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Personal Satellite Diaries

randa — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:24:49 -0800

News from SYNERGY MOON’s launch provider, Interorbital Systems:
Sandy Antunes chronicles his experience building his own personal satellite (an IOS TubeSat Kit) at:
http://ScientificBlogging.com/satellite_diaries

The Future of American Human Spaceflight

Kevin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:20:30 -0800

Last weeks announcement of the proposed NASA budget, dropping human spaceflight as one of NASA's responsibilities, has caused some to doubt that we Americans can keep up, that we will step up to the challenge of commercializing human spaceflight. First of all, dispite perceptions to the contrary, all American spaceflight has always been carried out by commercial companies. NASA has never built a single man-rated spacecraft. All this strange talk about private industry not being able to build certified man-rated rockets is part of that strange perception that NASA built our man-rated spacecraft. They did not, private companies built every one of them, from the Mercury capsules to the space shuttles.

Last year the Space Frontiers Foundation co- sponsored a contest, asking the question, What Should the Future of American Human Spaceflight Be? Our team entered three video responses to this contest. This was one of the prize winners:

SYNERGY MOON's Randa Milliron Comments on Shuttle Demise

randa — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:00:59 -0800

Randa Milliron, Interorbital Systems CEO and CoFounder/ SYNERGY MOON's Launch Provider, comments on Space Shuttle Program demise:
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69294.html

SYNERGY MOON's Randa Milliron Discusses Interorbital's Plans for Tongan Spaceport

randa — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:31:52 -0800

Interorbital Systems' CEO/Co Founder Randa Milliron discusses the company's plans for a private spaceport in the Kingdom of Tonga, its TubeSat program, and IOS' NEPTUNE 30 launch scheduled for December 2010.

Radio New Zealand 'Summer Reports' (located at 08:45)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/summerreport/20100114

Radio Australia 'Pacific Beat'
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201001/s2791047.htm

Tonga Prepares for Interorbital Systems Spaceport

Kevin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:44:36 -0800

SYNERGY MOON team members Rod and Randa Milliron of Interorbital Systems (IOS) visited Tonga in November 2009 to meet with members of the royal family and government officials, to pave the way for construction of Tonga's Island Spaceport on 'Eua. IOS plans to launch their first NEPTUNE 30 with a payload of CubeSats and TubeSats in November or December of this year (2010). The SYNERGY MOON lunar mission will also launch from there on the IOS NEPTUNE 1000. Here is the latest news from Matangi, Tonga ONLINE

SYNERGY MOON ARTS & CULTURE GROUP

Kevin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:25:17 -0800

The arts and culture group is a developmental and integral part of our project, focused on producing cultural events and artwork. One definition of art (out of the thousands of definitions) is a creative imagining of anything and everything in the human experience. Certainly what we are doing on the science and technology side are part of the human experience, and part of a story that can be told through art. Science, engineering and technology have played an important part of many cultures in the past, and are represented in many of the most enduring examples of ancient civilizations. We want art to be an intentional part of our project, not an after thought, and we want to make as many cultural connections as we can to help humanize our project, our activities.

The events we are planning leading up to our mission will provide an outlet for our arts component, while also providing promotions for our team. The promotions are an intentional effect, but not the primary intent of the events. We will also execute parts of our educational outreach at these events, and provide a glimpse into the various channels that will be available to view the progress of our lunar mission, creative channels, not just dry scientific mission reporting.

Welcome Anna Hill to Team SYNERGY MOON! WooHoo!

Kevin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:57:32 -0700

Anna Hill Artist /Space Entrepreneur, Founder and owner of SSL studied (BA) Fine Art Sculpture at St Martins School of Art London followed by the Royal College of Art London (MA Fine Art Sculpture) She practiced as an artist (to critical acclaim) for ten years working in the interface between science and art developing conceptual and sensory artworks.

She moved to Dublin in 2000 to take up a residency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art followed by the Fire Station Artists studios in Dublin, Ireland who provided her with the support to initiate the Space Synapse project. In 2003 she founded Space Synapse Ltd as an Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start Up Company at the Digital Hub and embarked on her first SSL European Space Agency contract "A preliminary analysis for an interactive artwork for the Columbus Module of the International Space Station" (ESTEC contract No.17515/03/NL/MV) with a team of interdisciplinary experts.

In 2004 she visited Finnish Lapland (with the support of the Irish and Lapland Art Councils) to work on the R & D for an interactive exhibit "Auroral Synapse", nominated for an Interactive BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Award) in the category of best interactive Artwork.

Space Synapse Ltd relocated to the European Space Incubator at ESTEC in the Netherlands in May 2006 where Anna Hill has been building the company infra structure in preparation for the next phases of technology development of the SSL products: the Remote Suit, the Symbiotic Sphere and the Space Synapse System that she originally conceptualized and copyrighted in 2001.

Anna Hill has published widely, made public presentations and been recipient of many awards in the area of art and innovation. She has participated in a number of ESA stakeholder Strategy meetings including the cornerstone workshop "Sharing the Space Adventures and Benefits - The Future of European Space Exploration *Towards a European Long term Strategy" held in Brussels in 2005 and the International Space Station IBC workshop on future commercialization scenarios for the ISS, held in Berlin in November 2006.

Team SYNERGY MOON welcomes Helena Bulaja to the Team! WOW

Kevin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:22:48 -0700

http://www.bulaja.com/onama_eng.htm

Helena Bulaja was born in Split, Croatia in 1971, and was educated in History of Art and Comparative Literature at Zagreb University.

She worked as an art director, designer and illustrator for various computer magazines, and started her career as a digital artist in 1995. In 1996 on Salon of the Young Artists in Zagreb, together with Petar Grimani and Zvonimir Bulaja, she exhibited the first interactive Internet installation in Croatia entitled "...lOok ... wwwsculpture ... Freedom in the City or Just an Illusion". Web pages of the project were recommended at Geocities.com, Hotwired.com etc.

In 1997 the project continued on the Salon of Architecture in Zagreb, where she made an Installation ..."lOok"...WWWSCULPTURE ... introducing real space to cyberspace and vice versa - METAPHORS", experimenting with telepresence and urban space improvement through the use of the new technologies. Web pages of the project were presented at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, in Net Art selection.

In 1999 with her husband Zvonimir she founded a publishing company 'Alt F4 - Bulaja naklada', which became the leading Croatian multimedia and CD-ROM publishing house. The company had its first success with the edition "Classics of Croatian Literature", a collection of Croatian literature classics in e-book form. The CDs are still national bestsellers.

In 2000 she started the most successful Croatian interactive project: a collection of animated and interactive stories "Croatian Tales of Long Ago", based on a fairytale book with the same title written in 1916 by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, "the Slavic Tolkien", one of the most famous Croatian literature classics. The project won about 30 international awards and recognitions, at the animation and new media festivals worldwide, including the most important ones (San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Montreux, Toronto, Austin, Zagreb, Annecy, Hamburg, Ottawa, Seoul...). Helena gathered together creative teams from Australia, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, England, Denmark and Croatia, and each team transferred one of eight fairy tales from this famous book into the digital world, with complete creative freedom. There were more than hundred people involved in this project: animators, illustrators, musicians, programmers etc. The project was a unique step towards exploring the relation between digital media and traditional, classic literature. It was also done in the unique way, with 8 independent teams of collaborators from all around the world, whose work was coordinated on the Internet. CD-ROMs "Croatian Tales of Long Ago" (Part One and Part Two) were claimed to be the most important project in Croatian animation and cinematography of the decade, of the 21st century etc, by the leading Croatian media.

For this project Helena authored, directed and animated the cartoon "Regoch", awarded at International Family Film Festival 2007 in Hollywood (best foreign short animation), and selected and screened at Euroshorts 2006, Warsaw, Reel Women Film Festival 2007, Los Angeles, AFIA 2007 in Aarhus, Denmark, and Interfilm 2007 in Berlin. At Imagining Ourselves Online Film Festival 2007 in San Francisco "Regoch" was voted second best European short film by the Internet audience.

From 2007 "Bulaja naklada" started a new series of publications based on the project: each tale is to be published as a special "deluxe" edition that includes a book, DVD, CD and other surprises and activities. Helena's design of the first book/package from the series, "Stribor's Forest" based on the cartoon by the Scottish animator Alistair Keddie, is the only book that won two "Kiklop" awards, which is the most prestigeous Croatian book award given at Pula Book Fair: best children book and best design. At the end of 2008 the second pack from the series was released: "Neva" based on the cartoon by Canadian Edgar Beals, with even more innovative concept and design.

Helena's new project - started in 2005 - experimental interactive film "Mechanical Figures - twentythousandcycles.NET" is inspired by Nikola Tesla. The main focus of the project is exploration of the process of creativity. Helena again gathered an impressive team if international authors. The project moves the boundaries of the digital media, in the space between the Internet, film and performance. Being very multidimensional, the project questions and reinvestigates the film as a form of art which is today more and more consumed through handheld and mobile devices, as well as the Internet. Tesla is the main subject of the film not only because of his interesting and intriguing persona, but also because he was an inspiration to many well known artists. So the starting point of the stories are the interviews with artists and creative individuals like Terry Gilliam, Andy Serkis, Laurie Anderson, Marina Abramovic, Christopher Priest, Douglas Rushkoff and many others, and their thoughts will be the origin for creation of a peculiar and distinctive story about the creativity and technology.

From 2005 Helena Bulaja is a member of Zagreb City Council's expert advisory board for new media, urban and alternative culture.

Helena, with her husband Zvonimir, organized and directed very successful festival of "digital creativity" DECro in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2003 and 2005, focused on the creative use of new technologies and digital tools. The festival gathered famous panelists and lectures from the fields of new media, animation and Flash, including one of the most famous Web designers today Joshua Davis.

She is a member of the jury of the Flash animation storytelling festival "The Greatest Story Never Told" in San Francisco from 2003 on.

She was a program director of "Cartoon Night", a special animation program at the fairytale festival Fiabesque in Peccioli, Italy, in January 2007.

As a guest speaker or a panelist she was invited to numerous conferences and universities, among others Brookes University's "Dust or Magic" Conference in Oxford, Bologna Book Fair, Dresden Film Festival's "Exchange Forum", Edit Festival in Frankfurt, and New Media School in Auckland, New Zealand.

Helena lives in Zagreb and is a mother of 4 children.

Neda Ansari Ghopeh has joined Team SYNERGY MOON as partner.

Nebojsa Stanojevic — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:19:50 -0700

Please join us in welcoming the newest member of our SYNERGY MOON family,Neda Ansari Ghopeh.

In her own words: " The allure for me to join was the spirit of competition for one of the most coveted prizes of humankind. In team SYNERGY MOON I saw the ideals that I have personally strived for and worked hard to achieve myself: Human Synergy as it relates to peace and understanding among cultures. Team SYNERGY MOON is an internationally represented entity and has built a solid foundation on and promotes peace.

Two weeks ago co-founder Nebojsa Stanojevic and Miroslav Ambrus-Kis, both professional adventurers, real-life Indiana Jones if you will, who also happen to be celebrities in film and media themselves, were selected to fly Inerorbial Systems' Neptune 1000 into orbit. The news was very exciting. The spirit of adventure and discovery is a state where I feel very comfortable with and Team SYNERGY MOON obviously represented that and more. Soon after when team leader Kevin Myrick sent a message to recruit me, I couldn't refuse.

I am delighted to accept the call and look forward to amazing adventures ahead. With good intentions and best regards to all the teams,
"We (as in the expanded sense of the word) have won already !"

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Many of you already know Neda, as a guest blogger on GLXP, The Launch Pad.
We’re very excited to have Neda on board. Please join us in welcoming her!

H+ Magazine Interview with Randa Milliron of Interorbital Systems

Kevin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:25:37 -0700

RANDA MILLIRON: We're building a low-cost transportation system from Earth to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond, principally with the Moon as the next logical destination. Let me stress that this is actually a low-cost system -- our rocket is not a rehash of a Delta or a kluge of leftover military missile hardware that the manufacturers say will be cheaper just because they want it to be. In reality, the other rockets are still the same intricate and expensive launchers that -- by their very complex nature -- will never be able to meet our price. We are building an entirely new launch vehicle -- one that is the result of a philosophy of radical systems simplification. One that really is low-cost.

Read the interview at the H+ website:
http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/air-space/8k-personal-satellite-and-ot...