Res Communis

Astro2010 Decadal Survey by the National Academy of Sciences….The influential report sets a roadmap for scientific priorities and chooses the most promising telescope candidates for 2012-2021. Space- and ground-based research projects are split among large, midsize and small categories, so that WFIRST with its almost 5-foot (1.5-meter) field-of-view came in first within the large category of space projects exceeding $1 billion.

For comparison, NASA’s next huge space observatory – the infrared James Webb Space Telescope – has an estimated cost of about $5 billion and is slated to launch in 2014. The iconic Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990, has a total cost of more than $10 billion including its construction, launch and 20 years of operations. Major interplanetary missions, like NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn and Galileo mission to Jupiter, also carried billion-dollar costs.

A new ground-based observatory that could scan the entire available sky every three nights topped report’s list of vital, large ground projects that exceed $135 million. The $465-million telescope, called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, would scan each region of the sky 1,000 times over 10 years with an almost 28-foot (8.4-meter) aperture from its location in Chile. It is slated to see first light before the end of the decade.

Unlike past reports, this latest Decadal Survey considered the technological readiness and cost risk of each project. It also looked at previously considered projects such as LSST, which had matured since the most recent survey in 2001 and has now been dubbed the most “ready-to-go” among the ground projects…more

A coalition of nearly 900 small and mid-sized cable companies urged the FCC today to impose conditions on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger if it gives a green light to the proposed media conglomerate.
“With the risks so high, the FCC must not fail to protect consumers,” said the president and CEO of the American Cable Association, Matthew Polka, as the group submitted comments on the merger to the FCC. Today is the deadline for filing comments.
The cable association called the Comcast-NBCU pact “the most serious threat to the media ecosystem in at least a decade, justifying regulatory intervention to prevent the media giant from harming competitors and their subscribers through the exercise of undue market power obtained as a result of the deal.”
Independent cable companies fear the merger will mean skyrocketing fees for carrying signals from NBC’s 10 owned-and-operated TV stations, Comcast’s nine regional sports networks and the two companies’ many national cable networks.
The association suggests that the FCC set three general conditions and four specific conditions for the merger to go forward. “In the main, ACA’s conditions would simplify contracts, lower arbitration costs, and contain special conditions for smaller operators that cannot afford baseball-style arbitration available to all pay-TV providers,” the group said.
For instance, one of the association’s proposed general conditions would require Comcast-NBCU to sell signals for NBC stations and regional sports networks on a stand-alone basis, not in bundles with other networks.

Scores of stimulus grants to extend broadband infrastructure to underserved Americans were announced today by the departments of Commerce and Agriculture as part of an effort to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
Grants totaling $1.8 billion for 94 projects in 37 states are aimed at both job creation and technology expansion, Commerce Secretary Locke and Agriculture Secretary Vilsack said in a conference call announcing the latest round of funding from a $7.2 billion pot for broadband projects that was included in last year’s Recovery Act.
“These projects will connect Americans who have for too long been without the full economic, educational and social benefits of high-speed Internet access – access central to success in the 21st century,” Locke said.
Locke said 36 percent of Americans are without access to high-speed Internet services. “That is simply unacceptable,” he said. The 66 projects announced today by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration will develop 25,000 miles of new broadband networks, providing access to 19 million households and 1.8 million businesses, he said.
Vilsack said nearly half the people living in rural areas lack access to broadband services. The 28 awards provided today from USDA’s Rural Utilities Service will extend infrastructure to 1.2 million households, he said.
Noteworthy among the funded projects are five new networks for public safety services, such as a $38.7 million project in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M., that will enable streaming of patient data from paramedics to hospitals and other types of data transmission.
Satellite services are also being funded for the first time in four projects, including a $7.5 million award to Spacenet, Inc., to provide broadband service to rural customers in Alaska and Hawaii.