Satellites

It is very important to know how satellites are important to our world today. Almost 60 percent of our world depends on satellite. Many people think that satellites are just there for the television (TV) and the Internet. Satellites have many purposes other than just TV and the Internet. There are more important types of satellites and to name a few they are communication satellites, navigation satellites, weather satellites, and research satellites. Communication satellites are used for cell phones, house phones, internet, and any other kind of communicational devices that may be needed. How does a cell phone which uses a satellite work when the satellite is very far away in orbit traveling around the earth? All cell phones have a chip called a sim card. The sim card connects to the satellite by using wireless electricity. The cell phone sending the signal travels and is received by the satellite. The satellite then transmits the wireless signal to the receiving cell phone. Another type of satellite is the navigation satellite using global positioning, also know as global positioning service (GPS) navigation. Many businesses, the military, and people like you and me who get lost easily use the navigation satellite. This keeps us all from being lost during travel. The GPS navigation satellite works almost the same way as a cell phone. The user has a device that communicates to the satellite and the satellite transmits the current position back to the user. The user can be a person in a car or the device in a missile going to destroy a target. The first satellite was launched into orbit around the earth by the Soviet Union on October 4 , 1957. It was named the Sputnik 1. The interesting thing about the Sputnik 1 was they put a trained dog inside of the satellite and sent it to the orbit. You are probably wondering how a satellite works in space, especially the power supply. The power supply comes from the sun as the sun is always out in space. The satellites have big solar panels and they absorb the sunlight and makes energy just like any other solar panel. The reason why the satellite stays in orbit around the world is because the the earth's gravitational magnetic field. In fact the satellite will eventually fall to the earth over time and may burn up. The satellite needs to be as light as possible so it can be put into orbit with as little energy required. Therefore, it is not self operating being controlled by a people on earth. All US and many other country's satellites are controlled and regulated on earth by the government agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Satellites are great and necessary inventions.