FUTURE OF THE SPACE COMMUNICATION
This paper is a research on the future of satellites in our world today. Since decades ago the awareness on satellites has grown widely to a point that it is becoming a necessity for a country to have one. The existence of satellites began in the late 1950, when the first satellite was launched into space by the Soviet Union.
Satellites are known to have increased our efficiency and performance in the business world, Military attacks, Global Networks. It is so hard to imagine where our world would be today without the existence of satellites. This paper discusses how every satellite has a range of frequency it works with and the transmit power required to reach the ground base stations placed on the earth surface. It mentions a number of equipments that make use of the space communication device whish are Spaceships, air flight, Submarines, GPS navigations, Mobile phones and the internet servers.
There are major bodies in every country responsible for the space communication devices. For the US we have NASA which handles the building and launching of satellites into space.
It discusses how the world is now becoming over reliant on telecommunication in its daily activities. The direction of this trend seems to be on the increase thereby creating a cause for alarm that there might come a time that the space will become over saturated with satellites.
We took a step back in time to review how the whole concept of space communication began with the military bouncing radio signals on the moon to see if they will get a response and they did. Further research on space communication took over from there and the result is what we enjoy today.
We analyzed the mode of operations of satellites and the various types that we have based on the functions. The various classifications touched are the Navigation satellites, Military satellites, Communication satellites, Scientists and Weather satellites. Discussing further on each the research work also focused on the advancement of technology into the construction of Pico satellites and nano satellites which will create a great solution to the challenges of encroachment and satellites collisions that could be experienced more often in the future ahead.
There are various satellites that serve different functions but their features are almost the same with only little disparity and the common ones include the antenna that serves as the receiver and transmitter, transponder, camera of very high resolution, channel of specified bandwidth, solar panels and solar cells etc.
How long it would take to migrate into a world of the mini satellites remains unknown, but what is obvious is the major milestone that would have been overcome if it finally becomes a perfect reality. Even though some have been launched into space, the mini satellites are still at the testing stage which could take a long time to get to a satisfactory level.
Finally this essay throws more light on the challenges and the issues faced by the so called space communication. These challenges range from fuel deposition, space debris caused by collision of two or more satellites and many more.
Though these challenges could serve as a major setbacks, it is incomparable to what has been achieved through space communication and what more can still be achieved. Major steps are being looked into to see how these challenges can be overcome.
This research shed s more light to the many involvement of space communication and serves as an eye opener on the reasons why all countries should own a satellite. Can you imagine that the economy of a Nation can really be directly impacted by the launching of a satellite in space
No doubt other developing countries are beginning to see its advantages and are following suit. This is evident in the NigComSat-1 launched by Nigeria into space.
INTRODUCTION
Space communication has evolved into a vital aspect in communication today. The convenience derived from it has made many scientists focus on its development and how much more greater benefits can be acquired from its study. Space communication operates basically on a satellite placed somewhere high up in the sky interacting which other telecommunication devices all around the world. In this write up we shall be discussing the applications of space communication, the description of its technological aspect and the challenges and issues faced by scientist in its development or as population increases.
The research on space communications has led to the establishment of many bodies all around with the goal of tapping into the benefits of such technology. The satellites installed in space are one of the major essentialities to achieve space communications. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the worlds first artificial satellite, Sputnik I (U.S. SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS). This has led to many nations installing their satellites in space. There is always a base station where major operations are made to communicate with these satellites in space. Each satellite has a range of frequency it works with and any telecommunication device that operates within such frequency of the satellite is considered interact able.
Equipments that make use of the so called space communication which is acquired mostly via satellites include Spaceships, air flight, Submarines, GPS navigations, Mobile phones and the internet. Satellites have been found to have increased the speed of communications. The advent of calling has also brought about more flexibility in mobile telecommunication which evident in the video calling. The video calling facilities is a unique one such that besides just transmitting and receiving voice data over the network you can also transmit videos. This means that through video calling you can actually see the person you are communicating with. This achievement was a far cry before the advent of space communication. The satellites used for space communications are responsible for such facilities called video calling and many other telecommunications.
As earlier stated every satellite owned by each country has a specifically allocated frequency range and also have a range of distance apart they should be place, else what is called interference of frequency, thereby causing distortion in signals. Who therefore is saddled with the responsible of the design of these satellites in the United States That is where the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) come into play. Since the various satellites installed in space send out and receives signals at very high frequencies per seconds to the base stations set up on the earth at any location it has become essential for there to be an organization that will be in charge of allocating these signal frequencies to avoid overlapping that could lead to poor signals.
Before September 15, 2003 the regulatory framework for satellite communications was based on decision 46700CONS of Autorit per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) (Giovanni Santella, Roberto De Martino).
The world today is now becoming over reliant on space communication that you dont even want to imagine how much in dollars would be lost if signal in space is lost just for few second. The operations of military men in war, ongoing business transactions will collapse totally. Or imagine an airplane flight losing signals from the airport tower, thats like a blind man leading the blinds. Therefore, for optimum efficiency of space communication it is important not to allow any form of interruption or signal loss in space communication via satellites.
Though, the research into space communications and other technology breakthroughs were commercially driven but they are still very much beneficial in the military operations (JDCB)
Space communication is a further leap in technology and it has is greater disadvantages and advantages. Though the development has been view from the positive point of view, many deadly weapons have been functional since the advent of space technologies.
Besides the negativity, the advent of space communication has brought about the connectivity of the globe. The world seems to be a smaller place to live. Business transactions that could have required hours to be executed can now be performed within seconds. You dont need to take that next flight from Texas to Chicago just to deliver a mere letter. The email, Fax or telegraph has simply replaced that.
HOW DID IT ALL START
The U.S. Navy began conducting experiments in 1954 bouncing radio signals off of the moon. These experiments led to the worlds first operational space communications sys-tem, called Communication by Moon Relay (U.S. SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS).
The radio signals were generated from their base stations and what they realized was that they were first getting feedbacks from the moon thereby serving as a transmitter of signals. Further researches on this new found experiment were channeled into the linkage between two or more countries using such technology. Billions of dollars are being spent to build this great edifice and install it in space. America first launched the Echo 1 through NASA and later came up with the Echo II some years later.
A satellite is a well organized device that has distinguished paths for every signal it sends and receives from the base stations. Satellites are found to make use of the ku ka -band which is responsible for the space communication we experience in our world today. The ku-band is characterized by its diversity systems via Satellite Diversity unit, which avoids the problem of attenuation of signals caused by bad weather or distance. It has a multi-satellite reception ability such that if a particular signal pathway is bad it makes use of several others (T. Hatsuda, Y. Iwamori,M. Sasaki, Y. Tushima, N. Yosimura, T. Zakouji, K. Kawasaki, T. Yamashita, M. Kuroda, K. Imai, Y. Maekawa).
It also has what is called repeater which maintains the strength of a sent or received signal over a long range of distance thereby avoiding what is called signal attenuation.
Many countries have installed their satellites in space and the number keeps increasing. Nigeria which is one of the developing nation installed one of the most recent satellites in space, called the NigComSat-1. Other satellites installed by other nations include Apollo 11, 14 and 15 deployed by Americans and the Luna which was co-built by Russia and France, Beacon-C etc.
HOW DOES THIS WORK
Every satellite has a corresponding frequency range, Bandwidth and Transmission power as its design specification. Every country configures their devices at this base station to the specifications of their satellites. Therefore such devices can send radio signals that will arrive at the satellite in space no matter where they are located in the world, so far they send them at the specified frequency. Any radio signal sent to space is in form of a packet, each having its specified transmission power, frequency range, and wavelength associated with it. Such radio signal or packet from the base station goes into space and begin its search for satellites that are compatible with it. Other technological interactions occur between the various satellites installed in space in order to detect which one the base station is trying to interact with. After receiving the signal sent by the device on earth the satellite analysis the data packet, which has destination addresses written on it. These addresses are used by the satellite to search for the specific location of the devices meant to receive the data packet. Having recognized the destination the satellite transmits the radio signal it has received to the destinations. The destination device which could either be a telecommunication base stations, VSat, Satellite dishes etc. receives the data and also sends a form of acknowledgement to the satellite in space that it has received the data sent. That obviously tells us that the devices on earth too must definitely have a receiver and a transmitter to enable space communication. Canada has a long history of activity in outer space. In 1962, Canada became the third country in the world to design and build its own satellite, when it launched the Alouette I research satellite (Wright).
Communication through space is a two-way path process. The satellite in space and every device on earth have transmitters and receivers. While the transmitter serves as the way-out for any form of signals the receiver serves as the way-in.
A space satellite must have a characteristic large bandwidth to enable access to many devices at the same time. It is hard to imagine the billions of data passing through the each satellite per second. Without a large bandwidth the satellite in space soon easily reaches its full capacity thereby excessive data will be dropped and poor signals will be received or a total loss of radio signals. This is evident in the scrambling of visual or voice data that is always noticeable.
Every satellite moves in circular orbit around the fixed earth in space generating specific signals to the base stations receivers on the earth surface. The exact location of a person on the earth can be known from the information on every satellite in orbit. Besides the location of a person on earth, satellites can also be used to probe the positions of submarines, air flights, space ships, army base camps etc. This implies one of the most important aspects of satellite used in space communication.
There are various satellites that are now in existence having specific functions they perform, even though they all have the ability to communicate through their receivers and transmitters. The different types are Communication satellites, Navigation satellites, Weather satellites, Military satellites, Scientist satellites. More details on their functionalities will be discussed in the next sub-heading.
Each satellite is built with its special in mind of the engineers. Let us take a brief look at each of the satellites.
Communication satellites are mainly responsible for all communications involving data, voice and television transmission from earth to the outer space and to the earth. The communication satellite is like a communicator of two or more far distances together since it has a stronger radio signal strength that can reach each device.
Navigation satellites find their applications in the use of tracking down locations using the GPS (Global Positioning System). How it does that is through the principle of relativity approach collecting details of signal received from other nearby satellites. The GPS technology can be used to view the maps of entire continent. Sometimes, when you are in a city, and you take a look at the screen of your phone, you can see the exact location where you are and you begin to wonder how your service provider got to know about it. That was achieved via the GPS technology.
Weather satellites as the name sound are mostly use by the geographers to study the weather. A lot of technology signals are involved in this process which we will be taking a deeper look into in due time. Weather forecast would be impossible without the existence of this type of satellites.
Military satellites are very complex type to discuss due to it many functions as they seem to be a combination of various properties from other types of satellites. For instance military satellites are used to communicate from the military base to the soldiers at the war zone. They are also used to control the direction of missiles via GPS.
Scientific satellites are use by the astrologers to study the space, their activities and movements. The patterns of the clouds are viewed from it and also the study of other planets can be achieved using the scientific satellites. Distance, shapes, sizes etc of planetary objects can be known with the use of this kind of satellites.
Some of these varying satellites have similar facilities which include cameras, transmitters and receivers, channels, etc and they all use similar signals which is the radio signals.
APPLICATIONS
The concept of space communication and technology cannot be handled separately from the discussion on satellites and their basic functionality and operational module. They go hand in hand. We shall be elaborating on the various applications of space communication in our world today and how it helps us interact with our neighboring planets in outer space.
It is not an overstatement that the use of satellites in space communication cannot be overemphasized. A lot has been made far easier with its utilization world wide. Places we never imagined we could have contact with can now be communicated with within few seconds. Researches and information that were never achievable are now possible and many more.
COMMUNICATION SATELLITES
Basically used for communication between two or more devices, communication satellite has become essential in our day-to-day business activities and casual conversation, making the global place smaller than it really is. The radio waves of high strength and frequency is the media by which most of the signals are sent and received. The signals used in communication satellites are in three types, namely data, video and voice. Unlike the case of military satellites, these signals are not encrypted therefore the level of security is very low. Communication satellites have its direct applications in Satellite cables, cell phones, emailing and internet, fax and telegraphing. Satellites only operate on the downlink, sending information and data to all receivers on earth while it receives signals by means of uplink from the devices from earth. It is used by pilot in the air to contact the airport for direction in space. Without the satellite it would be difficult for two cell phones or telecommunication device to connect with each other. Even if you put them next to each other since they use the satellite in space as an intermediary to connect. It is very important to note that the communication satellite was designed in such a way that it shall be powered continually. After considering what to use scientist decided to use the most reliable and easy to maintain source of energy which is the solar energy. The properties of communication satellites therefore include the solar panel which is required to absorb sunrays used to charge the solar cells which are responsible for keeping the satellites on constantly. Other properties include the antenna which serves as the receiver and transmitter which is common to all satellites.
The devices that make use of the communication satellite are many which are our usual mobile phones which has its own antenna too used to receive and send signals, television, satellite cables, and internet servers. Over the years the dependent on communication satellites has grown so much that many businesses thrive on them. It has its many advantages in the sense that it brings with it business transaction at your finger tips. A lot of convenience has been achieved from this invention. A lot of companies run on the internet with no physical office. It is therefore logical to wonder what will happen if there comes a kind of natural disaster in space that destroys all the satellites or simply interrupts the signals. Since there is a form overdependence on space communication, many company do not have a single hardcopy documentation of their daily activities. Such disaster that interrupts the signals from space would definitely lead to economic breakdown, loss of invaluable data, and disconnection of airplanes from their control tower causing plane crash. That is why most satellites in space have backups in space serving as supplements incase there any fault occur in the original device.
NAVIGATION SATELLITES
The advent of navigation satellites has made it possible to track down the position of objects on earth. Communication satellites are limited in this facilities. If you are making a call or sending an email, there is no way you can know where the fellow is contacting. No tracking of position is possible with communication satellite. Besides just tracking positions, navigation satellites maps out a surrounding through the Global Positioning System- GPS services. As the captain of a ship in the sea you need to have a bigger picture of where you are heading to. It could be very confusing travelling in a ship in the ocean where there are no roads or paths that lead to you destination. It would be far easier to continue traveling in circles without knowing if you do not have any map to guide you. Only though the map can you know when to bend or continue moving straight. This map can be achieved by the GPS signals sent from the navigation satellites. Besides, missiles and space shuttle can be controlled by GPS signals. Though majorly they can be used to track down by fixing the chip in wristwatches cell phones
The properties of a navigation satellite is not much different an antenna (serving as receiver and transmitter), video camera of very high pixels, channels, solar panel and solar cells.
Navigation satellites find their applications in GPS signals used by submarines, street surveillance camera devices etc. With navigation satellites it is possible to be at a military camp base and launch a missile to another country located at miles away by just controlling the position and direction of the missile through what is called the remote sensing which is also related to this topic in a way. The disadvantage of navigation satellite is its use in military. With the use of navigation satellite is it easier to wipe out a whole nation through controlled missiles. This has brought about the manufacturing of mass destructive weapons by powerful countries
WEATHER SATELLITES
These types of satellites are basically used in weather forecasts. Forecasting of weather is done through the satellites in space by comparing results of the present weather from other satellites and observing the patterns of the cloud before sending a report to a ground base station on earth. The report on weather received is used to forecast the future weather. Many depend a lot on weather news in order to carry out their activities. The two main types of weather satellites are geostationary satellites and polar orbiting satellites. Their usefulness to weather forecast can therefore not be overemphasized.
The properties of weather satellites include also an antenna used as a receiver and transmitter, 24 channels to send out radio frequency signals, a hyper-sensitive detector device used to detect the nature of the weather and also a solar panelcells.
Airways depend on weather report to know how to schedule their flights arrangements. It can also find its usefulness in the schedule of other activities done in open space which range from rallies, crusades, festivals etc. Even in the developed countries individuals depend on this forecasted weather to know if the day will be sunny, rainy or snowy. This is to afford them make necessary preparations like taking along their umbrellas to work, wearing a lighter clothing.
The disadvantages are that you cannot rely so much on this reports because weather changes fast and could be erratic in nature. Many times people who depend solely on weather forecaster have found themselves to blame. We have heard news of airplanes which took off with the prerogative that there wouldnt be rain, only to later be high up in the sky in the middle of the storm.
MILITARY SATELLITES
Military satellites find their effectiveness mostly in the war zones. As I stated earlier that it is a complex form of satellites that combines many features of other satellites.
The Defense Satellite Communications System, or DSCS is a major subsystem in the global information grid, or GIG, providing high throughput, long-haul communications to Department of Defense and other special governmental users (Garth R. Hahn, Anthony Kellar Steven Stubblefield). From the same source it is known to consist of space, control and ground segment.
Military satellites are used to communicate between the soldiers in camp at the warfront and the defense headquarters. The major unique characteristic of the military satellites is the nature of the signals sent and received during communication. Due to obvious reason that radio signals sent through any satellite channel can be traced it was necessary for the defense department to come up with another option that would be more secure. In an attempt to make sure that their information is not leaked they decided to come up with the idea of scrambling the messages transferred over the satellite channel. A lot of other security measures are also taken to make sure that data transferred via military satellites remain intact.
Military satellites have a higher resolution camera used to send images.
The applications of military satellites that I know is simply in the defense systems.
SCIENTIST SATELLITES
Scientist satellites are used for scientific purposes. They are used to study the earth and its environs. Scientists have been able to get a better knowledge and understanding about space and planetary objects including the sun, moon, stars and other planets. The movement of oceanic waves can also be studied by analyzing the images sent by the scientific satellites. Through the study of the images sent from the scientific satellite in space one can retrieve the sizes, shapes and distances between these objects.
Similar to other forms of satellites, scientific satellites also have a high resolution camera which sends imaging signals on the patterns formed by objects in space.
TECHOLOGICAL
Satellite communications technology offers the unique capability of being able to simultaneously reach out to very large numbers, spread over large distances even in the most remote corners of the country. (A. Bhaskaranarayana, B. S. Bhatia, K. Bandyopadhyay and P. K. Jain)
Taking a brief look at space communication satellites from the technological aspect, we need to analyze the operation mechanics and procedures of the satellites from the optical, nano and Pico point of view.
OPTICAL SATELLITES
The sound of optical reminds you of imaging through satellites. As discussed earlier, most satellites make use of high resolution camera to capture images from space and send them to a ground base station receiving the data. Such images are used to further researches or draw conclusions about the space. The major aim was to send images of pixels that are not visible to the human eye. The optical satellites have a wide aperture used to capture images in space.
When using radio frequency telemetry link, the low-earth-orbit satellites transmitter could be detected by eavesdropped easily the optical downlinks through modulated laser signals provide a perfect solution because they can hold hundreds of megabits (Giggenbach).
The information data sent are undetectable.
Optical has a lot of innovative technology attached to it beside corrective measures against eavesdropping optical satellites transmit radio frequency in a similar fashion to fibers. Before the optical technology, to receive data from satellites someone at the ground base station would have to wait till the satellite rotates in its orbital path where there is connectivity. To avoid this limitation the optical satellite has an antenna with diffused beam each sending out radio signals carrying important data. The line of sight of an optical satellites telescope is always directed sideways from the direction of elongation.
NANO SATELLITES
Nano satellites are very small in size and the idea of a nano satellite was borne out of the desire to have a satellite in space that is unnoticeable by anyone. Having the size of a human head. Nanosatellites are launched by a parent craft from earth but takes fewer time to launch into space unlike the usual known satellites which are much more bigger in size. The weight of nano satellites also make it suitable as the spacecraft of the future. Just like we have in other systems of technology, nano satellites have all their internal components embedded in a microchip with the same quality and functionality. The major problem hence will be from the aperture and the camera which will both be very small in size when compared to the normal satellites. What scientists are trying to achieve is the reduction of the size of telemetry objects.
Small telemetry objects in space is an added advantage because of the following
Cost effectiveness it save the nation more money if the nano satellite technology can be fully achieved in the near future. Instead of spending so much on the big type which still performs the same operation at equal efficiency.
Launch time In science we always try to beat time down to the barest minimum. The fact that nanosatellites take lesser time to launch into space is enough factor to support its research work.
Finally it saves much space in space and can not be easily detected which makes it suitable for the military operations.
PICO SATELLITES
Pico satellites (Picosat) are miniaturized type of satellites that are very cheap to build and easy to design. It has a small mass of between 0.1 kg and 1 kg. They come with a larger satellite that are used to launch them into space. The Pico-satellite is designed such that all the massive parts usually found in larger satellites are now embedded in a small microchip placed on a panel board.
Applications and Purposes of Pico- and Nano- Satellites
They find their major application in the department of defense and military. Due to it very small size it has become a future technology that defense departments of various countries install in space so as to spy opponent without being detected easily. Unlike the larger satellite which is massive in space and very conspicuous.
The issue of satellite clustering in space has also made it necessary for the advent of minute satellites which occupy less space in the sky. It is inarguably one of the major reasons why scientist opted for the design of a smaller satellite. The purpose of installing Pico and Nano satellites is to counter the rate at which the developing countries are beginning to build and install their own satellites in space. In an attempt to avoid, satellites collision which leads to debris deposition in space, scientist have worked very hard to make sure that a smaller version of the usually big satellites come into existence with the same or even better performance.
Finally, due to the skyrocketing price of constructing a satellite which is a major hindrance for developing countries, the Pico- and Nano- satellites were designed to reduce cost of production also make if more affordable for them. Since space communication contributes a lot to the development of a nation, it was essential for the developing countries to be encouraged to have their own at a very cheaper price.
In summary the purposes for constructing the Pico and Nano satellites include the following
Military and defense, Avoidance of satellite collisions and
CHALLENCES AND ISSUE
The challenges faced by the modern day technology are enormous, enough to discourage scientists. These challenges, besides being discouraged keep the scientists on their toes during research. They keep looking for better ways to better the lot of the world through technology.
We are going to make sure we cover possible challenges faced by each type of satellites.
One of the initial challenges faced was the issue of cost. It was a major problem to make a satellite that will be far smaller in nature to the existing one in order to achieve a reduced cost of production. Use of GPS time and frequency in communications systems improved the local oscillator (LO) stability and enhanced access protocols like open loop Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). (A. Bhaskaranarayana, B. S. Bhatia, K. Bandyopadhyay and P. K. Jain).
One of the major reasons that led to the reduction of the size of the satellite was the time it required for launching to take place. Even though Higher Institutions and manufacturers still focus on the construction of the bigger satellites, it is logical to imagine that a time will come when all those kind of satellites would be considered out of place and the likes of nano and Pico satellites will become the main types available in the market. It is important to know that one of the limitations of communication satellites is also the large bandwidth required for each channel to have. If radio frequency signals of any type could be compressed this will reduce the bandwidth and improve communication capacity.
It has been stated earlier too that a smaller satellite is easy to design. Designing a big satellite could be very challenging as a lot of criteria have to be taken into consideration. A satellite is not just designed physically like that else you might just find out that your whole new satellite is just a bunch of beautiful edifice that does not work. Most of the components are dependent on each other, therefore to neutralize this challenge thereby saving stress and cost, these satellites are first designed using a software package, and then the simulation process begins before finally constructing the equipment.
Most of these satellites make use of natural sources of energy from the sun. Solar energy radiation is trapped by the solar panel of the satellite thereby converting it to other forms of energy. The by-products of this energy released after combustion are deposited in space atmosphere causing pollution. Man seems to be a major contributor of unnatural materials from derelict large size satellite to fuel deposition that pollute the space (MESHISHNEK).
The awareness on the need and advantages of artificial communication satellites installed in space have been on the increasing trend over the past decades now. When the first satellite Sputnik 1 was installed, many countries never knew the advantages. Today, more countries are involved in the construction of satellites bringing the number of satellites in space to around hundred. The space is increasingly becoming crowded by these satellites. As many more countries get involved, scientists will be faced with the issue of creating enough space to occupy more satellites. That is why the issue of modeling smaller sizes of satellites should be taking seriously.
Have you ever imagined how possible it was for two or more satellites to collide in space This could be caused by interception in the path of a satellite by another.
The collision on February 10, 2009 between the Iridium 33 satellite and the defunct Cosmos 2251 satellite at an altitude of 470 miles (770 km) significantly increases the amount of space debris in the region of space that is already the most crowded and has the greatest risk of collisions between orbiting objects (D. Wright).
Whether many more collisions will still be witnessed in the near future is left to how soon the nano and Pico satellite come into existence.
Most developing countries are still in the process of launching their own artificial satellites into space. In short Nigeria NigComSat-1 remains one of the first developing countries to launch a satellite into space which is remarkable but how much they can afford to maintain the proper running of this satellite only time will tell. Soon after the NigComSat-1 developed a fault they installed NigComSat-2. By the time other developing countries feel the need to own their own satellite I wonder how space will be left in the atmosphere. This debris are mostly concentrated in areas where there are more satellites located (D. Wright, Space Debris).
Also ozone layer depletion can also serve as a source of pollution in space.
Nigeria seems to be the foremost developing nation that owns a satellite in space. The advantage of satellites in space cannot be overemphasized. Even though there are some limitations to its development, space communication stills remains a major benefit to our world. The world is a better place to leave today because of space communication. This concept has united the global community, making us closer to our families, friends and business partners. The benefits are immeasurable when compared to its challenges which includes space debris deposition.
Many questions would have been left unanswered if it were not for the genius in space communication.
Even though the level that has been achieved in satellites communication is impressive it is still necessary to note and pit in our minds that there is still an urgent need for us to work on the full existence of the newer technology called nano satellites and Pico satellites because the more countries that begin to embrace the use of artificial satellites installation the more encroachment in space will be observed which could cause frequent collision in space. This we dont want to witness.
When you come to terms with the fact that there are far more developing countries than the developed, you will then understand the greater urgency in the need to manufacture mini-satellites with the same level of performance set by the existing ones.
With the rate at which the world is becoming global and technology is taking over the place there might come a time very soon when owning a satellite by a nation become as necessary as human beings having their own personal cell phones.
Though the issue of pollution also seem to be a problem, I will recommend that an alternative source of energy be used all through the daily running of the satellite to avoid further fuel depletion in space.
Satellites are known to have increased our efficiency and performance in the business world, Military attacks, Global Networks. It is so hard to imagine where our world would be today without the existence of satellites. This paper discusses how every satellite has a range of frequency it works with and the transmit power required to reach the ground base stations placed on the earth surface. It mentions a number of equipments that make use of the space communication device whish are Spaceships, air flight, Submarines, GPS navigations, Mobile phones and the internet servers.
There are major bodies in every country responsible for the space communication devices. For the US we have NASA which handles the building and launching of satellites into space.
It discusses how the world is now becoming over reliant on telecommunication in its daily activities. The direction of this trend seems to be on the increase thereby creating a cause for alarm that there might come a time that the space will become over saturated with satellites.
We took a step back in time to review how the whole concept of space communication began with the military bouncing radio signals on the moon to see if they will get a response and they did. Further research on space communication took over from there and the result is what we enjoy today.
We analyzed the mode of operations of satellites and the various types that we have based on the functions. The various classifications touched are the Navigation satellites, Military satellites, Communication satellites, Scientists and Weather satellites. Discussing further on each the research work also focused on the advancement of technology into the construction of Pico satellites and nano satellites which will create a great solution to the challenges of encroachment and satellites collisions that could be experienced more often in the future ahead.
There are various satellites that serve different functions but their features are almost the same with only little disparity and the common ones include the antenna that serves as the receiver and transmitter, transponder, camera of very high resolution, channel of specified bandwidth, solar panels and solar cells etc.
How long it would take to migrate into a world of the mini satellites remains unknown, but what is obvious is the major milestone that would have been overcome if it finally becomes a perfect reality. Even though some have been launched into space, the mini satellites are still at the testing stage which could take a long time to get to a satisfactory level.
Finally this essay throws more light on the challenges and the issues faced by the so called space communication. These challenges range from fuel deposition, space debris caused by collision of two or more satellites and many more.
Though these challenges could serve as a major setbacks, it is incomparable to what has been achieved through space communication and what more can still be achieved. Major steps are being looked into to see how these challenges can be overcome.
This research shed s more light to the many involvement of space communication and serves as an eye opener on the reasons why all countries should own a satellite. Can you imagine that the economy of a Nation can really be directly impacted by the launching of a satellite in space
No doubt other developing countries are beginning to see its advantages and are following suit. This is evident in the NigComSat-1 launched by Nigeria into space.
INTRODUCTION
Space communication has evolved into a vital aspect in communication today. The convenience derived from it has made many scientists focus on its development and how much more greater benefits can be acquired from its study. Space communication operates basically on a satellite placed somewhere high up in the sky interacting which other telecommunication devices all around the world. In this write up we shall be discussing the applications of space communication, the description of its technological aspect and the challenges and issues faced by scientist in its development or as population increases.
The research on space communications has led to the establishment of many bodies all around with the goal of tapping into the benefits of such technology. The satellites installed in space are one of the major essentialities to achieve space communications. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the worlds first artificial satellite, Sputnik I (U.S. SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS). This has led to many nations installing their satellites in space. There is always a base station where major operations are made to communicate with these satellites in space. Each satellite has a range of frequency it works with and any telecommunication device that operates within such frequency of the satellite is considered interact able.
Equipments that make use of the so called space communication which is acquired mostly via satellites include Spaceships, air flight, Submarines, GPS navigations, Mobile phones and the internet. Satellites have been found to have increased the speed of communications. The advent of calling has also brought about more flexibility in mobile telecommunication which evident in the video calling. The video calling facilities is a unique one such that besides just transmitting and receiving voice data over the network you can also transmit videos. This means that through video calling you can actually see the person you are communicating with. This achievement was a far cry before the advent of space communication. The satellites used for space communications are responsible for such facilities called video calling and many other telecommunications.
As earlier stated every satellite owned by each country has a specifically allocated frequency range and also have a range of distance apart they should be place, else what is called interference of frequency, thereby causing distortion in signals. Who therefore is saddled with the responsible of the design of these satellites in the United States That is where the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) come into play. Since the various satellites installed in space send out and receives signals at very high frequencies per seconds to the base stations set up on the earth at any location it has become essential for there to be an organization that will be in charge of allocating these signal frequencies to avoid overlapping that could lead to poor signals.
Before September 15, 2003 the regulatory framework for satellite communications was based on decision 46700CONS of Autorit per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) (Giovanni Santella, Roberto De Martino).
The world today is now becoming over reliant on space communication that you dont even want to imagine how much in dollars would be lost if signal in space is lost just for few second. The operations of military men in war, ongoing business transactions will collapse totally. Or imagine an airplane flight losing signals from the airport tower, thats like a blind man leading the blinds. Therefore, for optimum efficiency of space communication it is important not to allow any form of interruption or signal loss in space communication via satellites.
Though, the research into space communications and other technology breakthroughs were commercially driven but they are still very much beneficial in the military operations (JDCB)
Space communication is a further leap in technology and it has is greater disadvantages and advantages. Though the development has been view from the positive point of view, many deadly weapons have been functional since the advent of space technologies.
Besides the negativity, the advent of space communication has brought about the connectivity of the globe. The world seems to be a smaller place to live. Business transactions that could have required hours to be executed can now be performed within seconds. You dont need to take that next flight from Texas to Chicago just to deliver a mere letter. The email, Fax or telegraph has simply replaced that.
HOW DID IT ALL START
The U.S. Navy began conducting experiments in 1954 bouncing radio signals off of the moon. These experiments led to the worlds first operational space communications sys-tem, called Communication by Moon Relay (U.S. SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS).
The radio signals were generated from their base stations and what they realized was that they were first getting feedbacks from the moon thereby serving as a transmitter of signals. Further researches on this new found experiment were channeled into the linkage between two or more countries using such technology. Billions of dollars are being spent to build this great edifice and install it in space. America first launched the Echo 1 through NASA and later came up with the Echo II some years later.
A satellite is a well organized device that has distinguished paths for every signal it sends and receives from the base stations. Satellites are found to make use of the ku ka -band which is responsible for the space communication we experience in our world today. The ku-band is characterized by its diversity systems via Satellite Diversity unit, which avoids the problem of attenuation of signals caused by bad weather or distance. It has a multi-satellite reception ability such that if a particular signal pathway is bad it makes use of several others (T. Hatsuda, Y. Iwamori,M. Sasaki, Y. Tushima, N. Yosimura, T. Zakouji, K. Kawasaki, T. Yamashita, M. Kuroda, K. Imai, Y. Maekawa).
It also has what is called repeater which maintains the strength of a sent or received signal over a long range of distance thereby avoiding what is called signal attenuation.
Many countries have installed their satellites in space and the number keeps increasing. Nigeria which is one of the developing nation installed one of the most recent satellites in space, called the NigComSat-1. Other satellites installed by other nations include Apollo 11, 14 and 15 deployed by Americans and the Luna which was co-built by Russia and France, Beacon-C etc.
HOW DOES THIS WORK
Every satellite has a corresponding frequency range, Bandwidth and Transmission power as its design specification. Every country configures their devices at this base station to the specifications of their satellites. Therefore such devices can send radio signals that will arrive at the satellite in space no matter where they are located in the world, so far they send them at the specified frequency. Any radio signal sent to space is in form of a packet, each having its specified transmission power, frequency range, and wavelength associated with it. Such radio signal or packet from the base station goes into space and begin its search for satellites that are compatible with it. Other technological interactions occur between the various satellites installed in space in order to detect which one the base station is trying to interact with. After receiving the signal sent by the device on earth the satellite analysis the data packet, which has destination addresses written on it. These addresses are used by the satellite to search for the specific location of the devices meant to receive the data packet. Having recognized the destination the satellite transmits the radio signal it has received to the destinations. The destination device which could either be a telecommunication base stations, VSat, Satellite dishes etc. receives the data and also sends a form of acknowledgement to the satellite in space that it has received the data sent. That obviously tells us that the devices on earth too must definitely have a receiver and a transmitter to enable space communication. Canada has a long history of activity in outer space. In 1962, Canada became the third country in the world to design and build its own satellite, when it launched the Alouette I research satellite (Wright).
Communication through space is a two-way path process. The satellite in space and every device on earth have transmitters and receivers. While the transmitter serves as the way-out for any form of signals the receiver serves as the way-in.
A space satellite must have a characteristic large bandwidth to enable access to many devices at the same time. It is hard to imagine the billions of data passing through the each satellite per second. Without a large bandwidth the satellite in space soon easily reaches its full capacity thereby excessive data will be dropped and poor signals will be received or a total loss of radio signals. This is evident in the scrambling of visual or voice data that is always noticeable.
Every satellite moves in circular orbit around the fixed earth in space generating specific signals to the base stations receivers on the earth surface. The exact location of a person on the earth can be known from the information on every satellite in orbit. Besides the location of a person on earth, satellites can also be used to probe the positions of submarines, air flights, space ships, army base camps etc. This implies one of the most important aspects of satellite used in space communication.
There are various satellites that are now in existence having specific functions they perform, even though they all have the ability to communicate through their receivers and transmitters. The different types are Communication satellites, Navigation satellites, Weather satellites, Military satellites, Scientist satellites. More details on their functionalities will be discussed in the next sub-heading.
Each satellite is built with its special in mind of the engineers. Let us take a brief look at each of the satellites.
Communication satellites are mainly responsible for all communications involving data, voice and television transmission from earth to the outer space and to the earth. The communication satellite is like a communicator of two or more far distances together since it has a stronger radio signal strength that can reach each device.
Navigation satellites find their applications in the use of tracking down locations using the GPS (Global Positioning System). How it does that is through the principle of relativity approach collecting details of signal received from other nearby satellites. The GPS technology can be used to view the maps of entire continent. Sometimes, when you are in a city, and you take a look at the screen of your phone, you can see the exact location where you are and you begin to wonder how your service provider got to know about it. That was achieved via the GPS technology.
Weather satellites as the name sound are mostly use by the geographers to study the weather. A lot of technology signals are involved in this process which we will be taking a deeper look into in due time. Weather forecast would be impossible without the existence of this type of satellites.
Military satellites are very complex type to discuss due to it many functions as they seem to be a combination of various properties from other types of satellites. For instance military satellites are used to communicate from the military base to the soldiers at the war zone. They are also used to control the direction of missiles via GPS.
Scientific satellites are use by the astrologers to study the space, their activities and movements. The patterns of the clouds are viewed from it and also the study of other planets can be achieved using the scientific satellites. Distance, shapes, sizes etc of planetary objects can be known with the use of this kind of satellites.
Some of these varying satellites have similar facilities which include cameras, transmitters and receivers, channels, etc and they all use similar signals which is the radio signals.
APPLICATIONS
The concept of space communication and technology cannot be handled separately from the discussion on satellites and their basic functionality and operational module. They go hand in hand. We shall be elaborating on the various applications of space communication in our world today and how it helps us interact with our neighboring planets in outer space.
It is not an overstatement that the use of satellites in space communication cannot be overemphasized. A lot has been made far easier with its utilization world wide. Places we never imagined we could have contact with can now be communicated with within few seconds. Researches and information that were never achievable are now possible and many more.
COMMUNICATION SATELLITES
Basically used for communication between two or more devices, communication satellite has become essential in our day-to-day business activities and casual conversation, making the global place smaller than it really is. The radio waves of high strength and frequency is the media by which most of the signals are sent and received. The signals used in communication satellites are in three types, namely data, video and voice. Unlike the case of military satellites, these signals are not encrypted therefore the level of security is very low. Communication satellites have its direct applications in Satellite cables, cell phones, emailing and internet, fax and telegraphing. Satellites only operate on the downlink, sending information and data to all receivers on earth while it receives signals by means of uplink from the devices from earth. It is used by pilot in the air to contact the airport for direction in space. Without the satellite it would be difficult for two cell phones or telecommunication device to connect with each other. Even if you put them next to each other since they use the satellite in space as an intermediary to connect. It is very important to note that the communication satellite was designed in such a way that it shall be powered continually. After considering what to use scientist decided to use the most reliable and easy to maintain source of energy which is the solar energy. The properties of communication satellites therefore include the solar panel which is required to absorb sunrays used to charge the solar cells which are responsible for keeping the satellites on constantly. Other properties include the antenna which serves as the receiver and transmitter which is common to all satellites.
The devices that make use of the communication satellite are many which are our usual mobile phones which has its own antenna too used to receive and send signals, television, satellite cables, and internet servers. Over the years the dependent on communication satellites has grown so much that many businesses thrive on them. It has its many advantages in the sense that it brings with it business transaction at your finger tips. A lot of convenience has been achieved from this invention. A lot of companies run on the internet with no physical office. It is therefore logical to wonder what will happen if there comes a kind of natural disaster in space that destroys all the satellites or simply interrupts the signals. Since there is a form overdependence on space communication, many company do not have a single hardcopy documentation of their daily activities. Such disaster that interrupts the signals from space would definitely lead to economic breakdown, loss of invaluable data, and disconnection of airplanes from their control tower causing plane crash. That is why most satellites in space have backups in space serving as supplements incase there any fault occur in the original device.
NAVIGATION SATELLITES
The advent of navigation satellites has made it possible to track down the position of objects on earth. Communication satellites are limited in this facilities. If you are making a call or sending an email, there is no way you can know where the fellow is contacting. No tracking of position is possible with communication satellite. Besides just tracking positions, navigation satellites maps out a surrounding through the Global Positioning System- GPS services. As the captain of a ship in the sea you need to have a bigger picture of where you are heading to. It could be very confusing travelling in a ship in the ocean where there are no roads or paths that lead to you destination. It would be far easier to continue traveling in circles without knowing if you do not have any map to guide you. Only though the map can you know when to bend or continue moving straight. This map can be achieved by the GPS signals sent from the navigation satellites. Besides, missiles and space shuttle can be controlled by GPS signals. Though majorly they can be used to track down by fixing the chip in wristwatches cell phones
The properties of a navigation satellite is not much different an antenna (serving as receiver and transmitter), video camera of very high pixels, channels, solar panel and solar cells.
Navigation satellites find their applications in GPS signals used by submarines, street surveillance camera devices etc. With navigation satellites it is possible to be at a military camp base and launch a missile to another country located at miles away by just controlling the position and direction of the missile through what is called the remote sensing which is also related to this topic in a way. The disadvantage of navigation satellite is its use in military. With the use of navigation satellite is it easier to wipe out a whole nation through controlled missiles. This has brought about the manufacturing of mass destructive weapons by powerful countries
WEATHER SATELLITES
These types of satellites are basically used in weather forecasts. Forecasting of weather is done through the satellites in space by comparing results of the present weather from other satellites and observing the patterns of the cloud before sending a report to a ground base station on earth. The report on weather received is used to forecast the future weather. Many depend a lot on weather news in order to carry out their activities. The two main types of weather satellites are geostationary satellites and polar orbiting satellites. Their usefulness to weather forecast can therefore not be overemphasized.
The properties of weather satellites include also an antenna used as a receiver and transmitter, 24 channels to send out radio frequency signals, a hyper-sensitive detector device used to detect the nature of the weather and also a solar panelcells.
Airways depend on weather report to know how to schedule their flights arrangements. It can also find its usefulness in the schedule of other activities done in open space which range from rallies, crusades, festivals etc. Even in the developed countries individuals depend on this forecasted weather to know if the day will be sunny, rainy or snowy. This is to afford them make necessary preparations like taking along their umbrellas to work, wearing a lighter clothing.
The disadvantages are that you cannot rely so much on this reports because weather changes fast and could be erratic in nature. Many times people who depend solely on weather forecaster have found themselves to blame. We have heard news of airplanes which took off with the prerogative that there wouldnt be rain, only to later be high up in the sky in the middle of the storm.
MILITARY SATELLITES
Military satellites find their effectiveness mostly in the war zones. As I stated earlier that it is a complex form of satellites that combines many features of other satellites.
The Defense Satellite Communications System, or DSCS is a major subsystem in the global information grid, or GIG, providing high throughput, long-haul communications to Department of Defense and other special governmental users (Garth R. Hahn, Anthony Kellar Steven Stubblefield). From the same source it is known to consist of space, control and ground segment.
Military satellites are used to communicate between the soldiers in camp at the warfront and the defense headquarters. The major unique characteristic of the military satellites is the nature of the signals sent and received during communication. Due to obvious reason that radio signals sent through any satellite channel can be traced it was necessary for the defense department to come up with another option that would be more secure. In an attempt to make sure that their information is not leaked they decided to come up with the idea of scrambling the messages transferred over the satellite channel. A lot of other security measures are also taken to make sure that data transferred via military satellites remain intact.
Military satellites have a higher resolution camera used to send images.
The applications of military satellites that I know is simply in the defense systems.
SCIENTIST SATELLITES
Scientist satellites are used for scientific purposes. They are used to study the earth and its environs. Scientists have been able to get a better knowledge and understanding about space and planetary objects including the sun, moon, stars and other planets. The movement of oceanic waves can also be studied by analyzing the images sent by the scientific satellites. Through the study of the images sent from the scientific satellite in space one can retrieve the sizes, shapes and distances between these objects.
Similar to other forms of satellites, scientific satellites also have a high resolution camera which sends imaging signals on the patterns formed by objects in space.
TECHOLOGICAL
Satellite communications technology offers the unique capability of being able to simultaneously reach out to very large numbers, spread over large distances even in the most remote corners of the country. (A. Bhaskaranarayana, B. S. Bhatia, K. Bandyopadhyay and P. K. Jain)
Taking a brief look at space communication satellites from the technological aspect, we need to analyze the operation mechanics and procedures of the satellites from the optical, nano and Pico point of view.
OPTICAL SATELLITES
The sound of optical reminds you of imaging through satellites. As discussed earlier, most satellites make use of high resolution camera to capture images from space and send them to a ground base station receiving the data. Such images are used to further researches or draw conclusions about the space. The major aim was to send images of pixels that are not visible to the human eye. The optical satellites have a wide aperture used to capture images in space.
When using radio frequency telemetry link, the low-earth-orbit satellites transmitter could be detected by eavesdropped easily the optical downlinks through modulated laser signals provide a perfect solution because they can hold hundreds of megabits (Giggenbach).
The information data sent are undetectable.
Optical has a lot of innovative technology attached to it beside corrective measures against eavesdropping optical satellites transmit radio frequency in a similar fashion to fibers. Before the optical technology, to receive data from satellites someone at the ground base station would have to wait till the satellite rotates in its orbital path where there is connectivity. To avoid this limitation the optical satellite has an antenna with diffused beam each sending out radio signals carrying important data. The line of sight of an optical satellites telescope is always directed sideways from the direction of elongation.
NANO SATELLITES
Nano satellites are very small in size and the idea of a nano satellite was borne out of the desire to have a satellite in space that is unnoticeable by anyone. Having the size of a human head. Nanosatellites are launched by a parent craft from earth but takes fewer time to launch into space unlike the usual known satellites which are much more bigger in size. The weight of nano satellites also make it suitable as the spacecraft of the future. Just like we have in other systems of technology, nano satellites have all their internal components embedded in a microchip with the same quality and functionality. The major problem hence will be from the aperture and the camera which will both be very small in size when compared to the normal satellites. What scientists are trying to achieve is the reduction of the size of telemetry objects.
Small telemetry objects in space is an added advantage because of the following
Cost effectiveness it save the nation more money if the nano satellite technology can be fully achieved in the near future. Instead of spending so much on the big type which still performs the same operation at equal efficiency.
Launch time In science we always try to beat time down to the barest minimum. The fact that nanosatellites take lesser time to launch into space is enough factor to support its research work.
Finally it saves much space in space and can not be easily detected which makes it suitable for the military operations.
PICO SATELLITES
Pico satellites (Picosat) are miniaturized type of satellites that are very cheap to build and easy to design. It has a small mass of between 0.1 kg and 1 kg. They come with a larger satellite that are used to launch them into space. The Pico-satellite is designed such that all the massive parts usually found in larger satellites are now embedded in a small microchip placed on a panel board.
Applications and Purposes of Pico- and Nano- Satellites
They find their major application in the department of defense and military. Due to it very small size it has become a future technology that defense departments of various countries install in space so as to spy opponent without being detected easily. Unlike the larger satellite which is massive in space and very conspicuous.
The issue of satellite clustering in space has also made it necessary for the advent of minute satellites which occupy less space in the sky. It is inarguably one of the major reasons why scientist opted for the design of a smaller satellite. The purpose of installing Pico and Nano satellites is to counter the rate at which the developing countries are beginning to build and install their own satellites in space. In an attempt to avoid, satellites collision which leads to debris deposition in space, scientist have worked very hard to make sure that a smaller version of the usually big satellites come into existence with the same or even better performance.
Finally, due to the skyrocketing price of constructing a satellite which is a major hindrance for developing countries, the Pico- and Nano- satellites were designed to reduce cost of production also make if more affordable for them. Since space communication contributes a lot to the development of a nation, it was essential for the developing countries to be encouraged to have their own at a very cheaper price.
In summary the purposes for constructing the Pico and Nano satellites include the following
Military and defense, Avoidance of satellite collisions and
CHALLENCES AND ISSUE
The challenges faced by the modern day technology are enormous, enough to discourage scientists. These challenges, besides being discouraged keep the scientists on their toes during research. They keep looking for better ways to better the lot of the world through technology.
We are going to make sure we cover possible challenges faced by each type of satellites.
One of the initial challenges faced was the issue of cost. It was a major problem to make a satellite that will be far smaller in nature to the existing one in order to achieve a reduced cost of production. Use of GPS time and frequency in communications systems improved the local oscillator (LO) stability and enhanced access protocols like open loop Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). (A. Bhaskaranarayana, B. S. Bhatia, K. Bandyopadhyay and P. K. Jain).
One of the major reasons that led to the reduction of the size of the satellite was the time it required for launching to take place. Even though Higher Institutions and manufacturers still focus on the construction of the bigger satellites, it is logical to imagine that a time will come when all those kind of satellites would be considered out of place and the likes of nano and Pico satellites will become the main types available in the market. It is important to know that one of the limitations of communication satellites is also the large bandwidth required for each channel to have. If radio frequency signals of any type could be compressed this will reduce the bandwidth and improve communication capacity.
It has been stated earlier too that a smaller satellite is easy to design. Designing a big satellite could be very challenging as a lot of criteria have to be taken into consideration. A satellite is not just designed physically like that else you might just find out that your whole new satellite is just a bunch of beautiful edifice that does not work. Most of the components are dependent on each other, therefore to neutralize this challenge thereby saving stress and cost, these satellites are first designed using a software package, and then the simulation process begins before finally constructing the equipment.
Most of these satellites make use of natural sources of energy from the sun. Solar energy radiation is trapped by the solar panel of the satellite thereby converting it to other forms of energy. The by-products of this energy released after combustion are deposited in space atmosphere causing pollution. Man seems to be a major contributor of unnatural materials from derelict large size satellite to fuel deposition that pollute the space (MESHISHNEK).
The awareness on the need and advantages of artificial communication satellites installed in space have been on the increasing trend over the past decades now. When the first satellite Sputnik 1 was installed, many countries never knew the advantages. Today, more countries are involved in the construction of satellites bringing the number of satellites in space to around hundred. The space is increasingly becoming crowded by these satellites. As many more countries get involved, scientists will be faced with the issue of creating enough space to occupy more satellites. That is why the issue of modeling smaller sizes of satellites should be taking seriously.
Have you ever imagined how possible it was for two or more satellites to collide in space This could be caused by interception in the path of a satellite by another.
The collision on February 10, 2009 between the Iridium 33 satellite and the defunct Cosmos 2251 satellite at an altitude of 470 miles (770 km) significantly increases the amount of space debris in the region of space that is already the most crowded and has the greatest risk of collisions between orbiting objects (D. Wright).
Whether many more collisions will still be witnessed in the near future is left to how soon the nano and Pico satellite come into existence.
Most developing countries are still in the process of launching their own artificial satellites into space. In short Nigeria NigComSat-1 remains one of the first developing countries to launch a satellite into space which is remarkable but how much they can afford to maintain the proper running of this satellite only time will tell. Soon after the NigComSat-1 developed a fault they installed NigComSat-2. By the time other developing countries feel the need to own their own satellite I wonder how space will be left in the atmosphere. This debris are mostly concentrated in areas where there are more satellites located (D. Wright, Space Debris).
Also ozone layer depletion can also serve as a source of pollution in space.
Nigeria seems to be the foremost developing nation that owns a satellite in space. The advantage of satellites in space cannot be overemphasized. Even though there are some limitations to its development, space communication stills remains a major benefit to our world. The world is a better place to leave today because of space communication. This concept has united the global community, making us closer to our families, friends and business partners. The benefits are immeasurable when compared to its challenges which includes space debris deposition.
Many questions would have been left unanswered if it were not for the genius in space communication.
Even though the level that has been achieved in satellites communication is impressive it is still necessary to note and pit in our minds that there is still an urgent need for us to work on the full existence of the newer technology called nano satellites and Pico satellites because the more countries that begin to embrace the use of artificial satellites installation the more encroachment in space will be observed which could cause frequent collision in space. This we dont want to witness.
When you come to terms with the fact that there are far more developing countries than the developed, you will then understand the greater urgency in the need to manufacture mini-satellites with the same level of performance set by the existing ones.
With the rate at which the world is becoming global and technology is taking over the place there might come a time very soon when owning a satellite by a nation become as necessary as human beings having their own personal cell phones.
Though the issue of pollution also seem to be a problem, I will recommend that an alternative source of energy be used all through the daily running of the satellite to avoid further fuel depletion in space.
