• Question: What is an example of a type of satalite?

    Asked by EthanR to Naziyah, Namrah, John, Joanna, Hester, Ed, Adriana on 8 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Hester Baird

      Hester Baird answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      The word ‘satellite’ actually refers to anything orbiting a planet or star – for example, the Moon is a satellite of the Earth. But, in general, we use it more specifically to mean an artificial (or human-made) machine that we have launched into orbit. So, the International Space Station is a satellite, although it is unusual because it is much bigger than most human-made satellites! Another example of a satellite could be Sentinel-6, which was launched last November. Sentinel-6 is a satellite that carries a radar to help it measure sea levels on Earth, which is important for monitoring climate change. You might have seen it on the news, as it involved a lot of collaboration between NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency).

    • Photo: Ed Chester

      Ed Chester answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      Satellite “types” are normally classified using two different concepts: one is the orbit that the satellite follows, and the other is its application. For example, we have “low earth orbit” satellites where the orbit size is physically quite small; ‘medium orbit’ satellites (such as GPS), “geostationary” satellites that are typically used for communications and weather monitoring, and then many other classes based on orbit.
      Grouping by application the main groups would be “remote sensing” (or ‘Earth observation’) – looking down at Earth for any of many reasons; “navigation” (GNSS – global navigation satellite systems) – satellites that provide timing signals that support applications like GPS positioning; “communications” – anything from broadcast television (Sky) to mobile telephony (Iridium), broadband internet (Starlink); “science” – a broad category of anything performing science/research which happens in any orbit.

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