Introduction To Satellites

Prof. RAVI KUMAR

Specialization: Aerospace Engg.
SASTRA University, Thanjavur

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 Objectives
Introduction
How Satellite works
Satellites Frequency & Bandwidth
Satellite classifications
Satellite Orbits
Satellite System
Global Positioning System ( GPS)

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 INTRODUCTION

 A satellite is any object that orbits another object

(which is known as its primary).
 Satellites can be manmade or may be naturally
occurring such as moons, comets, asteroids,
planets, stars, and even galaxies.
 An example of a natural satellite is Earth's moon.
 There are about 750 satellites in the space, most
of them are used for communication.

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 INTRODUCTION (Cont.)
Human-made devices: Artificial satellite
 From Science Fiction
• the first fictional depiction of an artificial satellite
launched into Earth orbit –by Jules Verne”s The
Begum's Millions (1879).
• Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8,1828 –March 24 ,
1905 ), a French author and a pioneer of the science-
fiction genre.
• Verne was noted for writing about cosmic ,
atmospheric , and underwater travel before air travel
and submarines were commonplace and before
practical means of space travel had been devised.
 The first artificial satellite was Sputnik 1 launched by
Soviet Union on 4 October 1957.
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 How Satellites Work ?
1. A Earth Station sends
message in GHz range.
(Uplink)
2. Satellite Receive and
retransmit signals
back. (Downlink)
3. Other Earth Stations
receive message in
useful strength area.
(Footprint)

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Satellite Frequency Bands and Antennas
(Dishes)
 The size of Satellite Dishes (antennas) are related to
the transmission frequency.

 There is a inverse relationship between frequency

and wavelength.

 As wavelength increases (and frequency

decreases), larger antennas (satellite dishes) are
necessary to gather the signal.

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 Satellite Frequency Bands and Antennas
(Dishes)

C-Band Ku-Band
 Most commonly used bands: C-band (4 to 8 GHz) , Ku
Ku--band
(11 to 17 GHz) , and Ka-band (20 to 30 GHz ).

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 Frequency Bands

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 Frequency Bands

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 Satellites Classifications

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 Satellite Orbits

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 Satellite Orbits

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 Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO)
 Altitude (375-1000 miles)
 Revolution time: 90 min - 3 hours.
 Advantages:
 Reduces transmission delay
 Eliminates need for bulky
receiving equipment.
 Disadvantages:
 Smaller coverage area.
 Shorter life span (5-8 yrs.)
than GEOs (10 yrs).
 Subdivisions: Little, Big, and Mega
(Super) LEOs.
 Little LEOs Applications
 0.8 GHz range

 Small, low-cost

 Vehicle tracking,
environmental monitoring
and two-way data
communication. Used for
short, narrowband
communications.
 Big LEOs Applications
 2 GHz or above range

 Can offer global services, which can

be subject to regulatory
requirements.

 Used for technology devices such as

high-speed, high-bandwidth data
communications, and video
conferencing. They carry voice and
high-speed data services. The main
uses are data communications and
real-time voice delivery to hand-
held devices.
 Middle-Earth-Orbiting (MEO)
MEOs orbits between the altitudes
of 5,600 and 9,500 miles.
These orbits are primarily reserved
for communications satellites that
cover the North and South Pole.

Unlike the circular orbit of the geostationary satellites,

MEOs are placed in an elliptical (oval-shaped) orbit.
Approximately a dozen medium Earth orbiting satellites
are necessary to provide continuous global coverage 24
hours a day.
 Geosynchronous-Earth-Orbit (GEO)
 Orbit is sychroneous with
the earths rotation.

 From the ground the satellite

appears fixed.

 Altitude is about 23,000

miles.

 Coverage to 40% of planet

per satellite.
 Basics of GEOs
 Geostationary satellites are commonly used for communications
and weather-observation.
 The typical service life expectancy of a geostationary satellite is
10-15 years.
 They complete one orbit every 24 hours. This causes the
satellite to appear stationary with respect to a point on the earth,
allowing one satellite to provide continual coverage to a given
area on the earth's surface.
 Because geostationary satellites circle the earth at the equator,
they are not able to provide coverage at the Northernmost and
Southernmost latitudes.
GEOs and Weather
 The altitude is chosen so
that it takes the satellite 24
hours to orbit the Earth
once, which is also the
rotation rate of the Earth.
 This produces the cloud
animations you see on TV.
 Can take images
approximately every minute.
GEOs
 Provides images of nearly
one--third of the Earth's
one
surface every 23 minutes
with 4 km resolution.
 While the United States
maintains and operates its
GEOs, the European
community is served by its
European Space Agency
(ESA) Meteosat satellite, and
Japan with its GMS satellite.
 A Typical Satellite System

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 Satellite system Infrastructures

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 Satellite system Infrastructures

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 The Global Positioning System
 GPS is funded and controlled by the Department of Defense (DOD).
 Although there are many thousands of civil users of GPS worldwide,
the system was originally designed for the U. S. military
 GPS provides special satellite signals that can be processed in a GPS
receiver, enabling the receiver to compute position and velocity
 Four GPS satellite signals are used to compute positions in three
dimensions and the time offset in the receiver .
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a worldwide radio-navigation
system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their ground
stations.
They are constantly moving, making two complete orbits in less than 24
hours.
These satellites are traveling at speeds of roughly 7,000 miles an hour.

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 GPS
 The orbital period of the GPS satellites is around 12 hours
 The satellites move with respect to the receivers on the earth,
but at a slower speed compared to LEO’s
 Typical civilian accuracy is around 100 ft, with occasional
errors of up to 300 ft.
 For applications requiring higher accuracy such as aircraft
landing etc., enhancements in the systems are made that can
reduce the error to around 1 cm.
 Some applications of GPS include:
 Aircraft navigation
 Marine navigation
 Driving
 Surveying
 Farming
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 Space Debris

 According to the U.S. Space

Command (USSC), there are
more than 8,000 objects
larger than a softball now
circling the globe.

 Of these, over 2000 are

satellites (working and not).
 Any Query ??

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