Satellite Technology and Equipment in Brief

A satellite can be described as any object whether it is man made or naturally occurring that orbits around something else. There are over ten types of man-made satellite.

Some of the main types of man made satellites that are used today include the communication satellite, astronomical satellite, earth observation satellites, weather satellites, and space stations.

Communication satellite is a satellite that is stationed in space for the intention of telecommunications. It relays messages, radio, and telephone and television signals. The earth station that is based on the ground transmits signals to the satellite, which then conveys signals to other earth stations. Communication satellites are very effective in bringing the people together because communications that used to take days or even months, now only takes a minute or second using satellites.

The communication equipments are those apparatus that are used to distribute information from one place to the other. It includes devices like Ethernet, antenna, network routers, network switches, transceivers, signal conditioners, signal transmitters, signal receivers, and signal transmission medium. These equipments facilitate the transmission of voice, video and data application signals from one place to the other and are used in many communication devices such as mobile phones, pagers, radio systems, and telephones.

The astronomical satellites help in giving information about space and the universe that may not be acquired by observatories on earth. It sends data about the earth's magnetic field and its radiation belts and the solar wind identify radiation such as gamma rays, infrared rays, ultra violet rays, and X-rays from the outer space that point out the existence of various objects varying from stars and galaxies to quasars, invisible gas clouds, black holes, and the ruins of the exploding stars.

An Infrared Astronomical satellite was the first space-based observatory to present a survey of the entire sky using the infrared wavelengths. IRAS examined more than 96% of the sky 4 times at 4 infrared bands that were centered at 100, 60, 25, and 12 microns that increase the number of catalog astronomical sources by almost 70%. Its mission has had a major impact on almost every field of astronomy.

The Earth Observation Satellites observe the conditions on the earth and they follow a near polar orbit from which they can monitor the whole surface on a regular basis. This type of satellite gives information that includes measurements for mapping purposes, geological surveys, mining activities, oil discoveries, and agricultural related records. They can also spot oil spill, forest fires, and different kinds of pollution.

Remote sensing is the technology to view the Earth's surface from the distance by observation equipment on board satellites and aircraft. For this remote sensing, the orbit of the satellite is established so that the satellite may monitor occasionally the same point on the earth at the same time. Then the Earth observing data can be continually collected by the Earth Observation Satellite, and any changes on the earth may be observed in a global range detail over a long period and this data gathered is analyzed by the computers. Thus, we can apply this satellite to various fields that concerns our living phenomena from the natural world that include the global environmental changes, typhoon, volcano, floating ice to the environmental changes due to human activities.

The weather satellite is mostly used to monitor the climate and weather of the Earth. This satellite is used to describe atmospheric conditions of an area at any specific time and of expected temperatures, humidity, and precipitation. Weather satellites are very useful in the daily lives of the farmers and fishermen whose livelihood depends on the weather conditions.

All these types of satellites have their unique importance in our daily activities. They all play a big part in our modern life today whether it is for the purpose of communications, navigation, military uses, research, or weather forecasting; they are an integral part of our daily life and they have thousands of uses and perform it without ever being seen.