Importance of Satellites

Satellites used to be well known only in scientist and military circles. They used to be one of those that were marked as top secrets. Mainly, satellites were used for military activities. They were helpful in navigation and intelligence.

However, nowadays, satellites are becoming more important in every persons lives.  Their uses are recognized through weather reports, television transmissions and even in telephone calls that people make daily. In several instances, satellites unnoticeably play importantly in the background.  

Generally, any object that orbits another object is a satellite. Thus, the Moon of the Earth is considered as its satellite. Moreover, since the earth revolves around the sun, the earth is also considered as the sun’s satellite.  

Those machines and devices that people place in the path orbiting the Earth or another world is called artificial satellites.

The first artificial satellite that was sent to space to orbit the Earth was from the Soviet Union. It was called Sputnik, I and was sent to space on October 4, 1957.

In 1962, the collaboration of NASA and UK sent the pioneering international satellite to space. It was called Ariel I. The man-made satellite was to investigate the environment of space. Ariel 1 had six instruments from UK on board to be able to perform the investigation successfully.

By 1967, Ariel 3 was launched. It was Britain, who built and designed the satellite. It was launched from California. Since then, UK has had a fictitious reputation as the world’s top makers of satellites for communications, science and navigation.        

People wonder what could be inside a satellite.  Satellites come in different sizes and shapes. These different characteristics of satellites play different roles.  

An example is a weather satellite. Weather satellites are helpful in predicting the weather. They help the meteorologists to see what is currently happening. Weather satellites have cameras in them that can bring back photos of the Earth’s weather. The views that can be generated can be from a polar orbit or from a fixed geostationary position.  

Communication satellites are also examples of satellites that are unnoticeable used in our daily lives. Data and telephone conversations are transmitted through a satellite. The transponder is one of the most essential features of communication satellites.  A transponder is a radio that can receive a conversation at a frequency. It then amplifies the frequency, and it transmits it back to Earth on a different frequency.

Broadcast satellites helped people to watch our favorite daily programs on the television. Television signals are broadcasted from a different point to another by broadcast satellites. These satellites are actually similar to a communication satellite.

One of the most popular could be the scientific satellites. They perform different scientific missions. These satellites keep on looking at almost everything in space, from gamma rays to sun spots.

Navigational satellites are helpful to voyagers. They allow safe and successful navigation of planes and ships.

Rescue satellites are also existent. They respond to radio signals calling for help. When distress signals are sent out by radios and are captured by these rescue satellites, they respond for help.

There are also satellites that observe the earth always. These Earth-observation satellites provide information and data about the changes of the planet. These satellites provide record data about the Earth’s temperature, ice-sheet coverage and forestation.  

Military satellites are also important. These satellites are stationed up in the sky but the information, how these data are gotten is too confidential for the common people.  High-tech machines and photographic-equipments that are sophisticated are the necessary equipments for these kinds of satellites.

Although these satellites may have significant differences, they do have quite a few things in common. For one, the satellites' body is known as the bus. Its frame and body are made up of metal or is composite. The bus keeps everything in place when the satellite is launched. It is also strong enough to survive a powerful launch. All of these satellites must have a power source. Usually these sources could be solar cells or batteries.

Satellites have ACS or attitude-control-system. This mechanism maintains the satellite to point in the right direction.

Satellites have been proven to be helpful, thus more and more of their kinds are invested.