Movement of artificial earth satellites. To protect your car. Hypothetical natural satellites of the Earth

Artificial satellites have been accompanying our planet for 57 years, and during this time, from experimental devices launched purely for research and military purposes, they have turned into instruments that every day help us in solving routine tasks. Why do “civilians” need satellites, and how do they affect our daily lives?

From typhoons and drought

Probably each of us has heard about meteorological satellites that predict the weather “for tomorrow”. But devices orbiting the Earth can be highly specialized, and, thanks to this, more accurate. Japan, for example, launched the Himawari-8 weather satellite the day before, which will warn in advance of possible typhoons and volcanic eruptions in the country. And NASA is preparing to send into space in 2015 a device that will quickly monitor soil moisture on the planet and prevent drought. This will allow farmers to avoid losses due to crop failure. Moreover, the satellite will cover not only the territory of the United States. It will scan the entire planet.

To explore hard-to-reach areas

Our country is preparing a large-scale project to launch two satellites into the highly elliptical orbit of the Earth for Arctic research. The devices have great capabilities: they will not only send data for weather forecasts in this area, but also report on the state of the ionosphere and the Earth’s magnetic field.

To be always in touch

A satellite phone is a great way to stay connected anytime, anywhere in the truest sense of the word. No matter what icy tundra or, conversely, endless desert you find yourself in, this device will allow you to talk with family and friends almost as if you were standing in the center of a city dotted with cell towers. True, this phone looks like something straight out of the 90s - a massive and brutal device with an additional antenna, which does not look like modern ultra-thin gadgets. There are four largest operators satellite communications- two American companies, one English and another registered in the United Arab Emirates. The first three even have official permission to work in Russia, although in fact they do not need it, because the signal goes directly through the satellite.

In order to watch TV even in a remote village

In Russia, satellite television is a real salvation for residents of remote areas. Unlike compact Europe and the rather densely populated United States, in our country it is almost impossible to “cover” the entire territory with cable. Therefore, the first satellite television platform - NTV-Plus - appeared almost immediately after the collapse of the USSR - in 1996. Now in Russia largest operator is Tricolor TV - its “dishes” can be seen even on the most dilapidated wooden houses somewhere in the Siberian wilderness. In addition to TV, thanks to satellites, you can also listen to the radio and even access the Internet.

To protect your car

Satellite signaling is an expensive pleasure. But if you are the owner of a luxury car, then it is worth it. Some car models even refuse to insure until the owner installs the appropriate system on them. According to statistics, the effectiveness of such a security device ranges around 95%, depending on the model. Via satellite, you can not only track a car, but also, for example, remotely turn off the engine or even turn on “wiretapping” in the cabin. It is better, of course, to combine satellite tracking with radio signaling - it is more difficult to jam, but, unfortunately, it does not work over long distances.

What are satellites for?

Who among us has not shouted joyfully, looking into the deep starry sky: - Look, look, the satellite is flying! And this satellite was not at all associated with anything other than space.
But now it’s a completely different story! Satellites provide communications, television, coordinate determination, security, and the Internet. And people will come up with many more things to make space technologies serve for the benefit of people.
And we will tell you why and what methods of using satellite systems are most popular today.

Why can sometimes only satellite technologies be the only development option?
When installing land lines, wires are used - fiber optic or copper, or when wireless technology - cellular networks or radioethernet. All this rather expensive work always has significant disadvantages:

limited coverage of the territory. Any signal transmitter or receiver has a certain operating area, which depends on the power and terrain of the area;
issues of network modernization always relate to technical capabilities and the feasibility of spending financial resources;
It is often impossible to quickly dismantle equipment and set up a station in a new location.

And in some cases, the most justified in a technical and financial sense for ensuring reliable and high-quality communications is the use of satellite systems.

Satellites will always find us

Without satellite technology, we would never have the opportunity to find each other on our big planet.
The global coordinate system allows you to accurately determine the location of objects (longitude, latitude, and even altitude above sea level), as well as the direction of movement and speed of this object.
The well-known American GPS (Global Positioning System) system includes 24 artificial satellites, a wide network of ground stations that have unlimited capacity to connect user terminals.
The GPS system works continuously. Anyone on the planet can use it, you just need to purchase a GPS navigator. Manufacturers offer portable, automotive, aviation, and marine models. Search work and rescue operations in no country in the world are complete without the help of GPS.

Not long ago, Russia deployed its GLONASS navigation system, similar to the American one, and with the same level of accuracy in determining coordinates.
Both systems are absolutely accessible and free.

Satellites protect us

This is especially true in the automotive industry. The main security system is successfully combined with satellite communication channels, GPS system and traditional radar methods.
How do satellite security systems work?
The central unit with security sensors is discreetly installed on the car. In the event of an emergency, a signal from the central unit is transmitted via communication channels to the owner or dispatcher. The GPS system helps track the route, location, and driving mode in real time.

Satellites entertain us

The most current and most famous topic is satellite television. But we are already so accustomed to the plates on our houses that we practically do not notice it. But just three devices: antenna, receiver, converter give us extraordinary pleasure from watching our favorite television programs.
The difference from a traditional television antenna is that instead of a tower, a satellite appears and transmits digital signal. Due to this it turns out big choice channels and image quality.

Satellites connect us with friends

The most common and well-known global satellite communication systems (GCSS): Globalstar, Inmarsat, Iridium, Thuraya. At the very beginning of their creation, it was assumed that these systems would organize mobile and landline telephony where there were no communication lines. With further development, new opportunities appeared: access to the Internet, transmission of information in various formats. And the GSSS became multi-service.
If we describe the operation of these systems in a nutshell, it will look like this.
The satellite receives the subscriber's signal and transmits it to the nearest station on Earth. The station detects the signal, selects a route and routes it through terrestrial networks or satellite channel to the reception point.
Difference between global systems satellite communications in the cost of traffic, the size and cost of subscriber terminals, coverage areas, as well as technical features concept of the system itself.

Satellites help us live comfortably

Actively developing satellite system Very Small Aperture Terminal - VSAT. This system is like a basis for the designer: you can add equipment and get access to the Internet, other equipment - and already combined local networks users in different territories. You can also collect data, reserve communication channels, manage various production processes, organize remote video and audio conferences.
Such a system is easy to deploy and start working. The quality of communication, ease of maintenance and use have already been appreciated by financial institutions, retail chains, and large industrial enterprises.

A VSAT-based network consists of a central control station (CCS), user terminals and a relay satellite.
With further development, inevitably all systems will become more accessible, cheaper, more convenient and easier to manage and understand the ongoing processes of assimilation of our everyday life with satellite technologies.

Now, looking dreamily at the night sky and seeing a moving star, you will think that they, satellites, greatly facilitate and diversify life. And that is great.

The first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the Russian Federation on October 4, 1957. Since then, the Russian word “sputnik” has entered the lexicon of peoples different countries. Satellites have become good assistants for specialists in various fields of science and sectors of the national economy. Thousands artificial satellites constantly rotate in outer space around our planet at altitudes from several hundred to tens of thousands of kilometers. They conduct various observations of the Earth and the Sun. Famous Soviet orbital station Salyut-6 became a long-term space laboratory, where several crews of astronauts worked.

Artificial satellites joined the study of the Earth in a very timely manner. By the middle of our century, people realized the extraordinary scale of their activities, understood what enormous changes were taking place throughout the planet under the influence of industry, Agriculture, urban planning. To study these planetary changes, not only local studies in small areas are required, it is necessary to cover a significant area at once, at one glance. This is only possible with the help of artificial satellites.

The first thing that immediately catches your eye when looking at the Earth from space is cloud cover. It is distributed unevenly, forms alternating stripes, large and small spots, as well as giant vortices.

The first Soviet weather watch satellite, Kosmos-122, was launched in the summer of 1966.

Artificial Earth satellite "Meteor". During one revolution around the planet, he surveyed a little less than one tenth of the earth's surface, and transmitted by radiotelephone to Earth a photograph of a powerful cyclone raging in the Atlantic Ocean. The diameter of this atmospheric vortex funnel exceeded 2 thousand km.

In 1968, the Meteor meteorological system was created in our country. It includes several satellites that are simultaneously in flight in different orbits. Each one has two television cameras on board. They monitor the planet's cloud cover. On the night side of the Earth, photography is carried out using infrared rays, which make it possible to record the contours of continents, seas, and cloud formations. Such information is constantly transmitted to the Hydrometeorological Center. They are used to compile weather reports and forecasts.

Meteorological satellites provide a picture of the distribution of clouds over the entire planet, even over those areas where there are no ground-based weather stations. But the dynamics of the atmosphere are largely connected with such uninhabited areas as the Arctic and Antarctic, inaccessible highlands and oceanic expanses. And one more advantage of satellites: they conduct observations constantly, monitor the movement of hurricanes, helping to warn residents in advance about the impending danger.

Meteorological satellites provide valuable material for farmers, pilots, sailors, fishermen - all those who are interested in weather forecasts; they bring tangible benefits to the national economy.

Satellites are of great importance for space photography, which is used in geology. For the first time, geologists had photographs of vast areas, entire continents, at their disposal. This makes it possible to detect particularly large geological structures with which deposits of many minerals are associated.

As experience has shown, satellites are not only visible large spaces, but many geological features of the area also differ, structures located at significant depths and covered by a thickness of loose sediments. The largest tectonic faults in the earth's crust are clearly visible from space, going deep into many kilometers and extending for hundreds and thousands of kilometers.

A lot of useful information geographers receive with the help of artificial satellites. On satellite images stand out different types landscapes, relief and soil features, distribution of ground and groundwater.

A very accurate and complete picture of natural conditions is obtained using photographs taken through light filters that capture radiation. different lengths wave, a certain part of the spectrum. Such images are called spectrozonal. They can be used to distinguish coniferous forests from deciduous ones, crops of various agricultural crops, and plants affected by pests and diseases.

Satellites help monitor seasonal changes in vegetation cover. This is important not only for landscape scientists, but also for agricultural specialists.

Satellites very clearly mark forest fires. This is especially important for the vast expanses of the taiga, where it is not always possible to notice even a large fire in time. Based on a signal from an artificial satellite, the ground-based forest protection service enters the fight against forest fires.

Large schools of fish are clearly visible from space. Satellites monitor their migrations; The information received is transmitted to fishermen who are sent to the areas of the sea richest in fish.

Satellites are also of great use in nature conservation. Pollution of soil or water bodies often spreads over vast areas. Suffice it to recall the oil spills on sea surface that appear after tanker accidents or problems in offshore oil fields. With the help of satellites, the movement of such spots is being monitored in order to identify areas at risk of contamination ahead of time and take the necessary protective measures.

The amount of information transmitted to Earth by satellites is unusually large, and it usually needs to be used quickly (for example, for weather forecasts). Therefore, this information is processed by electronic computers that perform millions of operations per minute.

So, artificial Earth satellites help to study the Earth, rationally exploit natural resources, and protect the environment.

The first artificial Earth satellite was launched in 1957. Since that time, the word “satellite” has appeared in all world languages. Today there are more than a dozen of them, and each has its own name.

Flying satellites are called artificial satellites of our planet. spacecraft. They are launched into orbit and rotate in a geocentric orbit. AES are created for applied and scientific purposes.

The first launch of such a device was on October 4, 1957. It is he who is the first celestial body created artificially by people. To create it, the achievements of the Soviet computer technology, rocketry, as well as celestial mechanics. With the help of the first satellite, scientists were able to measure the density of all atmospheric layers, find out the characteristics of the transmission of radio signals in the inosphere, and check the accuracy and reliability of technical solutions and theoretical calculations that were used to output the satellite.

What are the earth's satellites? Kinds

All of them are divided into:

research apparatus.,
applied.

It depends on what problems they solve. With the help of research vehicles it is possible to study the behavior of celestial objects in the Universe and a significant volume of outer space. Research devices include: orbital astronomical observatories, geodetic, geophysical satellites. Applied ones include: meteorological, navigation and technical, communication satellites and satellites for the study of land resources. There are also artificially created satellites of the Earth, intended for the flight of people into space, they are called “manned”.

In what orbits do Earth's satellites fly? At what altitude?

Those satellites that are in an equatorial orbit are called equatorial, and those that are in a polar orbit are called polar. There are also stationary models that were launched into a circular equatorial orbit, and their movement coincides with the rotation of our planet. Such stationary devices hang motionless over any specific point on the Earth.

The parts separated from satellites during the process of launching into orbit are often also called Earth satellites. They belong to secondary orbital objects and serve for conducting observations for scientific purposes.

The first five years after the first launch of the satellite (1957-1962) were called scientific. For their names, we took the year of launch and one Greek letter corresponding to the number in order in each specific year. With the increase in the number of artificial spacecraft launched from the beginning of 1963, they began to be referred to by the year of launch and only one Latin letter. AES can have different design schemes, different sizes, differ in weight and composition of on-board equipment. The satellite is powered by solar panels, which stand on the outer part of the body.

When the satellite reaches an altitude of 42,164 kilometers from the center of our planet (35,786 km from the surface of the earth), it begins to enter the zone where the orbit will correspond to the rotation of the planet. Due to the fact that the movement of the apparatus occurs at the same speed as the movement of the Earth (this period is equal to 24 hours), it seems that it stands still over only one longitude. Such an orbit is called geosynchronous.

Objectives and programs of flights around the Earth

The Meteor meteorological system was created back in 1968. It includes not one, but several satellites that are simultaneously in different orbits. They observe the cloud cover of the planet, record the contours of the seas and continents, which they transmit information to the Hydrometeorological Center.

Satellite data is also important in the process of space photography used in geology. With its help, it is possible to detect large geological structures associated with mineral deposits. They help to clearly record forest fires, which is important for taiga areas, where it is impossible to quickly notice a large fire. By using satellite images You can consider the features of soils and topography, landscapes, distribution of ground and surface waters. With the help of satellites, it is possible to monitor changes in vegetation cover, which is especially important for agricultural specialists.

Interesting facts about earth's satellites

The first satellite to go to low-Earth orbit was PS-1. It was launched from a USSR test site.
The creator of the PS-1 was designer Korolev, who could have received a Nobel Prize. But in the USSR it was not customary to assign achievements to one person; everything was common. Therefore, the creation of artificial satellites was an achievement of the entire people of the USSR.
In 1978, the USSR launched a spy satellite, but the launch was unsuccessful. The device included a nuclear reactor. When it fell, it infected an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers.
The IZ launch scheme resembles throwing a stone. It needs to be “thrown out” from the test site at such a speed that it itself can rotate around the planet. The satellite launch speed should be 8 kilometers per second.
A copy of PS-1 could be purchased on Ebay at the beginning of the 21st century.

We conducted an experiment: we asked our friends if they knew how many satellites the Earth has. Out of ten people, only one decided to clarify: “Which ones exactly? Natural or artificial? The rest remembered that the Earth has a satellite, the Moon, and they heard about some others. To dispel doubts on this issue, Beautiful World decided to tell us what satellites the Earth has and how they differ.

What is a satellite

A satellite is an object that orbits another object in space along a specific trajectory. Depending on their origin, satellites can be natural or artificial.

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth

There are 2 most common theories about how they appear natural satellites

The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. Now this fact is generally accepted, but in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, astronomers constantly assumed that the Earth had other satellites.

Hypothetical natural satellites of the Earth

A fireball is a bright and noticeable meteor.

Frederic Petit studied fireballs - fairly bright and noticeable meteors. According to his calculations, it turned out that some fireballs were moving in an elliptical orbit. Because of this, he suggested that these fireballs could be satellites of the Earth. The scientific community did not agree with his theory and pointed out to Petit errors in the calculations: for example, he did not take into account air resistance and did not take into account errors in the original data.

Letter from Georg Waltemath to Science magazine

(Sience) in which he reports that he has discovered

Earth's second satellite.

Georg Waltemath suggested that the Earth has 3 small satellites. He believed that many scientists had observed the satellites at different times, but mistook them for spots on the sun. Waltemath said that satellites are mostly invisible because they reflect little light. However, he calculated when the satellite would pass across the solar disk and be noticeable. Scientists Winkler (Jena, Germany) and Ivo von Benko (Pula, Austria) checked his statement, but did not see the satellite at the appointed time.

Other statements about the observation of Earth satellites also appeared. Such statements were made by astrologer Hornold, amateur astronomer Spire, and scientist John Bugbee. None of these statements have been confirmed.

Quasi-satellites

Cruithney is a quasi-satellite, it is not a natural satellite of the Earth.

In the 21st century, scientists discovered celestial bodies, which looked like satellites. These bodies were called quasi-satellites. Unlike the Moon, quasi-satellites orbit the Sun and are located from it at approximately the same distance as the Earth. Their orbits are unstable and they periodically approach the Earth. In popular science literature, quasi-satellites are called “second moons” or “second satellites.” This is a simplified name, but because of it, confusion sometimes arises: at one time, articles appeared on the Internet about the discovery of the Earth’s second natural satellite, Cruithne. In fact, Cruithney is a quasi-satellite.

Artificial satellites

GLONASS - global navigation satellite system, Russian development

An artificial Earth satellite is a space aircraft, which revolves around the planet in an elliptical orbit. This name usually refers to unmanned vehicles.

There are many satellites in space: communications satellites, reconnaissance and navigation satellites, meteorological, astronomical and other research satellites.

Interesting things to see about space

There is now a lot of material about space that you can simply admire, even if you do not understand anything in this area. If you like space, then Beautiful World recommends watching:

Google Moon. You can examine the surface of the Moon and find where the expeditions landed: https://www.google.com/intl/ru/moon/

Nasa Gallery. Especially cool section with photos of the day: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Instagram Nas. Here they publish short videos of rocket launches, stunning photos and videos from space: https://www.instagram.com/nasa/

Roscosmos Instagram. Here are also photos and videos from space, especially many beautiful photographs of the Earth: https://www.instagram.com/roscosmosofficial/

Roscosmos TV studio. News, popular science programs and videos in Russian: http://www.tvroscosmos.ru/

P.S. The article is popular science and intended for beginners. That's why we wrote it in simple language, omitting complex terminology.

With wishes for memorable moonlit nights,

Anastasia Gorbunova.

The article was written for the Beautiful World.