• Question: How do you get a satellite into space and how do you make satellites is it made out of a special metal how do you get oxygen in to the spaceship

    Asked by Pound land ? to Betty, Isaac, Kieran, Silvia, Will on 4 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Kieran Arnold

      Kieran Arnold answered on 4 Nov 2016:

      currently we used a dedicated launch rocket e.g Ariane space transport part of the Airbus group. in the future we may use a space plane dependant on the size of the satellite.

      satellites are made from numerous metallic and non metallic materials we use a lot of new composite materials , the choice of material depends on the thermodynamics and what part of the satellite you need to make. some parts are made from semi precious metals such as silver or gold but not in great quantities.

    • Photo: Betty Bonnardel-Azzarelli

      Betty Bonnardel-Azzarelli answered on 5 Nov 2016:

      There have been loads of ideas on how to send satellites into space. Of course, rockets such as Ariane 5 and Vega are typical to send satellites into space. But there are many more ways! I once worked on a space “gun” which could one day maybe send satellites into space. This was inspired by Jules Verne’s From Earth to Moon story’s enormous “Columbian Space Gun”. I also worked on a space plane, such as Virgin Galactic, but with scramjet engines – a project called Hotol (search online for all these names if you want to know more).
      Satellites have different part which are meant to do different things. However, they all have to withstand changes in temperature, the space environment, be light (less weight to send into space…)… So materials are carefully selected and new materials are being developed to achieve better all the time. For instance, there is a new cool antenna using metamaterials called Kymeta which is amazing!

    • Photo: Isaac Llorens

      Isaac Llorens answered on 6 Nov 2016:

      Lots of questions there!

      How do you get a satellite into space?
      Well, at the only way to put satellites or any object in space is with rockets, but they are very expensive and complicated. Many people is looking at new and better ways to put spacecrafts, also satellites, into space. There are ides like the space lift, balloons to launch smaller rockets from the stratosphere, or Skylon, a UK project to build a space plane. Skylon could take of and land as a regular aircraft but fly in space as a rocket.

      How do you make satellites?
      1. First we think about the mission of the satellite, like if it is to take pictures of the Earth or to broadcast TV around the world
      2. We think about what are the parts and subsystems needed and they features, such as radios, batteries, computers, instruments, solar panels, etc.
      3. We define all the satellite parts in detail and hand that information to each engineering department: electronics, digital, sofware, mechanical, etc.
      4. We build the satellite parts
      5. We verify the parts are as we designed them and work as expected.
      6. We put everything together.
      7. We verify the satellite work as expected
      8. We test the satellite in special chambers and vibration test tables that simulate space conditions.
      9. We send the satellite to the launch site.

      How do you get oxygen into the spaceship?
      It depends, for spaceships that have to stay for a short time in space oxygen is stored in bottles, but for long stays like in a space station it is produced there using chemical reactions.

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