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At one time satellite technology was cutting-edge and very mysterious to most people. Today let's review some of the lesser known facts about satellites.
Sputnik 1 was about the size of a beach ball and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth.
Image: Tobias Cornille / Unsplash
In addition to being used for defense and intelligence, satellite imagery has many innovative uses in the environmental, economic, entertainment and humanitarian sectors.
There are over 2,500 satellites in orbit around the Earth.
If you put all of the data that our satellites collect in a year on DVDs, it would form a stack nearly 4 times the height of the Empire State Building.
DigitalGlobe has four satellites around the world at any given moment, ready to take instant pictures of world events.
The two main components of an artificial satellite is an antenna to send and receive information and a power source such as a solar panel or battery
Image: Marcel Quinan / Unsplash
Ed White expresses his sorrow at the conclusion of the first American spacewalk during the Gemini 4 mission on 3 June 1965.
In 2009 two communications satellites, from the US and Russia, collided. This is the only time two man-made satellites have collided by accident.
Image: NASA / Unsplash
Geostationary satellites orbit the equator at the speed of the Earth’s rotation so seem not to move.
Polar satellites’ orbits pass over the poles so scan the whole Earth as it rotates beneath them.
Its launch is marked every year by International Space Week from October 4-10, a “celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition”.
More than 20 satellites make up the Global Positioning System, or GPS, enabling precise positions to be measured at any time.
Image: Nousnou Iwasaki / Unsplash
In addition to being used for defense and intelligence, satellite imagery has many innovative uses in the environmental, economic, entertainment and humanitarian sectors.
There are over 2,500 satellites in orbit around the Earth.
If you put all of the data that our satellites collect in a year on DVDs, it would form a stack nearly 4 times the height of the Empire State Building.
DigitalGlobe has four satellites around the world at any given moment, ready to take instant pictures of world events.
In 2012 satellite data showed that there were twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than was previously thought
Image: NASA/ Unsplash
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Sources for information
http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/top10facts/717318/Top-10-facts-about-Satellites-Sputnik-moon-planets-space-GPS; http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/space/satellites.html; https://www.spaceanswers.com/space-exploration/20-inspirational-space-quotes-you-need-to-know/