Space Business Overview Satellites Telecommunications Remote - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Space Business

Overview

• Satellites
• Telecommunications
• Remote Sensing
• Rockets
• Space Tourism
• Activity

Satellites

Some companies use satellites to beam telephone conversations, television broadcasts, and data. Other companies use satellites to take pictures of the Earth, a process called remote sensing. In order to get their satellites in space, they hire companies that launch rockets.

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum is used by telecommunications satellites and remote sensing satellites.

Visible Radar Microwave Infrared Ultraviolet X-ray Gamma

Typical telecommunications bands Satellite remote sensing regions

Telecommunications Satellites

Images courtesy of CubeSat (upper left) and Boeing

Telecommunications Satellites

Satellites are like really, really tall communication towers. They also use things called transponders, which receive transmissions from the ground (CNN in Afghanistan), convert to a new frequency, and beam to another point on Earth (a TV station near you).

Geosynchronous Orbits (GEO)

About 35,790 kilometers up

Arthur C. Clark

Line of site

• You need three satellites in GEO to cover the whole Earth
• Today, there are about 200 operating commercial GEO

satellites, with around 60 government satellites

Low Earth Orbits (LEO)

From about 68 kilometers to 1,000 miles

Images courtesy of Orbital Sciences Corporation

Example systems:

• Iridium
• Globalstar
• Teledesic
• ORBCOMM

Satellite

The Electromagnetic Spectrum and Telecommunications

These are the frequencies used for telecommunications

Optical – fiber optics Radio and television bands Communication frequencies

VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF L S C X Ku K Ka V W mm

“broadband”

What’s a Footprint?

Images courtesy of Rutgers University

Satellites transmit to a particular area via a “beam.” The beam hits an area of the Earth called a footprint.

Remote Sensing Satellites

Images courtesy of NASA (lower left) and Orbital Sciences Corporation

Remote Sensing Satellites

Method of data collection

– Passive Most common, instruments (called imagers or sensors) simply collect reflected or radiating wavelengths of light, typically in the infrared (IR) and visible spectrum. – Active Instruments (such as radar) beam energy to an area on Earth and measure the terrain based on signal return time or the degree of absorption.

Polar Orbits

LEO type, but around Earth’s poles instead of around its equatorial latitudes

Images courtesy of Rutgers University

Sun-Synchronous Orbits

Polar orbit type, but moving around Earth against the planet’s rotation so that the satellite always takes pictures in sunlight. Satellite

Images courtesy of Rutgers University

The Electromagnetic Spectrum and Remote Sensing

These are the frequencies used for satellite remote sensing

Radar Panchromatic – Multispectral or hyperspectral Infrared

Who Builds Satellites?

• Alcatel
• Astrium
• Ball Aerospace
• Boeing
• Lockheed Martin
• Orbital Sciences Corporation
• Space Systems/Loral
• Others

Who Operates Satellites?

• Space Imaging (remote sensing)
• DirecTV (television)
• Iridium Satellite LLC (telephone and data)
• Loral Skynet (telephone and data)
• New Skies (telephone and data)
• SES Global (telephone and data)

– SES Americom and SES Astra

• XM Satellite Radio (radio)
• Others

Who Uses Satellites?

• You do!

– Telephone – Television – Beepers – Internet – Maps – Weather forecasts – Others?

Image courtesy of Nokia Image courtesy of Motorola

So Who Puts the Satellites Up There?

Rockets

Special companies get paid to launch satellites into

• space. For each pound sent into space, you have to pay

between $10,000 and $30,000. To launch the Space Shuttle, which is not available for commercial use, it costs about $350 million. To launch other rockets, it costs between $500,000 for a small converted missile to about $165 million for a large rocket.

Launch Providers

• Boeing Launch Services

– Delta 2, Delta 3, Delta 4, Zenit 3SL

• International Launch Services

– Atlas 2, Atlas 3, Atlas 5, Proton

• Arianespace

– Ariane 4, Ariane 5

• Kosmotras

– Dnepr (converted ICBM)

• Eurockot

– Rockot (converted ICBM)

• Others

Commercial Rockets

Images courtesy of Arianespace Image courtesy of Orbital Sciences Corporation Image courtesy of Sea Launch Images courtesy of Lockheed Martin

Example Commercial Rocket

Payload fairing (payload inside) 1st stage 2nd stage Solid boosters

Ariane 44L

Image courtesy of Arianespace