Satellite Technology

Satellite technology has grow to be part of all our everyday lives. From telling us what the weather is going to be like, and how to get from one location to an additional, to offering us a far wider option of programmes to watch on Tv.

What is a satellite?

Satellite is a word that just refers to one body orbiting one more. There are natural satellites that orbit planets, such as our Moon, and artificial, man-made satellites that serve a selection of different purposes. The very first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, was sent into space on 4 October 1957 by the former Soviet Union. Nowadays there are over three,000 satellites in orbit, owned by far more than 40 countries worldwide.

What are they utilised for?

Man-created satellites have six primary uses:

- Scientific investigation
- Earth observation
- Weather
- Communications
- Navigation
- Military

What are the distinct kinds of orbit?

There are a lot of different orbits a satellite can be put into, depending on what it’s becoming utilized for. But the majority use 1 of the following orbits.

- Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) is where the satellite sits directly over the equator, about 35,775 km above Earth. It will rotate in the same direction and at the very same speed as our planet, so always appears to be in the same location in the sky. Communications and some weather satellites are placed in this sort of orbit.

- Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is commonly described as the region among 200 and 2,000 km.  Most artificial Earth satellites are placed in LEO, where they travel at about 27,000 km/h (8 km/s), generating one revolution in about 90 minutes.  Various orbits are utilised for different applications, e.g. Earth observation satellites typically use the Sun synchrous orbit, travelling over the Poles and thus seeing most of the Earth’s surface over time, whilst LEO communications satellites travel in orbits centred on the equator.  Some scientific missions such as Hubble look out into space from LEO. 

- Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) has several definitions but is basically the region above LEO (2,000 km) to 1,000 km below GEO (34,775 km).  This region is used by the a variety of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The European Galileo method will reside there as nicely as the existing US GPS and the Russian Glonass.  Many other satellites pass through this region either operationally or in the course of deployment. 

Satellite technologies and instruments

Each and every satellite launched into space will carry its own distinctive set of instruments or technology, relevant to the mission. So a satellite studying outer space will have a telescope that can see in different wavelengths of light, one monitoring the weather may have a camera to measure cloud movement, although one utilized for communications will carry a payload that allows it to redirect messages back to one component of the Earth that have been sent up from one more component.

They will also have a group of devices called “subsystems” that will aid power the satellite, co-ordinate the instruments and send information back to Earth. The subsystem that powers the satellite will normally incorporate solar panels that gather energy from the Sun.

How are satellites launched?

Some satellites, such as Hubble, are launched via a space shuttle. But the majority will be sent into orbit on rockets, which then fall into the ocean when they’ve utilised up all their fuel.

How do they remain in orbit?

Two factors combine to keep a satellite in orbit:
- the speed of the satellite
- the gravitational pull between the Earth and the satellite

This is comparable to attaching a ball to a string and swinging it about in a circle. If the string were to break, the ball would fly off in a straight line. But due to the fact it is tethered (like gravity tethers a satellite), it orbits you instead.

What happens they quit working?

A satellite will stay in orbit until it starts slowing down. Gravity will then pull it into a denser portion of the atmosphere, the friction generated as the satellite moves at extremely high speed by means of this denser atmosphere generates a lot of heat which can be sufficient to trigger the satellite to burn up just before it reaches the Earth’s surface. The ones that are too huge to burn up are guided to come down in a remote portion of the ocean away from people.

What is small satellite technology?

Modest satellite technologies, being pioneered in the UK, uses a range of new techniques that allow scientists to create and launch satellites quicker and for significantly less income than previously doable.

Many of these new little or “micro” satellites are presently being tested to establish no matter whether easy, economically-built spacecraft can attain the same outcomes as standard satellites.

If profitable, these new methods could have a massive impact on the future of space missions and substantially reduce the cost of launching satellites.

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