Source: ESA.

GeoAwesomness has provided an update to the Galileo satellite debacle, whereas the ESA has decided to instruct the fifth satellite to “make a series of manoeuvres in order to raise its perigee and to reduce the impact of the radiation exposure from Van Allen radiation belts. But the most important effect of those manoeuvres it will be that the satellites will be in a more circular orbit and so to a more useful orbit for the navigation purposes that the satellites made for.”

The ABC reports on an inventive teenager who has created a DIY laser scanner from a milk crate, a laptop, and a web cam. Genius.

GIS User has a post that outlines 5 tools to ‘help you work better, smarter, and faster with LiDAR.’ A handy list for anyone using this most important technology.

Continuing on the LiDAR theme, LiDAR News has a post on underwater laser scanners being used to 3D scan shipwrecks in the US.

GeoAwesomeness has the news that Open Street Map-based mapping app, Maps.me, has been acquired by Russian internet giant Mail.Ru.

In marginally spatially related news, IEEE Spectrum details IBM’s recent re-thinking of supercomputer design to create supercomputers better designed for crunching ‘big data’ problems. The new designs will while deliver 5 to 10 times more computing power, take up just one fifth of the physical space, and use just 10 percent of the energy requirements of today’s current titans (pun intended).

Maps Mania has documented a G20 map that QUT has compiled of restricted zones, landmarks, and geocoded relevant tweets that is still of interest now that the summit has concluded.

Maps Mania also alerts readers that Google has released more Sea View imagery of the Great Barrier Reef.