The future of satellite technology

The future of satellite technology is focused on discovering secrete of the planets.
With the help of engineers and scientist NASA has developed and flies very small satellites called nanosatellites. nanosatellites are designed for a wide spectrum of space missions including biology experiments, testing advanced propulsion and communications technologies. The main objective of nanosatellites is to uncover the secrets in the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere to benefit people on Earth.

Another satellite called Glory will be launched to increase scientists understanding of the earth’s energy balance. Glory is a low Earth orbit scientific research satellite designed to achieve two major goals: collect data on the properties of aerosols, black carbon in the earth atmosphere and climate and solar irradiance for the long term effects on the earth climate record.

Scientist believe that Jupiter holds secrets about our solar system’s early history. A satellite called Juno will be launched on 2011 to help scientists improve their understanding of our solar system by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter. The satellite will unlock many of the secrets on how planet formation unfolds in other star systems. Juno will detected volume of water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties, map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, and so on

Assembly began April 1, 2010, for NASA’s Juno spacecraft in the high-bay cleanroom at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver Colorado.

http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/37654/1/05-2760.pdf
htt http://glory.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/ted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The Future of Telescopes

The plan of the future is to design a 100 meter telescope that would be able to acquire 1736 times more light than the Hubble Telescope is capturing today. This obviously would allow for pictures in greater detail, and the ability to observe phenomenon further back in space time. Paul Hickson, a Canadian astronomer proposed a liquid mirror telescope. Though a manned mission to the moon will be required to achieve anything close to the telescope desired, it is simply a question of whether funding is available for such projects.

As astronomers look back in time, they need more powerful, higher resolution instruments

as well as the search for extrasolar planets. One of the key areas the new technology has to look at is the epoch of reionisation, some one billion years after the Big Bang. 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled enough to become opaque so that very little light was being emitted for us to observe.Later the universe began to change and objects like stars and galaxies formed. The heat from these objects began ionising the neutral gas of the universe, creating more galaxies and stars in bubbles of hotter regions that eventually spread to form the reionised universe we see today.

Some of the new designs of telescopes are incredible. The picture to the left is the E-ELT, one of the new designs of Extremely Large Telescope(any telescope over 20m in diameter). The small white shape to the bottom left of the picture is a car. The next decade will truly revolutionize the way astronomers see the sky!

Today's modern telescopes are mainly computer controlled to allow you to view the images you are seeking on a screen. The computers within allow you to save coordinates inside so you can easily view the same point again and again. Also, this allows you to take a photo or video of what you are viewing through the telescope.

Today it is much easier to get involved in astronomy and involve your whole family. Anyone can purchase a small, modern telescope today at a local department store for around $100 which will work just fine for amateur space viewing.

Modern Telescopes

Telescopes have been used for hundreds of years and the development is largely contributed to Galileo. It was first said to be developed in 1611 and was named by "The Telescope" by a Greek poet - Theologian. This original that was created is still largely what people associate with when they think of telescopes but it is a far way from what modern telescopes are like.

Modern telescopes are based on a Catadioptrics design which was developed by German Bernhard Schmidt. It's based on a combination of refractor and reflector telescopes. This design is used in a range of scopes from small backyard telescopes to professional observatory models. These modern models gather light through it's front objective lens, focus the light, then the eyepiece magnifies the image to the size of your pupil.

Modern satellites

The idea of launching artificial satellites that comes to life in 1957 by Soviet Union and followed by the United States has come along way. By the early 2000's, more than 40 countries owned satellites, and nearly 3,000 satellites were operating in orbit. Currently there are six main types of satellites:

Scientific research satellites

Scientific research satellites gather data for scientific analysis. These satellites are usually designed to gather information about the composition and effects of the space near Earth, to record changes in Earth and its atmosphere and to observe planets, stars, and other distant objects.

One of scientific research satellites Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite was launched in 1991. It measures ozone and chemical compounds found in the ozone layer which affect ozone chemistry and processes. UARS also measures winds and temperatures in the stratosphere as well as the energy input from the Sun.

Weather satellites

Weather satellites help scientists study weather patterns and forecast the weather. A weather satellite called the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite observes atmospheric conditions over a large area to help scientists study and forecast the weather.
On May 24, 2006 GOES-N was successfully launched into space. GOES-N is the first of a new series of weather satellites that provides forecasters with improved real-time information about atmospheric conditions throughout much of the Western Hemisphere.
The constant, real-time view provides essential information to forecasters and allows them to issue accurate advanced warnings of severe weather like hurricanes, tornadoes, hail storms, and heavy rain that can cause flash flooding. Other weather satellites are placed in high altitude. From these orbits, scientists can always observe weather activity over nearly half the surface of Earth at the same time.

Communications Satellites

Communications satellites serve as relay stations, receiving radio signals from one location and transmitting them to another. A communications satellite can relay several television programs or many thousands of telephone calls at once. Communications satellites are usually put in a high altitude, geosynchronous orbit over a ground station.
NASA launched series of three advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, known as TDRS. These satellites provides high data-rate communication links with the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and a host of other spacecraft, as well as tracking services for expendable launch vehicles.

Navigation satellites

Originally Navigation System with Timing And Ranging Global Positioning System, GPS was developed by the United States Department of Defense to provide all-weather round-the-clock navigation capabilities for military ground, sea, and air forces. A navigation satellite sends signals that operators of aircraft, ships, and land vehicles and people on foot can use to determine their location.

The satellites send out radio signals that are picked up by a computerized receiver carried on a vehicle or held in the hand. Navigation satellites operate in networks, and signals from a network can reach receivers anywhere on Earth.

Earth observing satellites

Earth observing satellites are used to map and monitor the planet's resources and ever-changing chemical life cycles. Under constant, consistent light from the sun, they take pictures in different colors of visible light and non-visible radiation then computers on Earth combine and analyze the pictures. Scientists use Earth observing satellites to locate mineral deposits, to determine the location and size of freshwater supplies, to identify sources of pollution and study its effects.

The satellite, Aqua, helps scientists study ocean evaporation and other aspects of the movement and distribution of Earth's water.


Military satellites

Military satellites include weather, communications, navigation, and Earth observing satellites used for military purposes. Some military satellites called spy satellites can detect the launch of missiles, the course of ships at sea, and the movement of military equipment on the ground.

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/artificial_satellites_worldbook.html
http://umpgal.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/Programs/gps.html

Satellites

The first satellite Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, at low orbit barely above the Earth's atmosphere. Sputnik was not used for two-way communications since it could only transmit a signal to Earth. Many satellites followed Sputnik into low-Earth orbit. In 1960 the first communication satellite ECHO was launched by the United States. ECHO connected users by bouncing radio signals off its surface but it was unable to transmit radio signals itself.

However in 1962 active satellites TELSTAR and RELAY were launched. These satellites received radio signals from Earth and amplified the signals before re-transmitting them back to Earth. The first satellite to use geostationary orbit for communications was called Syncom and was launched in 1963. Syncom weighed 78 pounds and was 28 inches in diameter. Geostationary satellite orbits the Earth at a much higher altitude than low-Earth orbit satellites.

The concept of geostationary satellites used for communications is credited to an article written in 1945 by Arthur C. Clarke, RAF electronics officer and member of the British Interplanetary Society, in the British radio magazine Wireless World. The article described the use of manned satellites in 24-hour orbits high above the world's land masses to distribute television programs.

http://history.nasa.gov/satcomhistory.html

The start of Astronomy

By taking our sense of sight far beyond the realm of our forebears' imagination, these wonderful instruments, the telescopes, open the way to a deeper and more perfect understanding of nature.
—René Descartes, 1637

The first telescope was used in the Netherlands in 1608. They attempted to patent the device with the description of it being that it "aided in seeing faraway things as though nearby". The government denied their patent, stating it was too easy to copy. The first telescope had a convex and a concave lens in a tube.

A drawing of what the first telescope looked like can be seen below.

Galileo Galilei did some upgrades to the telescope in 1609 and on. His telescopes were of a more powerful magnification and very popular. Observing space through his telescopes gave the rise to the thinking that the planets circled around the sun. His telescopes used a concave eyepiece lens and a convex objective lens.

All telescope makers faced the difficulty of finding glass for the lenses that was pure and without iron impurities which caused a green tinge when looking through the scope.

Seeing therefore the Improvement of Telescopes of given length by Refractions is desperate, I contrived heretofore a Perspective by Reflexions, using instead of an Object-glass a concave metal.
—Newton, Opticks, 1704

Newton designed an even better telescope and presented it to England's Royal Society in 1672. This telescope had the capability of a magnification of about 40.