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Types of Satellites
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| Communications Satellites Used for: Audio, video, data transmission. Features: Dishes to capture radio waves; large solar panels to power sound amplifiers Orbit: Geosynchronous (circle once every 24 hours), 22,300 miles above Earth's Equator.
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 Artist's rendering of a communications satellite. Photo courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center. |
| Earth Observation Satellites Used for: Photographing the Earth to observe changes such as earthquakes, drought and for mineral prospecting. Features: Barrel-shaped design to house mirrors, camera. Orbit: Low-flying polar orbit at 90 to 300 miles above Earth.
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 DigitalGlobe's QuickBird remote sensing satellite launched in 2001. Photo courtesy of digitalglobe.com.
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| Weather Satellites Used for: Photographing changes in cloud formations, weather patterns. Features: Similar in design to Earth observation satellites. Orbit: Low-flying polar orbiters circle every two hours at 300-600 miles above Earth. High-flying geostationary orbit at 22,300 miles.
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 A weather satellite rendering. Photo courtesy of Richmond University, VA, teacher resources at oncampus.richmond.edu. |
 Satellites
take a picture of the same spot every time they circle the Earth, and
compositing the photos shows how the weather patterns are changing. This
shows cloud movement over the Hawaiian islands. Animation
courtesy of www.prh.noaa.gov/.../ Oahu-Maui_VIS_loop.gif
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| Navigation satellites Used for: Global Positioning Systems by pilots, boaters, etc. Examples: GlobalStar Tracking Systems. Orbit: GPS satellites orbit at low altitude (90-300 mi.).
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 An array of navigation satellites. Photo courtesy of www.tele.ntnu.no/radio/newresearch/navigation/avion.jpg |
| Military Satellites Used for: Analyzing global troop and weapon movement; communication. Features: Military satellite designs are top-secret. Orbit: Both low-flying orbit for observation and geosynch high orbit (22,300 miles) for GPS monitoring satellites.
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 A U.S. Army GPS satellite. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense. |
| Special Satellites Used for: Space observation and habitation. Examples: The Mir Space Station; Hubble Telescope; Magellan Venus orbiter; Mariner 9 Mars Orbiter. Orbit: Space stations orbit at low altitude (90-300 mi.); deep space probes travel an elliptical orbit.
An artist's rendering of NASA's Pegasus satellite, launched in 1967 to detect meteorites that might interfere with the Apollo spaceships. Photo courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center |
 A rendering of NASA's proposed Space Station Alpha. Photo courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center.
A model of NASA's Mars orbiter satellite, Mariner 9. Photo courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center.
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