Satellite communication

Hello again, its been a while. so today we will be discussing about satellite communication and why it is an important concept in telecommunication, we will also be looking at how it works, we will also be looking at what the latest advancements in this technology are and who is pioneering such advacements.

As always we start with a definition, what is a satellite. A satellite is an object, which moves around in a circular motion around the earth, well i am sure for some people reading this you were expecting me to say it is one giant technology that we shoot in to space, well you might not be completely wrong but that is only half of the story. so there are two types of satelites which are the natural which is God created and the artificial which is made by man, an example of a naural satellite is the moon which orbits around the earth. An example of an artificial satellite is an international space station orbiting around the earth. Now that we have established what they are lets look at it is advancements and why it is very important to us.

So satellite communication has come a long way from where it had very humble beginnings that is the one made by man. so yh, it all started from one man's idea on a better way to improve or developing a more reliable way for long distance communications. That guys name was Arthur C. Clarke, well that sounds like a really expensive name. So yh, he propsed the idea and so the development man made satellites was sparked. He predicted the development of geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites for direct broadcast television and data communications using transmitter powers much lower than the kilowatt levels of terrestrial broadcasting, and small parabolic mirrors (dishes) for receiving terminals. In 1965, the first geostationary communications satellite, Early Bird, began to provide telephone service across the Atlantic Ocean, fulfilling Clarke’s vision of 20 years earlier. By 2016, there were a total of 1459 active satellites in orbit with over 500 GEO communication satellites serving every part of the globe. So now the question is, why is this technology so important to us? Well it is basically to help in one of mans primal behaviours which is to relate with one another and that is to communicate with one another. It is also noted that almost 4 billion people don't have access to a stable internet connection, and with satellite communication is one of the ways we can mitigate that issue.

So how does this wonderful techology work? well, this man-made device is made up off two major components which are the antnnas and the transponders, which recieve and retransmit signals. For power satelites use both batteries and solar panels. The inner working or operation of a satellite is very complicated from the way it recieves signals, processes them, and retransmits them to anywhere within its transmiting range. Satellites use a very high frequency for communication. Now, to place a satellite, we place the satellites in either of this four orbits which are:

• Low earth orbit (LEO).
• Medium earth orbit (MEO).
• Geostationary earth orbit (GEO).
• Highly elliptical orbit (HEO).

These are the four orbits in which satelites are placed, and starlink which is used so well now, uses low Earth orbit. Now, as the list goes down the higher the distance between the earth and the satellite.

In conclusion, we must understand that communciation is not just done through physical communication, there is also a wireless means which satellite communciation falls under. So again satellite communication is used for long distance communciation and it is very important that we must work on improving this technology.