SATELLITES AND COMMUNICATION

ISABIRYE FESTUS GERESOM

November 25, 2023

key words By the end of this chapter, you should be able to;

• satellites a) understand what artificial satellites are and how

we make use of them in research and in everyday
• Orbit
life.
• telescope
b) appreciate the importance of space exploration.
• space exploration

1
 THE SOLAR SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION
Satellites are objects moving around celestial bodies like planets typically Earth, they move in curved paths
called orbits. They play a crucial role in various fields, including communication, navigation, Earth
observation, and scientific research. Satellites come in different types, each serving specific purposes
based on their design and capabilities.

TYPES OF SATELLITES
Natural Satellites
These are commonly known as moons, are celestial bodies that orbit around planets. Earth’s
natural satellite is the Moon.
Natural satellites are formed through various processes, such as capture, co- formation with the
planet, or collisions that lead to the formation of a moon.
Examples include:
Earth’s Moon, Mars’ Phobos and Deimos, Jupiter’s Europa and Ganymede, and Saturn’s Titan.

Advantages of natural satellites.

Natural satellites, particularly larger ones, exert tidal forces on their host plan- ets. For
example, the Moon’s gravitational pull influences Earth’s tides.

Moons contribute to the stability of a planet’s axial tilt, which affects its climate. The Moon
helps stabilize Earth’s axial tilt, preventing significant variations over time.

Moons can act as gravitational” sweepers,” capturing or redirecting space debris that might
otherwise collide with their host planets.

Moons are subjects of scientific study, providing insights into the formation and evolution of
planetary systems. Missions like those to Jupiter’s moon Europa seek signs of potential
life.

Artificial satellites
Artificial satellites are human-made objects intentionally placed into orbit around celestial
bodies, commonly Earth. These satellites serve a variety of purposes and are crucial for
modern technology.
Examples include:

Global Positioning System (GPS): Satellites operated by the U.S.

GLONASS: Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System, offering global coverage for
navigation and positioning.

Hubble Space Telescope

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James Webb Space Telescope International

Space Station (ISS) Galileo Navigation System

Advantages of artificial satellites

Navigation satellites, part of systems like GPS, provide precise location information for
navigation in vehicles, ships, aircraft, and mobile devices.

Earth observation satellites monitor the planet’s surface, tracking changes in land use,
deforestation, urban growth, and natural disasters. They contribute to environmental
management and disaster response.

Weather satellites observe atmospheric conditions, cloud cover, and storm pat- terns,
contributing to accurate weather forecasting and early warning systems for severe weather
events.

Communication satellites enable global telecommunications, television broad- casting, and

internet connectivity, facilitating worldwide communication.

Some satellites are used for military purposes, providing surveillance and intelligence gathering
capabilities.

SATELLITE ORBITS
When rockets launch our satellites, they put them into orbits in space. Gravity keeps the satellites
on their required orbit just like it does for the moon as it orbits the earth. There a number of
factors that affect which orbit would be best for a satellite to use, depending on what the
satellite is designed for.

The satellites orbiting the earth are placed in three types of orbits, namely;
• Low – Earth orbit (LEO); e.g. 320 -3,000km (altitude)

• Medium – Earth orbit (MEO); Altitude: 8,000 to 12,000 km.

• Geosynchronous orbit (GSO) and geostationary orbit (GEO); altitude: 35,786 km.

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Low – Earth orbit (LEO)

A low Earth orbit (LEO) is defined as an Earth-centered orbit with at least a period of 11.25, i.e.
an orbital period of 128 minutes or less.
The mean orbital velocity needed to maintain a stable low Earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s but
reduces with increased orbital altitude. LEO is mainly for communication and imaging satellites.

Advantages:
• It requires the lowest amount of energy for satellite placement.

• It provides high bandwidth and low communication latency (latency is time interval
between the stimulation and response).

• Satellites and space stations in LEO are more accessible for crew and servicing.

Disadvantages:
• Satellites in LEO have a small momentary field of view, i.e. only able to observe and
communicate with a fraction of the Earth at a time. Hence requires a network of
satellites in order to provide continuous coverage.
• frictional force can heat up satellite to point of burning up, unless protected by high
insulation.
• Very short life: Time of 5-8 years.
• High costs of maintenance

Medium – Earth orbit (MEO)

Features of MEO orbit:
Orbit period: 2 to 8 hours.

Orbit height from Earth: 5,000 to 12,000 km;

Life of satellite in the orbit: Long.

Number of satellites to cover entire regions on Earth: 8 to 20.

Advantages of MEO orbit

• MEO satellites are launched at lower height compared to GEO satellites. Hence time delay
from earth to satellite and vice versa is less compared to GEO satellites

• fewer satellites are needed to cover entire area of the Earth.

• The system is cheaper in maintenance compared to GEO.

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Disadvantages of MEO orbit:

• It is visible for only 2 to 8 hours from Earth. Hence satellites are requiring to be tracked
from the Earth due to their rotation.
• more transmit power is needed to overcome path-loss and other factors. attenuating
atmosphere.
• The system is more expensive compared to LEO.

Geo-Stationary Earth Orbit

This is an orbit around Earth of a satellite with an orbital period that matches Earth’s rotation on its
axis, which takes one day. The synchronization of rotation and orbital period means that, for an
observer on Earth’s surface, an object in this orbit returns to the same position in the sky.

Advantages of Geo-Stationary Earth Orbit

• It is possible to cover almost all parts of the earth with just 3 geo satellites.
• Antennas need not be adjusted every now and then but can be fixed permanently.
• The lifetime of a GEO satellite is quite high usually around 15 years.

Disadvantages of Geo-Stationary Earth Orbit

• High transmission power is required.
• Fixing a satellite at Geo stationary orbit is very expensive.
• High buildings in a city limit the transmission quality.
• Larger antennas are required for northern/southern regions of the earth.

USES OF SATELLITES
There are a variety of uses for satellites including the following.
1. satellites for navigation ie GPS satellites.
2. satellites for communication
3. satellites for space exploration

1 Satellites in navigation
Several people loose direction to their destination, especially in towns. What would you do in
such a case? Most of them ask for directions; however, this is not possible in all situations. Let us
say you were sailing in the middle of the Indian Ocean and there are no people to ask for
directions to your destination. What could you do?
This necessitates a system that can accurately determine one’s • location as well as directions
to their destination. The Global Positioning System is used to do this.

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Global positioning system

Humans have looked to the sky to find their way since ancient times. Ancient sailors
used the constellations in the night sky to figure out where they were and where they were
going. Today, all we need is a simple handheld GPS receiver to figure out exactly where we
are anywhere in the world. But we still need objects high in the space to figure out where we
are and how we can get to other places. Instead of the stars, we use satellites.
Over 30 navigation satellites are zipping around high above the earth. These satellites can
tell us exactly where we are.
GPS is a system made up of three parts: satellites, ground stations, and receivers. The GPS
uses a network of 24 medium earth orbit satellites arranged in a way that at least 4 of them are
visible at any one point on earth. Satellites act like the stars in constellations to help us know
where we are supposed to be at any given time. This is achieved using a mathematical principle
called ’trilateration’.

Definition of trilateration
This is the process of determining absolute or relative location of points by measuring distances and using
the •geometry of circles, spheres or triangles.
Finding direction using trilateration can be done using two methods namely:

• 2d trilateration

• 3d trilateration

2d trilateration

Imagine you are somewhere in merryland high school and you are totally lost for whatever
reason, you have absolutely no clue where you are. You find a friendly local and ask,” Where am
I?” He says, ”You are 60 meters from the girl’s dom. This is a nice fact, but it is not particularly
useful by itself. You could be anywhere on a circle around the girl’s dom that has a radius of 60
meters, like this:

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You ask somebody else where you are, and she says,” You are 69 meters from the boys dom.
Now you’re getting somewhere. If you combine this information with the girl’s dom
information, you have two circles that intersect. You now know that you must be at one of
these two intersection points, if you are 60 meters from the girl’s dom and 69 meters from the
boys dom.

If a third person tells you that you are 75 meters from the staff room, you can eliminate
one of the possibilities, because the third circle will only intersect with one of these points. You
now know exactly where you are in the laboratory.

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Note:
The GPS was developed by the US Department of Defense and was initially meant for military
application. However, it was made available for civilian use in the 1980s. Selective availability
which was an intentional degradation of public GPS signals implemented for national security
reasons denied users positioning by at least 100 meters.
Your mobile device does not send the GPS satellite any signal, it only receives what the
satellite is broadcasting.

2 satellites in communication

communication satellites act as” space mirrors” to reflect radio, TV, Internet data, and other
kinds of information from one side of the earth to the other.
Satellite communication has two major components: the space component (the satellite) and the
ground components (the transmitter and the receiver).

Note
Uplink refers to sending of communication signals from ground transmitters to the communication
satellite.
Downlink refers to sending of reflected signals from the satellite to the ground receivers.

3 Space exploration
Space, also known as outer space, is the near vacuum region between celestial bodies. It 1s where
everything (all the planets, stars, galaxies and other objects) is found. Outer space begins about
100 km above the earth. Humanity interest in the heavens has been universal and enduring.
Humans are driven to explore the unknown, discover new worlds, push the boundaries of our
scientific and technical limits, and then push further. The intangible desire to explore and
challenge the boundaries of what we know and where we have been has led to space exploration.

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The Hubble space telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that is used for space exploration.
It was launched into LEO in 1990 and remains in operation.
It is one of the largest and most versatile space craft, known both as a vital research tool
and as a public relations boost for astronomy.
Hubble features a 2.4 meter mirror, and its four main instruments observe in the ultraviolet,
visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Hubble Telescope orbits outside the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere, allowing it to capture
extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based
telescopes. Many Hubble observation have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as
determining the rate expansion of the universe.

The international space station

The International Space Station is a large spacecraft in orbit around earth. It serves as a
home where crews of astronauts live. The International Space Station is also a unique science
laboratory where the astronauts perform experiments. Several nations worked together to build
and use the International Space Station.

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Uganda’s space initiative.

Uganda’s first ever satellite, PearlAfricaSat-1 was successfully launched into space on 7th November
2022 following its construction by three Ugandan aerospace engineers in collaboration with
Kyushu institute of technology in Japan under a multinational satellite design programme
aboard a NASA spaceship.
The” satellite launch” project first announced in 2019, took a major step forward together with
a ground station in Mukono district, the Mpoma Satellite Station. The station now serves as the
operation and communication centre for the PearlAfncaSat-1 satellite.
The PearlAfricaSat-1 was deployed into the low earth orbit to provide research and
observation data that will provide solution in weather forecast, agriculture monitoring, land,
waterbodies and mineral mapping among others.
As a country the development of PearlAfricaSat-1 presents opportunities for Uganda’s Participation
in space science, meaning our engineers and scientists will be providing solutions to challenges
facing Ugandan citizens as well as boosting the country’s internal capacity to develop the space
science and technology value chain.

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ACTIVITY OF INTEGRATION
Since 2016, Uganda has shown interest in outer space, beginning with a satellite as a way of
solving many issues challenging the country. In 2018, Ministry of Science, Technology and
innovation, started spearheading the effort. The state then selected three engineers, who embarked
on further studies in Japan and constructed Uganda’s first satellite.
On 7th November 2022, Uganda made history by launching its first-ever satellite, the
PearlAfricaSat-1 into space. This move while being remarkable for our nation, sparked up
mixed reactions from different members of the public.

TASK
Write an article for your school newsletter supporting the Initiative of Uganda launching satellites
into space.

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