(MEO)— These satellites park in between the low and high flyers, so from about 1,243 miles (2,000 kilometers) to 22,223 miles (36,000 kilometers). Navigation satellites, like the kind used by your car's GPS, work well at this altitude. Sample specs for such a satellite might be...
as well as their budgets, have tended to get bigger. The United States, for example, has spent $200 billion on its military satellite program since its inception and now, despite the investment, has a fleet of aging devices without many replacements waiting in the wings [source:The New Atla...
In this article, we'll peer into the guts of a typical satellite and then gaze through its "eyes" to enjoy views of our planet that Socrates and Newton could have barely imagined. But first, let's take a closer look at what, exactly, makes a satellite different from other celestial obj...
Brown, Gary. (2003). How Satellites Work. HowstuffWorks.com. 18 October 2003 . Hillier, Frederick and Gerald, Lieberman. (2001). Intro- duction to Operations Research, Seventh Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001. Intelsat.com - Technical Resources - Satellite Basics. (2003). Intelsat. ...
To place a satellite in a stable orbit around Earth, it must overcome Earth’s gravitational pull and air resistance in the lower atmosphere. Theescape velocityfor a satellite is around 7 miles per second. Even after escaping Earth, the pull of gravity contests a satellite’s tendency to rema...
A detailed guide on how a small satellite dish on Earth communicates with geostationary satellites orbiting 22,300 miles above the equator.
A GPS receiver has to have a clear line of sight to the satellite to operate, so dense tree cover and buildings can keep it from getting a fix on your location. GPS receivers and cell phones have a lot in common, and both are very popular. In the next section, we'll look at some...
where trekkers are treated to only teasing glimpses of the iconic summit, K2 is unimpeded by its satellite peaks, and instead stands imposing, watching over all who tackle the trail to its base. K2 may be second in height and notoriety to Everest, but as a spectacle, it is second to ...
The first thing is we make a certain amount of assumption of how big the satellite is based on how much light it’s reflecting back. And this isn’t perfect. Some satellites are much shinier than others. Something that is covered in solar cells. The solar cells are designed to absorb ...
Many missions, however, require a spacewalk, perhaps to deploy a satellite or make repairs. During a spacewalk, an astronaut must wear a space suit -- what NASA calls an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) -- to protect and sustain him or her in the vacuum of outer space. Each EMU has ...