5 well-known technologies that would not exist without space exploration

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

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Every time you change the TV channel or type in an address in the navigator, it happens thanks to space exploration and flights to other planets. Together with we tell you what developments have come into our life from astronautics.

1. Satellite TV

The history of satellite television began on July 10, 1962: then NASA launched the first communications satellite into orbit Telstar ‑ 1 … The next day, with his help, the first satellite broadcast was carried out in the United States. Telstar-1 flew in an elliptical orbit and in one orbit around the planet gave a continuous signal for 20 minutes - only 2 hours 37 minutes. He could provide one TV broadcast or 60 phone calls.

In the USSR, a satellite of this type was called "Lightning-1": He went into space for the first time in 1964, and the first television broadcast took place in 1965. The Soviet satellite provided communication between Moscow and Vladivostok.

In the same year, the United States launched a geostationary satellite into a circular orbit. Intelsat ‑ 1 (Early bird): This allowed the signal to be maintained longer. The USSR managed to increase the broadcasting time two years later: the country created its own satellite network "Orbit" - the devices transmitted the signal in turn.

At first, satellites were used only in a professional environment, but gradually they became available to all people. In the USA, for example, “dishes” began to be actively installed in the eighties: the signal was not then encoded and users could watch any channel they caught for free. In 1994, satellites already provided not only analog, but also digital broadcasting - the number of channels increased from this.

Today, more than 44 million families in Russia use Pay TV, a significant part of them receive their signal via satellite. The main secret of the popularity of this type of connection is accessibility: it allows you to watch many channels anywhere, even in a remote village. All thanks to space technologies: the provider sends radio signals to the satellite, and from there they propagate back to Earth.

You can catch a signal almost anywhere, you just need a dish antenna. It picks up a signal from space, converts it and sends it to a satellite receiver, which decodes it, turning it into a picture and sound.

The unusual shape of the satellite dish was not invented for the sake of design - the concavity helps to receive the signal more efficiently. It is reflected from the walls of the "plate" and, thanks to the raised edges, goes to the center of the structure, where the receiving device-envelope is placed - this allows you to get a lot of information in good quality.

Now the capabilities of satellites can be used by TV operators. For example, more than 12 million households watch satellite TV. To transmit a signal to different regions of Russia, the operator uses the power of three satellites.

2. Satellite Internet

According to Rosstat, about 74% of Russians are provided with high-speed Internet today. This is a good indicator, but it is rather true only for urban areas. Outside it, for example, in summer cottages, the coverage of both fixed and cellular operators drops sharply, especially during peak hours, and communication problems arise. In such situations, the space innovation - satellite Internet - saves.

For a long time, there was a myth that this type of signal transmission could not provide a stable high-speed Internet. In fact, satellite operators in Russia are already "overclocking" the signal to 200 Mbit / s. And tariffs for satellite Internet from Tricolor at speeds up to 100 Mbps (this is enough to watch videos in Full HD and 4K) are already available from Kaliningrad to Irkutsk.

Recent studies show that satellite Internet is used mainly for work and communication on social networks. The demand for this "space service" is concentrated mainly among private users and has grown especially strongly during the period of forced self-isolation.

Low-orbit satellites (Starlink, ONEWEB) and their capabilities have become the most fashionable and discussed technological innovation in the satellite Internet segment. Elon Musk's corporation has already made a number of statements about the expected revolution in the high-tech market. Most experts are inclined to consider this project adventurous so far.

3. GPS navigator

Asking artificial intelligence to find a way to any point in a city, country or world and build an optimal route now seems to be such a basic task that it is difficult to imagine life without it. But if not for the competition between countries in outer space and weapons, people might still have to find a way around the map.

The idea of a satellite navigation system appeared in the late 50s in the United States, after the launch of the Soviet Sputnik-1 … American scientists noticed the dependence of the frequency of the radio signal on the position of the satellite in the sky: when the object approached, it increased, when it moved away, it decreased. At that moment it became clear that the position of the satellite can be used to determine the speed and coordinates of a body on Earth and vice versa. And so the development of the technology began.

The creation of a navigation system was initially a purely military project: it was supposed to protect the American borders from Soviet interference. In the mid-60s, the technology was tested by the US Naval Research Laboratory: six LEO satellites were created and launched Timation - they circled around the poles, and the signal from them was caught by submarines.

In the early 70s, the US Department of Defense was already engaged in development, and in 1978 the first satellite of the navigation system flew into orbit NAVSTAR (later called GPS). In total, 24 satellites were launched - the full range of objects appeared in space in 1993, the complex began to fully fulfill its tasks in March 1994, and in May 2000, the United States opened access to GPS for other countries.

Now any person can use the satellite navigation system. It is found in smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, laptops and other devices. In addition, she helps cartographers, surveyors, rescuers and other professionals work.

4. Geolocation services

GPS has given us not only the ability to search and build fast routes. We use satellite geolocation technology in smartphones every day: to add a tag to Instagram, find a plane ticket or take a virtual trip, for example, to Europe. All this is possible thanks to the inertial navigation system (INS) built into the gadget, which consists of gyroscopes (rotation sensors) and accelerometers (motion sensors). In the 1950s, it was developed to control aircraft and missiles: the system allows you to continuously monitor the location of the body, determining its position, speed and orientation in space.

The first INS could occupy an entire aircraft cockpit. Now they are so tiny that they can only be seen under a microscope. In a smartphone, the system allows you not only to monitor the location, but also to change the screen orientation - it would be impossible to watch movies on your mobile in full resolution without this. Another useful geolocation service is smartphone search. It allows you to find and quickly return a lost gadget, to avoid theft of personal data by intruders.

5. Wireless devices

Car vacuum cleaners, blenders, drills and other battery-powered equipment are distant cousins of one spacecraft. Its history began in 1961, when NASA approached Black & Decker with an unusual order.

For the expedition to the moon, astronauts needed tools that work without being connected to the mains: battery devices already existed at that time, they were produced by Black & Decker. But simple wireless technology for space flight was not enough: it had to work powerfully, efficiently and in extremely difficult conditions.

As a result, after conducting many different tests, Black & Decker created a cordless rock drill for drilling and retrieving lunar soil. And during its development, they came up with several other projects based on this technology and simplified the life of people on Earth, in particular, a compact handheld vacuum cleaner and precision (i.e. high-precision) medical instruments.

Other wireless devices like headphones, mice or smartphones also do not need a cable to pick up a signal, but they work using a different technology. In any case, space exploration is not only a scientific achievement and prestige for the country. It has a direct impact on our daily activities - from blogging to family get-togethers in front of the TV.