Satellite, What is Satellite?
What is Satellite?
Satellite
Usually, the word "Satellite" refers to a machine that is launched into space and moves around Earth or another body in space. A satellite is a moon, planet or machine that orbits a planet or star. For example, Earth is a satellite because it orbits the sun. Likewise, the moon is a satellite because it orbits Earth.
We can say that In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an artificial object made by Human which has been intentionally placed into orbit. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as Earth's Moon.
we can say that Earth and the moon are types of natural satellites. Thousands of those satellite made by human called artificial, or man-made, satellites orbit Earth. Some taken pictures of the planet that are here that help meteorologists to predict weather and track hurricanes (Storms). Some capture the pictures of other planets, the sun, black holes, dark matter or faraway galaxies. These pictures help scientists to better understand the solar system and universe.There are Still other satellites are mainly used for communications, such as beaming TV (TeleVision) signals and phone calls (For Communication) around the world.
A group that have more than 20 satellites make up the Global Positioning System, or GPS (Actually The GPS Means Global Positioning System). If you have a GPS receiver, these satellites can help figure out your exact location. As we see nowadays in our Smart Phones that any of our friend that doesn't have well aware of our location than he ask for the GPS Location, And when you send it to them then he became able to reach at the exact location you have sended him from your smart phone GPS.
Satellites are specifically made for telecommunication purpose. They are used for mobile applications such as communication to ships, vehicles, planes, hand-held terminals and for TV and radio broadcasting.
They are responsible for providing these services to an assigned region (area) on the earth. The power and bandwidth of these satellites depend upon the preferred size of the footprint, complexity of the traffic control protocol schemes and the cost of ground stations.
A satellite works most efficiently when the transmissions are focused with a desired area. When the area is focused, then the emissions don‟t go outside that designated area and thus minimizing the interference to the other systems. This leads more efficient spectrum usage.
Satellite‟s antenna patterns play an important role and must be designed to best cover the designated geographical area (which is generally irregular in shape). Satellites should be designed by keeping in mind its usability for short and long term effects throughout its life time.
The earth station should be in a position to control the satellite if it drifts from its orbit it is subjected to any kind of drag from the external forces.
Radio and TV Broadcast
These dedicated satellites are responsible for making 100s of channels across the globe available for everyone. They are also responsible for broadcasting live matches, news, world-wide radio services. These satellites require a 30-40 cm sized dish to make these channels available globally.
Military Satellites
These satellites are often used for gathering intelligence, as a communications satellite used for military purposes, or as a military weapon. A satellite by itself is neither military nor civil. It is the kind of payload it carries that enables one to arrive at a decision regarding its military or civilian character.
Navigation Satellites
The system allows for precise localization world-wide, and with some additional techniques, the precision is in the range of some meters. Ships and aircraft rely on GPS as an addition to traditional navigation systems. Many vehicles come with installed GPS receivers. This system is also used, e.g., for fleet management of trucks or for vehicle localization in case of theft.
Global Telephone
One of the first applications of satellites for communication was the establishment of international telephone backbones. Instead of using cables it was sometimes faster to launch a new satellite. But, fiber optic cables are still replacing satellite communication across long distance as in fiber optic cable, light is used instead of radio frequency, hence making the communication much faster (and of course, reducing the delay caused due to the amount of distance a signal needs to travel before reaching the destination.). Using satellites, to typically reach a distance approximately 10,000 kms away, the signal needs to travel almost 72,000 kms, that is, sending data from ground to satellite and (mostly) from satellite to another location on earth. This cause‟s substantial amount of delay and this delay becomes more prominent for users during voice calls.
Connecting Remote Areas
Due to their geographical location many places all over the world do not have direct wired connection to the telephone network or the internet (e.g., researchers on Antarctica) or because of the current state of the infrastructure of a country. Here the satellite provides a complete coverage and (generally) there is one satellite always present across a horizon.
Global Mobile Communication
The basic purpose of satellites for mobile communication is to extend the area of coverage. Cellular phone systems, such as AMPS and GSM (and their successors) do not cover all parts of a country. Areas that are not covered usually have low population where it is too expensive to install a base station. With the integration of satellite communication, however, the mobile phone can switch to satellites offering world-wide connectivity to a customer. Satellites cover a certain area on the earth. This area is termed as a „footprint‟ of that satellite. Within the footprint, communication with that satellite is possible for mobile users. These users communicate using a Mobile-User-Link (MUL). The base-stations communicate with satellites using a Gateway-Link (GWL). Sometimes it becomes necessary for satellite to create a communication link between users belonging to two different footprints. Here the satellites send signals to each other and this is done using Inter-Satellite-Link (ISL).
APPLICATIONS OF SATELLITES
Weather Forecasting Certain satellites are specifically designed to monitor the climatic conditions of earth. They continuously monitor the assigned areas of earth and predict the weather conditions of that region. This is done by taking images of earth from the satellite. These images are transferred using assigned radio frequency to the earth station. (Earth Station: it‟s a radio station located on the earth and used for relaying signals from satellites.) These satellites are exceptionally useful in predicting disasters like hurricanes, and monitor the changes in the Earth's vegetation, sea state, ocean color, and ice fields. Radio and TV Broadcast
These dedicated satellites are responsible for making 100s of channels across the globe available for everyone. They are also responsible for broadcasting live matches, news, world-wide radio services. These satellites require a 30-40 cm sized dish to make these channels available globally.
Military Satellites
These satellites are often used for gathering intelligence, as a communications satellite used for military purposes, or as a military weapon. A satellite by itself is neither military nor civil. It is the kind of payload it carries that enables one to arrive at a decision regarding its military or civilian character.
Navigation Satellites
The system allows for precise localization world-wide, and with some additional techniques, the precision is in the range of some meters. Ships and aircraft rely on GPS as an addition to traditional navigation systems. Many vehicles come with installed GPS receivers. This system is also used, e.g., for fleet management of trucks or for vehicle localization in case of theft.
Global Telephone
One of the first applications of satellites for communication was the establishment of international telephone backbones. Instead of using cables it was sometimes faster to launch a new satellite. But, fiber optic cables are still replacing satellite communication across long distance as in fiber optic cable, light is used instead of radio frequency, hence making the communication much faster (and of course, reducing the delay caused due to the amount of distance a signal needs to travel before reaching the destination.). Using satellites, to typically reach a distance approximately 10,000 kms away, the signal needs to travel almost 72,000 kms, that is, sending data from ground to satellite and (mostly) from satellite to another location on earth. This cause‟s substantial amount of delay and this delay becomes more prominent for users during voice calls.
Connecting Remote Areas
Due to their geographical location many places all over the world do not have direct wired connection to the telephone network or the internet (e.g., researchers on Antarctica) or because of the current state of the infrastructure of a country. Here the satellite provides a complete coverage and (generally) there is one satellite always present across a horizon.
Global Mobile Communication
The basic purpose of satellites for mobile communication is to extend the area of coverage. Cellular phone systems, such as AMPS and GSM (and their successors) do not cover all parts of a country. Areas that are not covered usually have low population where it is too expensive to install a base station. With the integration of satellite communication, however, the mobile phone can switch to satellites offering world-wide connectivity to a customer. Satellites cover a certain area on the earth. This area is termed as a „footprint‟ of that satellite. Within the footprint, communication with that satellite is possible for mobile users. These users communicate using a Mobile-User-Link (MUL). The base-stations communicate with satellites using a Gateway-Link (GWL). Sometimes it becomes necessary for satellite to create a communication link between users belonging to two different footprints. Here the satellites send signals to each other and this is done using Inter-Satellite-Link (ISL).
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