WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How Satellites Work 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from My Heart Radio. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.040 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with my Heart Radio 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.599 and how the Tech Area. It is time for a 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.400 tech Stuff classic episode. This episode originally published back on 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:31.040 December nine, two thousand fifteen. It is titled how Satellites Work. Enjoy. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.800 Let's talk about satellites and what they are. So satellite 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.760 is something that's in orbit around another object. And of 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.880 course Earth has had a satellite for billions of years. 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.080 That would be the Moon. That's a natural satellite. But 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.839 if we want to look at man made satellites, we 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.720 have to go back a few decades. And in fact, 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:57.440 the foundation for man made satellites, the principles, the idea 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.160 of what would be required go act well before the 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:05.440 space race ever started. That would be Isaac Newton who 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.840 came up with the idea of what would be required 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.600 to create a satellite. Now that's not what he necessarily 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.440 called it, but this was published in a famous thought 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:18.800 experiment back in seventeen twenty nine, and at the time 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:23.160 he was really concentrating on gravity, which is pretty heavy stuff. 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.880 So Newton's thought experiment was famous. People have talked about 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.880 this a lot. You've probably heard about it. He said, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:32.880 what if you were to go at the top of 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.600 a really really tall mountain and you build a cannon 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.640 on the top of that mountain, and you aim that 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:44.320 cannon so that the barrel is parallel with the earth 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.880 below you, so it's at at the same you know, 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.960 same angle as the ground down at the base of 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:57.160 the mountain. You fire the cannon, the cannon ball flies 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.920 out and it moves away from the cannon, and but 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.040 it also starts to fall because gravity has been pulling 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.360 on the cannonball the whole time. You know, gravity was 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.240 pulling on the cannonball when it was in the cannon. 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.680 It's pulling on the cannonball now that it's emerged from 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.560 the cannon. Eventually, this cannonball is going to fall to 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.120 the ground. And by eventually, it's it's based upon the 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.800 altitude that the cannonball already is at. Uh doesn't have 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.760 anything to do with the forward velocity so much as 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.560 the altitude. He said, well, what if you were to 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.240 to pack more gunpowder in this cannon and you fire it, 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.640 might it will go further because it's moving out a 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.240 forward velocity. That's that's greater than the previous one, but 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.520 it still will eventually fall to the earth. Uh really 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.320 in that same amount of time. It's just gonna be 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.400 further out from their first shot. But then you keep 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.919 packing more and more gunpowder in, and eventually you pack 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.640 enough gunpowder in so that when you fire the cannonball, 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.799 it is flying out at a forward velocity at a 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.040 at a rate that is equal to how the Earth 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.000 is curving a way from the cannonball. So, in other words, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.320 the canniballs falling toward the Earth, but the Earth is 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.200 curving away from the cannonball at that same rate, so 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.400 the cannibal never falls down to hit the Earth's surface 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.400 because the Earth is falling away from the cannonball at 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.320 the same rate that the cannonball itself is falling. This 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.080 would mean that eventually you would shoot yourself in the back, 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.480 because the cannonball would make a full rotation around the 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.440 Earth and come back to its point of origin. At least, 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.480 that was the thought experiment that Newton had proposed, which 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.120 seemed like a really clever idea, but there was no 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:36.880 practical means of testing it or putting it to any 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:41.040 use back in Newton's day, it was just an interesting idea. 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:46.280 It would not be until October four, nineteen seven, and 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:50.040 that's when the then Soviet Union made history by launching 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.960 the first man made satellite into Earth orbit, and that 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.800 satellite was the spot Nick one. But it was fairly simple. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.840 It was a ball all that was silver in color. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.360 It was about twenty two point eight inches in diameter, 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.000 which is around fifty eight centimeters, so not very big, 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.200 and it weighed a hundred eighty three point nine pounds 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:15.040 or eighty three point six ms. The body was made 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.560 out of an aluminum alloy, and the shell of that 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.880 aluminum was just two millimeters thick. It was actually two 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:26.599 hemispheres of a globe that were connected together by thirty 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:32.680 six bolts around the circumference of those hemispheres. It had 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.320 two antennas, and each antenna had two beams, so like 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:43.000 four prongs extending backward from the scent from the sphere itself, 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.440 almost like it had four legs. One pair of antenna 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.160 where seven point nine feet long or about two point 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.080 four meters. The other pair was twelve point eight feet 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.920 long or three point nine meters. Inside the satellite. There 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.960 wasn't a whole lot, not compared to what had originally 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.880 been planned to put in the satellite. Inside it was 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.320 a radio transmitter so it could communicate back to Earth, 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.080 had three silver zinc batteries that would provide power. It 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.960 had a couple of different switches inside of it, remote switches, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.200 a thermal system fan was in there, a controlled thermal switch, 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.919 and a barrel metric switch. We're in there. So and 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.080 it was also filled with nitrogen gas to create internal pressure. Essentially, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.840 the only things this this was really the only thing 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.479 this this um satellite could do was monitor its own 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.720 systems like how hot was it or cold was it? 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.599 What was the pressure like, and then it would beam 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.240 down information in a series of beeps. In fact, my 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.960 former co host Chris Palette used to refer to spot 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:52.320 Nick as the thing what beeps. It actually sounded a 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:59.240 bit like this. So if you had had a Ham 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.960 radio back in nine and you were tuning in, you 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.080 could actually pick up that signal as sput Nick passed 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.919 overhead because it was broadcasting on a frequency that was 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.680 within the citizen band radio frequency, and that meant that 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.520 people could actually listen in as sput Nick went overhead. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.159 It only took ninety eight minutes for the satellite to 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.119 go around the Earth, so every hour and a half 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.280 or so you would be able to pick this up. 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:32.000 And it freaked people out, particularly in the United States. 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.839 People were freaking out because they were able to actually 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.719 hear evidence of the Soviet Union's ability to send an 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.840 object into space. And if they could do that, there 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.080 was also the fear that they could perhaps fire a 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.919 ballistic missile, maybe with a nuclear warhead, at the United 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:52.359 States that they had had now had the capability to 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:58.760 fire massive destructive weapons at the US from a world away, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.280 and at this time the Cold War was going on strong. 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.560 So it caused more than a little stir. It was 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:11.240 the fuel for tons of different science fiction films. Uh, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.400 They're all these different U instructional movies that explained what 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.080 you need to do in the case of a nuclear war, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.920 and most of them were freakishly optimistic. At any rate, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.760 it propelled the United States into a new era of 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.000 research and development. The US had already been planning on 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.040 getting into the space race, but this meant that suddenly 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:39.040 everything was cranked up to eleven, as spinal tap would say. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.960 So it really literally launched the space race between the 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.960 United States and the Soviet Union. Now, for the story 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.239 of spot Nick itself, you actually have to go back 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:55.080 much further back to the nineteen forties in fact, or 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.280 even earlier, when you're looking at the the rocket program 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.240 out of the Soviet Union during World War Two. So 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.840 officially you would argue that nineteen fifty two was was 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:12.600 what got Sputnik itself going. Within the Soviet Union, that's 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.320 what an organization called the International Council of Scientific Unions 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.200 called for artificial satellites to be launched in order to 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.000 study solar activity, which was going to be reaching a 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:27.920 peak in nineteen fifty eight, and the United States started 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.080 planning a launch at least as far back as nineteen 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.480 fifty five, and their project was called Vanguard, and pretty 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.120 much the world was looking at the United States as 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.480 the leader. It was going to be the US that 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:45.040 would be launching a satellite sometime around the summer of 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.840 nineteen fifty seven. But the Soviet Union thought, hey, we 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.760 have the opportunity to show up our rival, and so 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.400 they really put Sputnik on the fast track now to 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.760 to look at what was going on in the Soviet Union. 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.920 Going back to the nineties, there was a man named 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:06.400 Mikhail tiken Revov. I'm gonna mess up that name all 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.920 the time. Tick Hanravov who led a team of scientists 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.480 to design, build, and launch spot Nick one. But their 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.520 early work was really looking at missile systems, ballistic missile 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.840 missile systems for military use. Uh, they just saw the 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.959 potential for using those same systems to launch satellite into space. 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.880 And they were really looking at the possibility of using 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.280 multi stage rockets in order to get the right amount 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:36.280 of acceleration to push an object into orbit. And they 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.720 were often relying on research performed not just by their team, 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.280 but by other scientific teams around the world. Often this 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.920 was information that we're that was pulled in through espionage. 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:51.400 It wasn't necessarily the scientific community openly sharing this information. 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.439 And originally, uh, they were really looking at how can 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.280 we make missiles better missiles for the Soviet Union. The 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.440 group would form in nineteen forty six, so not long 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.800 after the end of World War Two, and the team 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.560 worked on satellite plans pretty much in secret because they 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.400 weren't sure if the Soviet government would actually appreciate their 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.720 interest in scientific research that did not have an immediate 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:22.200 military application. Now, keep in mind that until nineteen fifty three, 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.959 the Soviet Union was being led by Joseph Stalin, and 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:34.240 he was an incredibly brutal dictator, and paranoia was rampant 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.520 in the Soviet Union. There were stories about secret police 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.280 and kidnappings in the middle of the night. People lived 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:44.400 in constant fear of being arrested or executed. But after 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:49.000 Stalin died in March ninette, people were able to concentrate 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.960 on something beyond just not being noticed. It's hard to 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.439 imagine how terrifying that time must have been, but it's 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.880 probably no coincidence that it was nineteen fifty for when 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.839 the Soviet scientists stopped hiding the fact that they were 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.280 performing this satellite research. They would talk about it openly, 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:12.680 and the project received support from various scientific societies within 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.200 the USSR, but it wouldn't be until nineteen fifty six 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.640 that they received official approval from the Kremlin. So if 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:26.320 you want to hear a really amazing story about bureaucracy, science, politics, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.400 and how messed up everything was in the Soviet Union 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.920 in the nineteen fifties, you should really research the full 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:38.880 story of spot Nik because it's amazing that this project 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:43.439 ever really got a lot of of support. In large 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.160 part the support was coming from the Soviet Union wanting 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:51.200 to demonstrate its power, not to pursue science, but in 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.640 order to show the rest of the world we're the 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.400 big bear, don't mess with us. There were a whole 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.640 bunch of different departments. It all worked on the design 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.720 of the spot Nick project, and it's kind of interesting 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.480 to see how diverse this group was. So those those 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:13.440 different departments included the Academy of Sciences of USSR, which 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.840 oversaw the scientific research and development of the project. There 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:22.320 was the organization Okay b DASH one, which was the 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.840 u s s R Experimental Design Bureau. It's essentially was 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.680 the equivalent of our DARPA here in the United States. 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.679 It was a research and development program that really took 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.520 big risks to see if they could find big reward 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:43.560 from scientific research implemented in practical ways. That particularly, that 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.320 particular department fell under the direction of the Ministry of 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:51.199 Defense Industry. So that group was responsible for designing the 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.719 body of the satellite, and in the Satellite biz we 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.880 referred to this as the bus. The bus is essentially 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:04.080 the the body or shell inside which all the instrumentation 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.120 exists apart from you know, some instrumentation obviously has to 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.880 be on the outside of the bus, like any sort 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.040 of imagery or antenna, but you get what I mean. Next, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.200 we have the Ministry of Radio Industry. They were in 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:22.400 charge of flight control systems, radio and telemetry systems. Then 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.960 you had the Ministry of ship Building. The ship Building 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.400 Ministry was responsible for designing the gyroscopes that would go 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.840 in the satellite. You had the Ministry of Machine Building. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.840 They were responsible for ground processing, transport, fueling, and launch hardware. 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:40.679 You had the Ministry of Defense itself which was in 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.679 charge of launch operations. You had the Ministry of Avia 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.360 Aviation Industry which was in charge of the tracking systems, 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.920 and the Special Committee of the Soviet of Ministers, which 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.319 were all about the management and coordination of the program overall. Now, 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.959 originally spot NICK was referred to as Object D and 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.720 it was supposed to be a much larger, much more 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:09.079 sophisticated satellite. It was not supposed to just be the 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.520 thing what beeps. It was supposed to have a lot 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.640 of instrumentation for actual scientific study, with a collection of 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:20.120 useful instruments but the projects suffered several setbacks in the 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.000 design process that kept pushing back when they would be 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.760 able to launch, and there was a growing concern that 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:29.760 the United States was going to be able to launch 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.640 a satellite in orbit starting on July first nine. So 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.320 they had a new goal. They wanted to strip down 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.360 their ideas to just the most essential elements to try 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.520 and beat America to the punch, and they did. They 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:48.920 were able to create a much smaller, more basic satellite 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:50.720 and they were able to launch it before the United 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:54.600 States could send their own satellite into space, and they 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.680 set a precedent, and in fact, only did the USSR 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.600 beat the USA, they did it twice. We'll be back 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.280 with more of this classic episode about how satellites work 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:17.400 after this quick break. The second satellite, which was Sputnik two, 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.400 contained the first life form sent into Earth orbit, and 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:26.160 that was the dog named Lyca, and Likeca, was always 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.480 destined to die during this mission. There was no plan 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:35.760 for Lyca to return to Earth safely. Uhlica was going 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:40.960 to die inside the satellite, either by starvation or thirst. 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.600 It was just no or suffocation that was just known 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.520 that this was a one way trip for the dog. Um, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.800 the dog likely died due to overheating fairly early in 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:55.080 the mission based upon what the instrumentation was saying. And 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.960 there have been a lot of web comics, cartoons and 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.760 an amazing song. More than one song, but there's a 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.360 great song called Space Doggedy which was written by Jonathan 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:08.400 Colton and obviously has uh a lot of influence from 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.040 Space Oddity from David Bowie Space Oddity in there. Space 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.240 Doggy great song. There's actually a video on YouTube someone's 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.600 put together with actual footage of like a from spot 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.640 Nick two. And that's all I'm going to say about that, 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.480 because otherwise I'm gonna get all choked up because to me, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.120 it's a very sad story and necessary story. I totally 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:34.000 understand why we need to use animals to test the systems, 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.360 because clearly you can't just put a human in there 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.400 and hope everything turns out all right. But it's still 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.280 a very sad story to me because I'm I'm a 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:48.240 squishy dog lover. I have a dog, and I when 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.160 I look at my dog and imagine what Lica was 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.200 going through, I just fall to pieces. At any rate, 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:56.600 the United States response to sput Nick was to go 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.000 back to the drawing board. They had their Vanguard design 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.080 mind that they had planned to launch, but that now 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.480 felt that it was no longer a strong enough offering. 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.720 They needed to come up with a better satellite to 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.920 really be a good response to the Soviet Union's project. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.760 So the new USA project was called Explorer, and it 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.840 was led by a rocket scientist named Werner von Brown. 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:33.000 Von Brown was a brilliant physicist, a very intelligent rockets scientist, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:37.720 but he had an incredibly dark past. UH. He was 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.760 born in Germany in nineteen twelve and he was part 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.680 of the Rocket Society as early as nineteen twenty nine. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.320 As the Nazis gained power in Germany during the thirties, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.760 Von Brown chose to work for the German Army to 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.480 develop missiles. He wanted to continue his research and work, 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.600 and it seemed like the UH the most opportune place, 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.199 and his work was instrumental in the development of the 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:08.440 V two ballistic missile, which was a tool the Nazis 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.600 used to some effect, perhaps not as great as it 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.760 could have been, but certainly was a destructive weapon that 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:19.760 caused a lot of damage and death. He was eventually 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.800 awarded an honorary rank in the s S by Heinrich Himmler. 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.160 It is said, however, that von Brown only accepted that 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.880 rank because he and his team were worried that Himmler 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:35.320 would be angry if he had declined it. So at 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.000 least some accounts state that von Brown didn't share the 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:43.520 political ideology of the Nazis. He just saw this as 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.640 the opportunity for him to actually do his work, and 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.800 if he didn't join the Nazis then he would not 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:54.240 be able to do his work. Von Brown realized that 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:56.879 Germany would lose the war. I think a lot of 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.480 people realized that it was getting to a point where 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.800 it was deniable, and so he made plans to surrender 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.520 himself and his team of around five rockets scientists to 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.720 the Allies and offered to do research for the United 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:14.399 States to help them develop their ballistic missiles. Further So, 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:18.440 Fan Brown and his scientists would create a rocket research 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.480 center that originally fell under the guidance of the United 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.800 States Army, but eventually it would get shifted to a 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:30.800 new organization called NASA, which was founded mainly in reaction 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:35.040 to spot Nick and really be part of the space race. 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.880 Explorer one would launch on January thirty one, nineteen eight, 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:45.520 and it made an actual scientific discovery on its orbital flight. 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:50.400 It discovered magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, which are 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.520 now called the Van Allen Belt after one of the 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:59.800 lead researcher on the project. Now, these days, satellites are 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.280 way more sophisticated than spot Nick or even Explorer one, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.800 and they typically use solar panels to capture solar energy 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.200 and convert it into electricity that's used to charge batteries 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.920 for power. Some of them actually use fuel cells rather 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:18.520 than batteries to generate electricity, And we've used nuclear power 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.560 in some probes that we've sent away from our planet, 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:23.640 but in general we tend to be a bit skittish 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.520 about the idea of putting nuclear power into stuff that's 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:32.119 going to be orbiting our own planet. Satellites tend to 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.840 have some pretty sophisticated stuff inside them these days, like 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.520 computer control systems, which were well beyond the abilities of 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:43.120 the early satellites which had electro mechanical controls. But now 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:48.160 we've got computer control systems, radio communications, attitude control systems. 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.199 Attitude in this case isn't about personality, but rather the 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.560 satellites orientation with respect to the position of the Earth, 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.800 and satellites can have different shaped orbits. Some have circular 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:03.560 or bits, which are very regular and uh and predictable, 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.720 but some have elliptical orbits. And elliptical orbits are interesting 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:11.600 because a satellite will travel at different speeds along its 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.680 orbital path. So there are two points along that path 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.639 that we call the foci of the elliptical orbit. The 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:23.800 point that's closest to the planet is the parage, and 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.600 that's the point at which the satellite will be moving 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.320 fastest through its orbit. It's like think of it like 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:34.080 the sling shot effect. The furthest point from a planet. 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.880 The furthest point in the orbit the satellite's orbit from 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.800 a planet is the apogee, and that's where the satellite 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:44.200 will move the slowest in its orbital path. Now, launching 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.520 a satellite into orbit obviously requires rockets, and in a 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.840 rocket launch, a special system is used called the inertial 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.000 guidance system, which calculates the adjustments needed to push a 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.119 satellite into the correct orbit. I'll talk about the different 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:02.440 orbits in a second. Typically, rockets are fired so that 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.880 they head eastward, and that means that the Earth's rotation 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.560 gives those rockets a speed boost. It's like the rockets 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:11.879 are actually flying faster than they really are because of 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:13.960 the relative motion of the Earth. If you were to 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.439 launch your rocket at the equator, you would get the 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.080 biggest boost because the Earth bulge is out there. It's 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:23.760 the largest diameter. So here's how you would determine the 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.640 boost you get to your speed. You take the Earth's circumference, 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.280 which is about two thousand, nine hundred miles or forty 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.960 thousand sixty kilometers. You figure out how fast the Earth rotates, 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.640 which is one full rotation in approximately twenty four hours, 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.720 which gives us a speed of around one thousand, thirty 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.359 eight miles per hour or one thousand, six hundred sixty 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.520 nine kilometers per hour. That's the rotational speed of the Earth. 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.840 That's typically that's actually at the equator. If you were 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:53.800 to look at a launch facility at Cape Canaveral, the 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.760 rotational speed is different because you're further north of the equator. 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.160 You're not at the thickest part of the Earth. Uh Therefore, 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:07.159 the circumference is smaller and you have a slower speed, 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:11.320 So a slower rotational speed at that point so it's 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.560 closer to around eight miles per hour or one thousand, 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:17.960 four hundred forty kilometers per hour, but that speed boost 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.400 gives us a big help. So to get the satellite 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.720 into orbit, you have to be going wicked fast, but 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:25.719 not as fast as what you would need to actually 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.640 escape Earth's gravity. So if you wanted to go out 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.440 into space and beyond Earth's gravity, you're leaving Earth orbit, 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:35.040 you're heading out to Mars or something. You would have 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.240 to accelerate to at least twenty five thousand, thirty nine 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:42.879 miles per hour or forty kilometers per hour to escape 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:46.439 Earth's gravity and enter outer space. Putting a satellite in 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:50.119 orbit requires less speed, and it all depends upon which 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:54.399 orbit you're trying to insert the satellite into. The orbits 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.840 determine the speed, so lower orbits require faster speeds, which 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.200 might seem counter and tuitive at first, but you gotta 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:04.840 remember those lower orbits that that speed is meant to 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.800 counteract the gravitational pull of Earth so that the object 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.520 in orbit remains in orbit doesn't get pulled back down 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.760 to the ground. So when you're closer to Earth, the 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:19.880 force of gravity is greater, as you probably Remember, gravity 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:23.720 is dependent upon two things, the mass of two objects 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:27.480 and their relative distance to one another. So as distance 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:32.040 increases gravitation, gravitational pull decreases, and you don't need to 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:35.800 counteract that with more velocity to make sure an object 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:39.320 stays within its orbital path and doesn't deteriorate and fall 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:43.199 into the Earth. So higher orbits require lower speeds, and 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:45.320 if you get far enough out there, you can have 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.840 a satellite that orbits at the same speed as Earth's rotation. Uh, 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:53.480 those would be geostationary orbits. They would appear to be 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:56.280 directly above a fixed point on the Earth and they 0:24:56.280 --> 0:24:59.679 would not move from that point. I'll get into that 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:03.399 more just a second. First, let's talk about the various 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:06.880 types of orbits from an altitude, because we can describe 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:10.160 orbits in different ways. You can describe their orbital pathway 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.520 whether it's circular or elliptical. You can describe it in 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:16.600 its altitude, and you can describe it in its orientation 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:20.200