Space Station Info >>Satellites

Satellite

A satellite is any object that orbits another primary object. All masses that are part of the solar system, including the Earth, are satellites either of the Sun, or satellites of those objects, such as the Moon.There are also several types of satellites available.

As all objects exert gravity, the motion of the primary object is affected by the satellite. The general rule for an object to be a satellite is that the center of mass of the two objects is inside the primary object.If two objects are sufficiently similar in mass, they are generally referred to as a binary system;'double asteroid' 90 Antiope for instance.

The term satellite also refers to an ‘artificial satellite’ also which is a man-made object that orbits the Earth or another body. Scientists may also use the term to refer to ‘natural satellite’.

w Natural Satellite

Moon, the common noun, is used to mean any natural satellite. There are at least 140 moons within the solar system, and infact many others orbiting the planets of other stars. Theer is a standard model of moon formation from the same collapsing region of protoplanetary disk. This give rise to primary.

Theer are also exceptions or variations in this regard. Several moons are thought to be captured asteroids; others may be fragments of larger moons collapsed by impacts, a portion of the planet itself blasted into orbit by a large impact. As most moons are known only through a few observations via investigations or telescopes, most theories about their origins are still uncertain.

w Artificial Satellite

Before the space age which began in 1946 scientists used balloons up to 30 km and radio waves to study the ionosphere. Rockets changed that. From 1946 to 1952, upper-atmosphere research was conducted using V-2s and Aerobee rockets which allowed measurements of atmospheric pressure density, and temperature up to 200 km.

Early in 1955, following the pressure from the American Rocket Society, the Air Force and Navy were worked on Project Orbiter, which involved using a Jupiter C rocket to launch a small satellite called Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958.

On July 29, 1955, the White House announced the launch of the satellite by 1958, which came to be known as Project Vanguard. The soviets also launched a satellite which came to be known as Sputnik 1. Currently the largest artificial satellite orbiting the earth is the International Space Station, which can be seen with the unaided human eye.