Satellite Communications Description

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Recommended: The history of space exploration

What is a satellite? It is defined as “a natural body that revolves around a planet; a moon” or “a device designed to be launched into orbit around the earth, another planet, the sun, etc.”. For this purpose, the second definition is the one that will be focused on. Satellites are a fairly new technology, only about 60 years old. For it’s short usage, it has greatly impacted human society. The development of satellite communications technology has greatly impacted our day-to-day life and military operations.
Before satellites were a reality, mankind had to rely on other forms of communication. Samuel Morse, an inventor born in Charlestown Mass., developed many improvements to the already existing telegraph. From 1832 until the unveiling in 1838, Morse developed the Morse Code which consisted of dots-and-dashes to represent letters and numbers.. Although credited with the development, his assistant Vail was later credited with the original idea for a dot-and-dash version (Morse Code). Later that century, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. “Bell's greatest success was achieved on March 10, 1876, marked not only the birth of the telephone but the death of the multiple telegraph as well” (The History of the Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell). This greatest success was the first successful use of a telephone by Bell to call his assistant in another room. As the quote states, the development of the telephone did in fact make the telegraph obsolete. One disadvantage that the telephone did have, though, was that it had to be physically connected by wires between the individuals using these phones. A new invention, radio, was made possible by many inventors including Henirich Hertz, Nikola Tesla, Ernst Alexanderson and Reginald...

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...p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconnaissance_satellite>.

"SCORE." National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .

"SCORE (satellite)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

"A Short History of Radio." Federal Communications Commission, n.d. Web. Winter 2003-2004. .

"Sputnik Launch Kicked off Satellite Revolution." Msnbc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

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