[SatNews] Virginia Tech and Iowa State University, working in conjunction with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, are preparing for a joint Inka Engineering expedition in the remote, treacherous Andean mountains of Peru. NewCom International, a global communications company specializing in the transport of video, voice and data via satellite, has been tapped to provide satellite services and facilitate streaming video cast from historical sites and pueblos high in the Andes.
,br /> The nine-day educational trip, which kicks off July 11, will send students and researchers from the two universities to Peru to collaborate with native scholars from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and learn the engineering secrets behind the ancient Inka structures that stretch over some of the country’s most rugged terrain. A research team of archeologists, anthropologists and engineers will help students explore how ancient Inka engineers handled hydraulic and geotechnical issues, as well as overall construction of their structures in a land that experiences major earthquakes on a regular basis.

Along the way, the team will conduct live video casts using a laptop computer, an antenna and a modem that connects them to the Internet, and particularly to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, via NewCom's satellite and video conferencing services. The video casts will stream live on other researcher’s laptops and will be projected onto a large screen at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, enabling visitors to the museum to experience and interact with the expedition team in Peru, live and in real-time. To prepare for the July trip, NewCom has undergone several comprehensive tests with both universities and the Smithsonian to ensure the project's success. A team from the Inka Engineering Expedition has also undergone training at NewCom's facilities to understand how to activate the service while on the expedition.