't already heard, Ag Leader announced the Edge display, replacing the long running PF series monitors. This new monitor uses the same CAN BUS technology as the Insight, and even uses the same wiring harnesses to allow for these two to be interchangeable. The Edge is a smaller version of the Insight, with some limited functionality, but also at a lower price point, allowing for a lower initial investment and still offering the ability to upgrade without changing harnesses later if you desire.

This is a great point to enter the market for someone starting with nothing. Feel free to post comments or questions about this display - I would like to get a conversation started about it.

IaRTN Network Update

Below is an update from the Iowa DOT...

As of the end of October, 79 of the 80 continually operating reference stations have been installed. The last station will be located on the Iowa DOT's new maintenance facility in Fairfield. This facility is under construction and the reference station installation will occur once the building is finished. We expect the installation of this station will be completed in December of this year.

Presently, we are working on resolving network communications & software issues for a handful of the installed reference stations. Over the next couple months, we will be collecting GPS data from each of the reference stations, processing that data and refining the position of each station, and field testing of the network.

While these efforts are underway, we will also be working with our network vender to develop the online registration application, the procedures for use of the network, and the user training curriculum. We will update you on the IaRTN network registration process and the training plans as this information becomes available.

There is still much work to be completed which could affect the opening of the network
to the public. At this time, we anticipate the network will be available for use by the public on Monday, February 2, 2009.

We will keep you updated to any changes in the progress of the opening of the network.

Where did I plant that hybrid?

One of the pain areas that has come up during this harvest season is the moisture of the corn crop. A few of the hybrids out there have dried down pretty well, but the vast majority of the corn in the field is still pretty wet. If you have an Insight that you planted with in your combine, this process is extremely simple. The Insight has a feature that allows you to use Variety Tracking, and if using that, you can also opt to use automatic region changing. In other words, this system will automatically change regions ( or loads) on the display to show the information for each hybrid, including yield and moisture. You also would have a color background map to show where in the field you planted a specific hybrid or variety. This has helped out in my operation as i quickly knew which hybrid to put on the semi headed to town and which one needed to go in the bin for some drying. One more way technology has paid off by saving in drying costs at the elevator.