Unit – 1

Satellite:
• An artificial body that is projected from earth to orbit of solar systems.
• Types:
o Information satellites
o Communication satellites

Applications:
• Weather forecasting
• Radio & TV Broadcast
• Military Satellites
• Navigation Satellites
• Global Telephone
Kepler’s Law:
Kepler’s First Law:
• Kepler’s first law states that the path followed by a satellite around the primary
will be an ellipse.
• An ellipse hast Two focal points shown as F1 and F2.
• The center of mass of the two-body system, termed the bary center, is always
center of the foci.

Kepler’s Second Law:

• Kepler’s second law states that, for equal time intervals, a satellite will sweep
out equal areas in its orbital plane, focused at the barycenter,
Kepler’s Third Law:
• Kepler’s third law states that the square of the periodic time of orbit is
proportional to the cube of the mean distance between the two bodies.
• The mean distance is equal to the semi major axis a.
Newton’s Law:
Newton’s First Law:
• An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
• An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same
direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
• This law is often called "the law of inertia”.
Newton’s Second Law:
• Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass.
• The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of
force needed (to accelerate the object.
Newton’s Third Law:
• For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Orbital Parameters:
Apogee:
• A point for a satellite farthest from the Earth.
• It is denoted as ha.
Perigee:
• A point for a satellite closest from the Earth.
• It is denoted as hp.
Line of Apsides:
• Line joining perigee and apogee through centre of the Earth.
• It is the major axis of the orbit.
Ascending Node:
• The point where the orbit crosses the equatorial plane going from north to south.
Descending Node:
• The point where the orbit crosses the equatorial plane going from south to north.
Line of Nodes:
• The line joining the ascending and descending nodes through the centre of Earth.
Inclination:
• The angle between the orbital plane and the Earth‟s equatorial plane.
• Its measured at the ascending node from the equator to the orbit, going from East
to North.
• Also, this angle is commonly denoted as i.
Prograde Orbit:
• An orbit in which satellite moves in the same direction as the Earth’s rotation.
• Its inclination is always between 00 to 900.
• Many satellites follow this path.
Retrograde Orbit:
• An orbit in which satellite moves in the same direction counter to the Earth’s
rotation.
Argument of Perigee:
• An angle from the point of perigee measure in the orbital plane at the Earth’s
centre, in the direction of the satellite motion.
Right ascension of ascending node:
• The definition of an orbit in space, the position of ascending node is specified.
• But as the Earth spins, the longitude of ascending node changes and cannot be
used for reference.
• It could also be defined as “right ascension of the ascending node; right
ascension is the angular position measured eastward along the celestial equator
from the vernal equinox vector to the hour circle of the object”.
Mean Anamoly:
• It gives the average value to the angular position of the satellite with reference
to the perigee.
True Anamoly:
• It is the perigee to satellite’s position, the angle from point of measure at Earth’s
center.
Orbital Perturbations:
• An orbit described by Kepler is ideal as Earth is considered to be a perfect sphere
and the force acting around the Earth is the centrifugal force.
• This force is supposed to balance the gravitational pull of the earth.
• In reality, other forces also play an important role and affect the motion of the
satellite.
• These forces are the gravitational forces of Sun and Moon along with the
atmospheric drag.
• Effect of Sun and Moon is more pronounced on geostationary earth satellites
where as the atmospheric drag effect is more pronounced for low earth orbit
satellites.
Effects of Non-spherical earth:
• As the shape of Earth is not a perfect sphere, it causes some variations in the
path followed by the satellites around the primary.
• As the Earth is bulging from the equatorial belt, and keeping in mind that an
orbit is not a physical entity, and it is the forces resulting from an oblate Earth
which act on the satellite produce a change in the orbital parameters.
• This causes the satellite to drift as a result of regression of the nodes and the
latitude of the point of perigee (point closest to the Earth).
• This leads to rotation of the line of apsides.
• Due to the non-spherical shape of Earth, one more effect called as the “Satellite
Graveyard” is seen.
• The non-spherical shape leads to the small value of eccentricity (10-5) at the
equatorial plane.
• This causes a gravity gradient on GEO satellite and makes them drift.
Atmospheric Drag:
• For Low Earth orbiting satellites, the effect of atmospheric drag is more
pronounces.
• The impact of this drag is maximum at the point of perigee.
• Drag has an effect on velocity of Satellite.
 • This causes the satellite to not reach the apogee height successive revolutions.

Station Keeping:
• In addition to having its attitude controlled, it is important that a geo- stationary
satellite be kept in its correct orbital slot.
• The equatorial ellipticity of the earth causes geostationary satellites to drift
slowly along the orbit, to one of two stable points, at 75°E and 105°W.
• To counter this drift, an oppositely directed velocity com-ponent is imparted to
the satellite by means of jets, which are pulsed once every 2 or 3 weeks.
• These maneuvers are termed east-west station-keeping maneuvers.
• Satellites in the 6/4-GHz band must be kept within 0.1° of the desig- nated
longitude, and in the 14/12-GHz band, within 0.0.

Geo-Stationary & Non Geo-Stationary Orbits:

Geo-Stationary:
• A geostationary orbit is one in which a satellite orbits the earth at exactly the
same speed as the earth turns and at the same latitude, specifically zero, the
latitude of the equator.
• A satellite orbiting in a geostationary orbit appears to be hovering in the same
spot in the sky, and is directly over the same patch of ground at all times.
• A geosynchronous orbit is one in which the satellite is synchronized with the
earth's rotation, but the orbit is tilted with respect to the plane of the equator.
• A satellite in a geosynchronous orbit will wander up and down in latitude,
although it will stay over the same line of longitude.
• Although the terms 'geostationary' and 'geosynchronous' are sometimes used
interchangeably, they are not the same technically; geostationary orbit is a subset
of all possible geosynchronous orbits.
• Geostationary objects in orbit must be at a certain distance above the earth; any
closer and the orbit would decay, and farther out they would escape the earth's
gravity altogether.
• This distance is 35,786 kilometers (22,236 miles) from the surface.
• The first geosynchrous satellite was orbited in 1963, and the first geostationary
one the following year.
• There are 2 kinds of manmade satellites in the heavens above: One kind of
satellite ORBITS the earth once or twice a day, and the other kind is called a
communications satellite and it is PARKED in a STATIONARY position.
• A type of the orbiting satellite includes the space shuttle and the international
space station which keep a low earth orbit (LEO) to avoid the deadly Van Allen
radiation belt.
• The most prominent satellites in medium earth orbit (MEO) are the satellites
which comprise the GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM or GPS.
• The global positioning system was developed by the U.S. military and then
opened to civilian use.
• It is used today to track planes, ships, trains, cars or literally anything that moves.
• These satellites are traveling around the earth at speeds of about 7,000 mph
(11,200 kph).
• GPS satellites are powered by solar energy.
• They have backup batteries.
• Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them flying in the correct path.
• The satellites have a lifetime of about 10 years until all their fuel runs out.
Non Geo-Stationary Orbit:
• For the geo- stationary case, the most important of these are the gravitational
fields of the moon and the sun, and the nonspherical shape of the earth.
• Other significant forces are solar radiation pressure and reaction of the satellite
itself to motor movement within the satellite.
• An exact geostationary orbit therefore is not attainable in practice, and the orbital
parameters vary with time.
• The two-line orbital elements are published at regular intervals.
• Thus these satellites are geo- synchronous, in that they rotate in synchronism
with the rotation of the earth. However, they are not geostationary.
• The term geosynchronous satellite is used in many cases instead of geostationary
to describe these near-geostationary satellites.
• The small inclination makes it difficult to locate the position of the ascending
node, and the small eccentricity makes it difficult to locate the position of the
perigee.
• However, because of the small inclination, the angles w and Ω can be assumed
to be in the same plane.
• The longitude of the subsatellite point (thesatellitelongitude) is the east early
rotation from the Greenwich meridian.

• The Greenwich sidereal time (GST) gives the eastward position of the
Greenwich meridian relative to the line of Aries, and hence the subsatellite point
is at longitudeand the mean longitude of the satellite is given by
Look Angle Determination:
• The look angles for the ground station antenna are Azimuth and Elevation
angles.
• They are required at the antenna so that it points directly at the satellite.
• Look angles are calculated by considering the elliptical orbit.
• These angles change in order to track the satellite.
• For geostationary orbit, these angels values does not change as the satellites are
stationary with respect to earth.
• Thus large earth stations are used for commercial communications.
• For home antennas, antenna beamwidth is quite broad and hence no tracking is
essential. This leads to a fixed position for these antennas.

• The following information is needed to determine the look angles of

geostationary orbit.
1. Earth Station Latitude: λE
2. Earth Station Longitude: ΦE
3. Sub-Satellite Point‟s Longitude: ΦSS
4. ES: Position of Earth Station
5. SS: Sub-Satellite Point
6. S: Satellite
7. d: Range from ES to S
8. ζ: angle to be determined
• All sides are the arcs of a great circle.
• Three sides of this triangle are defined by the angles subtended by the centre of
the earth.
• Side a: angle between North Pole and radius of the sub-satellite point.
• Side b: angle between radius of Earth and radius of the sub-satellite point.
• Side c: angle between radius of Earth and the North Pole.
• a =900 and such a spherical triangle is called quadrantal triangle. c = 900 – λ.
• Angle B is the angle between the plane containing c and the plane containing a.
Thus, B = ΦE-ΦSS
• Angle A is the angle between the plane containing b and the plane containing c.
• Angle C is the angle between the plane containing a and the plane containing b.

• Applying the sine rule for plane triangles to the triangle

Limits of visibility:
• The east and west limits of geostationary are visible from any given Earth
station.
• These limits are set by the geographic coordinates of the Earth station and
antenna elevation.
• The lowest elevation is zero (in theory) but in practice, to avoid reception of
excess noise from Earth.
• Some finite minimum value of elevation is issued.
• The earth station can see a satellite over a geostationary arc bounded by +-
(81.30) about the earth station’s longitude.

Eclipse:
• It occurs when Earth’s equatorial plane coincides with the plane f he Earth’s orbit
around the sun.

• These eclipses begin 23 days before the equinox and end 23 days after the
equinox.

• The solar cells of the satellite become non-functional during the eclipse period
and the satellite is made to operate with the help of power supplied from the
batteries.

• A satellite will have the eclipse duration symmetric around the time t=Satellite
Longitude/15 + 12 hours.

• The eclipse will happen at night but for satellites in the east it will happen late
evening local time.

• For satellites in the west eclipse will happen in the early morning hour’s local
time.
Sub Satellite Point:
• Point at which a line between the satellite and the center of the Earth intersects
the Earth’s surface Location of the point expressed in terms of latitude and
longitude.

• Latitude – degrees north from equator

• Longitude – degrees west of the Greenwich meridian

• Location of the sub satellite point may be calculated from coordinates of the
rotating system as:

Sun Transit Outage:

• Sun transit outage is an interruption in or distortion of geostationary satellite
signals caused by interference from solar radiation.

• Sun appears to be an extremely noisy source which completely blanks out the
signal from satellite. This effect lasts for 6 days around the equinoxes.

• They occur for a maximum period of 10 minutes.

• As the sun radiates strongly at the microwave frequencies used to communicate

with satellites (C-band, Ka band and Ku band) the sun swamps the signal from
the satellite.
 • The effects of a sun outage can include partial degradation, that is, an increase
in the error rate, or total destruction of the signal.

Launching Procedures:
• Low Earth Orbiting satellites are directly injected into their orbits.
• This cannot be done incase of GEOs as they have to be positioned 36,000kms
above the Earth‟s surface.
• Launch vehicles are hence used to set these satellites in their orbits.
• These vehicles are reusable. They are also known as “Space Transportation
System”(STS).

• The transfer orbit is selected to minimize the energy required for the transfer.
• This orbit forms a tangent to the low attitude orbit at the point of its perigee and
tangent to high altitude orbit at the point of its apogee.
Launch Vehicles and Propulsion:
• The rocket injects the satellite with the required thrust** into the transfer orbit.
• With the STS, the satellite carries a perigee kick motor*** which imparts the
required thrust to inject the satellite in its transfer orbit.
• Similarly, an apogee kick motor (AKM) is used to inject the satellite in its
destination orbit.
• Kick Motor refers to a rocket motor that is regularly employed on artificial
satellites destined for a geostationary orbit.
• As the vast majority of geostationary satellite launches are carried out from
spaceports at a significant distance away from Earth's equator.
• The carrier rocket would only be able to launch the satellite into an elliptical
orbit.
• TT&C: it‟s a sub-system where the functions performed by the satellite control
network to maintain health and status, measure specific mission parameters.
Transfer Orbit:
• It is better to launch rockets closer to the equator because the Earth rotates at
a greater speed here than that at either pole.
• This extra speed at the equator means a rocket needs less thrust (and therefore
less fuel) to launch into orbit.
Rocket Launch:
• A rocket launch is the takeoff phase of the flight of a rocket. Launches for orbital
spaceflights, or launches into interplanetary space, are usually from a fixed
location on the ground.
• "Rocket launch technologies" generally refers to the entire set of systems needed
to successfully launch a vehicle, not just the vehicle itself.
• Orbital launch vehicles commonly take off vertically, and then begin to
progressively lean over, usually following a gravity turn trajectory.