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Speaker 1: Get in tech with Technology with tech Stuff from Stuff

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Speaker 1: stateolland Hey there, and welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland,

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Speaker 1: your lovable host, and today we're gonna do an episode.

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Speaker 1: That was a request from Matthew Aisles who wrote to

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter. He actually requested at two part episode

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Speaker 1: about satellites. Uh, and I think it's a great idea.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I'll do a second part right away,

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Speaker 1: but this first part is going to be a bit

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Speaker 1: about the history of satellites, how they work in general,

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Speaker 1: and also some cool information about them, like how relativity

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Speaker 1: comes into play. I guess it's relatively cool. Whacketty smacketty do. Alright,

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about satellites and what they are. So

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Speaker 1: satellite is something that's in orbit around another object. And

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Speaker 1: of course Earth has had a satellite for billy of years.

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Speaker 1: That would be the Moon. That's a natural satellite. But

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Speaker 1: if we want to look at man made satellites, we

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Speaker 1: have to go back a few decades. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: the the foundation for man made satellites, the principles, the

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Speaker 1: idea of what would be required, go back well before

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Speaker 1: the space race ever started. That would be Isaac Newton

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Speaker 1: who came up with the idea of what would be

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Speaker 1: required to create a satellite. Now that's not what he

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Speaker 1: necessarily called it, but this was published in a famous

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Speaker 1: thought experiment back in seventeen twenty nine, and at the

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Speaker 1: time he was really concentrating on gravity, which is pretty

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Speaker 1: heavy stuff. So Newton's thought experiment was famous. People have

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Speaker 1: talked about this a lot. You've probably heard about it.

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Speaker 1: He said, what if you were to go at the

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Speaker 1: top of a really really tall mountain, and you build

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Speaker 1: a cannon on the top of that mountain, and you

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Speaker 1: aim that cannon so that the barrel is parallel with

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Speaker 1: the Earth below you, so it's at at the same

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Speaker 1: you know, same uh angle as the ground down at

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Speaker 1: the base of the mountain. You fire the cannon. The

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Speaker 1: cannonball flies out and it moves away from the cannon,

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Speaker 1: but it also starts to fall because gravity has been

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Speaker 1: pulling on the cannonball the whole time. You know, the

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Speaker 1: gravity was pulling on the cannonball when it was in

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Speaker 1: the cannon. It's pulling on the cannonball now that it's

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Speaker 1: emerged from the cannon. Eventually, this cannonball is going to

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Speaker 1: fall to the ground. And by eventually it's it's based

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Speaker 1: upon the altitude that the cannonball already is at. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't have anything to do with the forward velocity so

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Speaker 1: much as the altitude. He said, Well, what if you

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Speaker 1: were to to pack more gunpowder in this cannon and

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Speaker 1: you fire it, might it will go further because it's

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Speaker 1: moving at a forward velocity that's that's greater than the

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Speaker 1: previous one. But it still will eventually fall to the earth. Uh. Really,

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Speaker 1: in that same amount of time, it's just gonna be

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Speaker 1: further out from their first shot. But then you keep

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Speaker 1: packing more and more gunpowder in, and eventually you pack

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Speaker 1: enough gunpowder in so that when you fire the cannonball,

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Speaker 1: it is flying out at afford velocity at a at

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Speaker 1: a rate that is equal to how the Earth is

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Speaker 1: curving away from the cannonball. So, in other words, the

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Speaker 1: cannonballs falling toward the Earth, but the Earth is curving

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Speaker 1: away from the cannonball at that same rate, So the

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Speaker 1: cannonball never falls down to hit the Earth's surface because

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Speaker 1: the Earth is falling away from the cannonball at the

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Speaker 1: same rate that the cannonball itself is falling. This would

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Speaker 1: mean that eventually you would shoot yourself in the back

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Speaker 1: because the cannonball would make a full rotation around the

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Speaker 1: Earth and come back to its point of origin. At least,

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Speaker 1: that was the thought experiment that Newton had proposed, which

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Speaker 1: seemed like a really clever idea, but there was no

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Speaker 1: practical means of testing it or putting it to any

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Speaker 1: use back in Newton's day, it was just an interesting idea.

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Speaker 1: It would not be until October four, nineteen fifty seven,

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Speaker 1: and that's when the then Soviet Union made history by

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Speaker 1: launching the first man made satellite into Earth orbit, and

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Speaker 1: that satellite was the spot Nick one. But it was

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Speaker 1: fairly simple. It was a ball that was silver in color.

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Speaker 1: It was about twenty two point eight inches in diameter,

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Speaker 1: which is around fifty eight centimeters, so not very big,

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Speaker 1: and it weighed a hundred eighty three point nine pounds

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Speaker 1: or eighty three point six ms. The body was made

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Speaker 1: out of an aluminum alloy, and the shell of that

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Speaker 1: aluminum was just two millimeters thick. It was actually two

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Speaker 1: hemispheres of a globe that were connected together by thirty

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Speaker 1: six bolts around the circumference of those hemispheres. It had

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Speaker 1: two antennas and each antenna had two beams, so like

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Speaker 1: four prongs extending backward from the center from the bear itself,

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Speaker 1: almost like it had four legs. One pair of antenna

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Speaker 1: where seven point nine feet long or about two point

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Speaker 1: four meters, the other pair was twelve point eight feet

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Speaker 1: long or three point nine meters. Inside the satellite, there

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Speaker 1: wasn't a whole lot, not compared to what had originally

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Speaker 1: been planned to put in the satellite. Inside it was

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Speaker 1: a radio transmitter so it could communicate back to Earth,

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Speaker 1: had three silver zinc batteries that would provide power. It

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Speaker 1: had a couple of different switches inside of it, remote switches,

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Speaker 1: a thermal system fan was in there, a controlled thermal switch,

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Speaker 1: and a barometric switch were in there. So and it

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Speaker 1: was also filled with nitrogen gas to create internal pressure. Essentially,

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Speaker 1: the only things this this was really the only thing

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Speaker 1: this this um satellite could do was monitor its own systems,

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Speaker 1: like how hot was it? Or cold was it? What

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Speaker 1: was the pressure like? And then it would beam down

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Speaker 1: information in a series of beeps. In fact, my former

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Speaker 1: co host Chris Palette used to refer to Sputnik as

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Speaker 1: the thing what beats. It actually sounded a bit like

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Speaker 1: this so if you had had a ham radio back

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Speaker 1: in n and you were tuning in, you could actually

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Speaker 1: pick up that signal as sput Nick passed overhead, because

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Speaker 1: it was broadcasting on a frequency that was within the

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Speaker 1: citizen band radio frequency, and that meant that people could

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Speaker 1: actually listen in as sput Nick went overhead. It only

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Speaker 1: took ninety eight minutes for the satellite to go around

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Speaker 1: the Earth, so every hour and a half or so

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Speaker 1: you would be able to pick this up. And it

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Speaker 1: freaked people out, particularly in the United States. People were

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Speaker 1: freaking out because they were able to actually hear evidence

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Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union's ability to send an object into space,

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Speaker 1: and if they could do that, there was also the

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Speaker 1: fear that they could perhaps fire a ballistic missile, maybe

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Speaker 1: with a nuclear warhead at the United States that they

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Speaker 1: had had now had the capability to fire massive destructive

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Speaker 1: weapons at the US from a world away, and at

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Speaker 1: this time the Cold War was going on strong, so

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Speaker 1: it caused more than a little stir. It was the

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Speaker 1: fuel for tons of different science fiction films. Uh they're

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Speaker 1: all these different um uh instructional movies that explained what

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Speaker 1: you need to do in the case of a nuclear war,

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Speaker 1: and most of them were freakishly optimistic. At any rate,

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Speaker 1: it propelled the United States into a new era of

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Speaker 1: research and development. The US had already been planning on

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Speaker 1: getting into the space race, but this meant that suddenly

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Speaker 1: everything was cranked up to eleven, as spinal Tap would say.

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Speaker 1: So it really literally launched the space race between the

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Speaker 1: United States and the Soviet Union. Now for the story

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Speaker 1: of Sputnik itself, you actually have to go back much

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Speaker 1: further back to the nineteen forties in fact, or even earlier,

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Speaker 1: when you're looking at the the rocket program out of

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Speaker 1: the Soviet Union during World War Two. So officially you

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Speaker 1: would argue that nineteen fifty two was was what got

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Speaker 1: Sputnik itself going. Within the Soviet Union, that's when an

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Speaker 1: organization called the International Council of Scientific Unions called for

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Speaker 1: artificial satellites to be launched in order to study solar activity,

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Speaker 1: which was going to be reaching a peak in nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty eight, and the United States started planning a launch

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Speaker 1: at least as far back as nineteen fifty five, and

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Speaker 1: their project was called Vanguard, and pretty much the world

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Speaker 1: was looking at the United States as the leader it

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Speaker 1: was going to be the US that would be launching

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Speaker 1: a UH satellite sometime around the summer of nineteen fifty seven.

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Speaker 1: But the Soviet Union thought, hey, we have the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to show up our rival, and so they really put

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Speaker 1: Sputnik on the fast track. Now to to look at

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Speaker 1: what was going on in the Soviet Union going back

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Speaker 1: to the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties, there was a

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Speaker 1: man named Mikhail ticknor Revov. I'm gonna mess up that

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Speaker 1: name all the time. Tick Hanravov who led a team

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Speaker 1: of scientists to design, build, and launch spot Nik one.

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Speaker 1: But their early work was really looking at missile systems,

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Speaker 1: ballistic missile missile systems for military use. UH. They just

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Speaker 1: saw the potential for using those same systems to launch

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Speaker 1: satellite into space. And they were really looking at the

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Speaker 1: possibility of using multi stage rockets in order to get

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Speaker 1: the right amount of acceleration to push an object into orbit.

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Speaker 1: And they were often relying on research performed not just

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Speaker 1: by their team, but by other scientific teams around the world.

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Speaker 1: Often this was information that we're that was pulled in

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Speaker 1: through espionage. It wasn't necessarily the scientific community openly sharing

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Speaker 1: this information. And originally UH they were really looking at

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Speaker 1: how can we make missiles better missiles for the Soviet Union.

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Speaker 1: The group would form in nineteen forty six, so not

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Speaker 1: long after the end of World War Two, and the

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Speaker 1: team worked on satellite plans pretty much in secret because

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Speaker 1: they weren't sure if the Soviet government would actually appreciate

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Speaker 1: their interest in scientific research that did not have an

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Speaker 1: immediate military application. Now keep in mind that until nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty three, the Soviet Union was being led by Joseph Stalin,

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Speaker 1: and he was an incredibly brutal dictator, and paranoia was

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Speaker 1: rampant in the Soviet Union. There were stories about secret

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Speaker 1: police and kidnappings in the middle of the night. People

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Speaker 1: lived in constant fear of being arrested or executed. But

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Speaker 1: after Stalin died in March nineteen fifty three, people were

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Speaker 1: able to concentrate on something beyond just not being noticed.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine how terrifying that time must have been,

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Speaker 1: but it's probably no coincidence that it was nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: four when the Soviet scientists stopped hiding the fact that

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Speaker 1: they were performing this satellite research. They would talk about

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Speaker 1: it openly, and the project received support from various scientific

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Speaker 1: societies within the USSR, but it wouldn't be until nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty six that they received official approval from the Kremlin.

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Speaker 1: So if you want to hear a really amazing story

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Speaker 1: about bureaucracy, science, politics, and how messed up everything was

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Speaker 1: in the Soviet Union in the nineteen fifties, you should

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Speaker 1: really research the full story of spot Nik, because it's

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Speaker 1: amazing that this project ever really got a lot of

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Speaker 1: of support. In large part the support was coming from

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Speaker 1: the Soviet Union wanting to demonstrate its power, not to

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Speaker 1: pursue science, but in order to show the rest of

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Speaker 1: the world where the Big Bear don't mess with us.

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Speaker 1: There were a whole bunch of different departments that all

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Speaker 1: worked on the design of the spot Nick project, and

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Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting to see how diverse this group was.

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Speaker 1: So those those different departments included the Academy of Sciences

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Speaker 1: of USSR, which oversaw the scientific research and development of

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Speaker 1: the project. There was the organization Okay b DASH one,

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Speaker 1: which was the U s s R Experimental Design Bureau.

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Speaker 1: It's essentially was the equivalent of our DARPA here in

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Speaker 1: the United States. It was a research and development program

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Speaker 1: that really took big risks to see if they could

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Speaker 1: find big reward from scientific research implemented in practical ways.

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Speaker 1: That particularly, that particular department fell under the direction of

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Speaker 1: the Ministry of Defense Industry, so that group was responsible

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Speaker 1: for designing the body of the satellite, and in the

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Speaker 1: satellite biz we refer to this as the bus. The

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Speaker 1: bus is essentially the the body or shell inside which

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Speaker 1: all the instrumentation exists, apart from you know, some instrumentation

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Speaker 1: obviously has to be on the outside of the bus,

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Speaker 1: like any sort of imagery or antenna, but you get

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Speaker 1: what I mean. Next, we have the Ministry of Radio Industry.

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Speaker 1: They were in charge of flight control systems, radio and

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Speaker 1: telemetry systems. Then you had the Ministry of ship Building.

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Speaker 1: The ship Building Ministry was responsible for designing the gyroscopes

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Speaker 1: that would go in the satellite. You had the Ministry

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Speaker 1: of Machine Building. They were responsible for a ground processing, transport, fueling,

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Speaker 1: and launch hardware. You had the Ministry of Defense itself,

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Speaker 1: which was in charge of launch operations. You had the

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Speaker 1: Ministry of Avia Aviation Industry which was in charge of

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Speaker 1: the tracking systems, and the Special Committee of the Soviet

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Speaker 1: of Ministers, which were all about the management and coordination

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Speaker 1: of the program overall. Now, originally spot Nick was referred

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Speaker 1: to as Object D and it was supposed to be

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Speaker 1: a much larger, much more sophisticated satellite. It was not

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Speaker 1: supposed to just be the thing what beeps. It was

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Speaker 1: supposed to have a lot of instrumentation for actual scientific

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Speaker 1: study with a collection of useful instruments. But the projects

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Speaker 1: suffered several setbacks in the design process that kept pushing

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Speaker 1: back when they would be able to launch, and there

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Speaker 1: was a growing concern that the United States was going

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Speaker 1: to be able to launch a satellite in orbit starting

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Speaker 1: on July first, nine seven. So they had a new goal.

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Speaker 1: They wanted to strip down their ideas to just the

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Speaker 1: most essential elements to try and beat America to the punch,

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Speaker 1: and they did. They were able to create a much smaller,

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Speaker 1: more basic satellite, and they were able to launch it

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Speaker 1: before the United States could send their own satellite into space,

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Speaker 1: and they set a precedent, and in fact only did

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Speaker 1: the USSR beat the USA, they did it twice. The

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Speaker 1: second satellite, which was spot Nick two, contained the first

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Speaker 1: life form sent into Earth orbit, and that was the

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Speaker 1: dog named Lyca and Lica was always destined to die

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Speaker 1: during this mission. There was no plan for Lyca to

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Speaker 1: return to Earth safely. Uhlica was going to die inside

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Speaker 1: the satellite, either by starvation or thirst. It was just

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Speaker 1: no or suffocation. That was just known that this was

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Speaker 1: a one way trip for the dog. Um the dog

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Speaker 1: likely died due to overheating fairly early in the mission,

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Speaker 1: based upon what the instrumentation was saying. And there have

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Speaker 1: been a lot of web comics, card tunes, and an

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Speaker 1: amazing song, more than one song, but there's a great

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Speaker 1: song called Space Doggedy which was written by Jonathan Colton

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Speaker 1: and obviously has uh a lot of influence from Space

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Speaker 1: Oddity from David Bowie Space Oddity in there. Space Doggedy,

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Speaker 1: great song. There's actually a video on YouTube someone's put

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Speaker 1: together with actual footage of like a from spot Nick two.

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Speaker 1: And that's all I'm going to say about that, because

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Speaker 1: otherwise I'm gonna get all choked up because to me,

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Speaker 1: it's a very sad story and necessary story. I totally

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Speaker 1: understand why we need to use animals to test the systems,

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Speaker 1: because clearly you can't just put a human in there

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Speaker 1: and hope everything turns out all right. But it's still

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Speaker 1: a very sad story to me because I'm I'm a

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Speaker 1: squishy dog lover. I have a dog, and I when

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Speaker 1: I look at my dog and imagine what Likeca was

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Speaker 1: going through, I just fall to pieces. At any rate,

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Speaker 1: the United States response to sput Nick was to go

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Speaker 1: back to the drawing board. They had their Vanguard design

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Speaker 1: that they had planned to launch, but that now felt

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Speaker 1: that it was no longer a strong enough offering. They

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Speaker 1: needed to come up with a better satellite to really

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Speaker 1: be a good response to the Soviet Union's project. So

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Speaker 1: the new USA project was called Explorer, and it was

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Speaker 1: led by a rocket scientist named Werner von Brown. Von

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Speaker 1: Brown was a brilliant physicist, a very intelligent rocket scientist,

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Speaker 1: but he had an incredibly dark past. UH. He was

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Speaker 1: born in Germany in nineteen twelve and he was part

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Speaker 1: of the Rocket Society as early as nineteen twenty nine.

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Speaker 1: As the Nazis gained power in Germany during the thirties,

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Speaker 1: von Brown chose to work for the German Army to

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Speaker 1: develop missiles. He wanted to continue his research and work,

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Speaker 1: and it seemed like the UH the most opportune place,

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Speaker 1: and his work was instrumental in the development of the

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Speaker 1: V two ballistic missile, which was a tool the Nazis

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Speaker 1: used to some effect, perhaps not as great as it

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Speaker 1: could have been, but certainly was a destructive weapon that

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Speaker 1: caused a lot of damage and death. He was eventually

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Speaker 1: awarded an honorary rank in the s s by Heinrich Himler.

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Speaker 1: It is said, however, that von Brown only accepted that

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Speaker 1: rank because he and his team were worried that Himmler

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Speaker 1: would be angry if he had declined it. So at

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Speaker 1: least some accounts state that von Brown didn't share the

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Speaker 1: political ideology of the Nazis. He just saw this as

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Speaker 1: the opportunity for him to actually do his work, and

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Speaker 1: if he didn't join the Nazis then he would not

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Speaker 1: be able to do his work. Von Brown realized that

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Speaker 1: Germany would lose the war. I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: people realized that it was getting to a point where

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Speaker 1: it was undeniable, and so he made plans to surrender

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Speaker 1: himself and his team of around five rockets scientists to

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Speaker 1: the Allies and offered to do research for the United

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Speaker 1: States to help them develop their ballistic missiles. Further so,

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Speaker 1: Fan Brown and his scientists would create a rocket research

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Speaker 1: center that originally fell under the guidance of the United

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Speaker 1: States Army, but eventually it would get shifted to a

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Speaker 1: new organization called NASA, which was founded mainly in reaction

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Speaker 1: to spot Nick and really be part of the space race.

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Speaker 1: Explorer one would launch on January thirty one, nineteen eight,

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Speaker 1: and it made an actual scientific discovery on its orbital flight.

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Speaker 1: It discovered magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, which are

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Speaker 1: now called the Van Allen Belt after one of the

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Speaker 1: lead researcher on the project. Now, these days, satellites are

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Speaker 1: way more sophisticated than spot Nick or even Explorer one,

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Speaker 1: and they typically use solar panels to capture solar energy

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Speaker 1: and convert it into electricity that is used to charge

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Speaker 1: batteries for power. Some of them actually use fuel cells

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Speaker 1: rather than batteries to generate electricity. And we've used nuclear

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Speaker 1: power in some probes that we've sent away from our planet,

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Speaker 1: but in general we tend to be a bit skittish

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Speaker 1: about the idea of putting nuclear power into stuff that's

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Speaker 1: going to be orbiting our own planet. Satellites tend to

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Speaker 1: have some pretty sophisticated stuff inside them. These days like

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Speaker 1: computer control systems, which were well beyond the abilities of

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Speaker 1: the early satellites which had electro mechanical controls. But now

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Speaker 1: we've got computer control systems, radio communications, attitude control systems.

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Speaker 1: Attitude in this case isn't about personality, but rather the

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Speaker 1: satellites orientation with respect to the position of the Earth.

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Speaker 1: And satellites can have different shaped orbits. Some have circular orbits,

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Speaker 1: which are very regular and uh and predictable, but some

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Speaker 1: have elliptical orbits. And elliptical orbits are interesting because a

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Speaker 1: satellite will travel at different speeds along its orbital path.

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Speaker 1: So there are two points along that path that we

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Speaker 1: call the foci of the elliptical orbit. The point that's

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Speaker 1: closest to the planet is the peerage, and that's the

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Speaker 1: point at which the satellite will be moving fastest through

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Speaker 1: its orbit. It's like think of it like the sling

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Speaker 1: shot effect. The furthest point from a planet. The furthest

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Speaker 1: point in the orbit of the satellites orbit from a

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Speaker 1: planet is the apogee, and that's where the satellite will

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Speaker 1: move the slowest in its orbital path. Now, launching a

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Speaker 1: satellite into orbit obviously requires rockets and in a rocket launch,

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Speaker 1: a special system is used called the inertial guidance system,

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Speaker 1: which calculates the adjustments needed to push a satellite into

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Speaker 1: the correct orbit. Talk about the different orbits in a second. Typically,

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Speaker 1: rockets are fired so that they head eastward, and that

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Speaker 1: means that the Earth's rotation gives those rockets a speed boost.

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Speaker 1: It's like the rockets are actually flying faster than they

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Speaker 1: really are because of the relative motion of the Earth.

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Speaker 1: If you were to launch your rocket at the equator,

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Speaker 1: you would get the biggest boost because the Earth bulgeon

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Speaker 1: is out there. It's the largest diameter. So here's how

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Speaker 1: you would determine the boost you get to your speed.

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Speaker 1: You take the Earth's circumference, which is about four thousand,

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Speaker 1: nine hundred miles or forty thousand, sixty kilometers. You figure

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Speaker 1: out how fast the Earth rotates, which is one full

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Speaker 1: rotation in approximately twenty four hours, which gives us a

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Speaker 1: speed of around one thousand, thirty eight miles per hour

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Speaker 1: or one thousand, six hundred sixty nine kilometers per hour.

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Speaker 1: That's the rotational speed of the Earth. That's typically that's

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Speaker 1: actually at the equator. If you were to look at

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Speaker 1: a launch facility at Cape canaveral. The rotational speed is

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Speaker 1: different because you're further north of the equator. You're not

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Speaker 1: at the thickest part of the Earth. Therefore, the circumference

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Speaker 1: is smaller and you have a slower speed, so a

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Speaker 1: slower rotational speed at that point, so it's closer to

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Speaker 1: around eight miles per hour or one thousand, four hundred

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Speaker 1: forty kilometers per hour. But that speed boost gives us

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Speaker 1: a big help. So to get the satellite into orbit,

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Speaker 1: you have to be going wicked fast, but not as

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Speaker 1: fast as what you would need to actually escape Earth's gravity.

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Speaker 1: So if you wanted to go out into space and

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Speaker 1: beyond Earth's gravity, you're leaving Earth orbit, you're heading out

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Speaker 1: to Mars or something. You would have to accelerate to

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Speaker 1: at least twenty five thousand, thirty nine miles per hour

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Speaker 1: or forty kilometers per hour to escape Earth's gravity and

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Speaker 1: enter outer space. Putting a satellite in orbit requires less speed,

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Speaker 1: and it all depends upon which orbit you're trying to

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Speaker 1: insert the satellite into. The orbits determine the speed, so

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Speaker 1: lower orbits require faster speeds, which might seem counterintuitive at first,

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Speaker 1: but you gotta remember those lower orbits that that speed

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Speaker 1: is meant to counteract the gravitational pull of Earth so

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Speaker 1: that the object in orbit remains in orbit, doesn't get

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Speaker 1: pulled back down to the ground. So when you're closer

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Speaker 1: to Earth, the force of gravity is greater. As you

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Speaker 1: probably remember, gravity is dependent upon two things, the mass

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Speaker 1: of two objects and their relative distance to one another.

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Speaker 1: So as distance increases gravitation gravitational pull decreases, and you

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Speaker 1: don't need to counteract that with more velocity to make

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Speaker 1: sure an object stays within its orbital path and doesn't

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Speaker 1: deteriorate and fall into the Earth. So higher orbits require

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Speaker 1: lower speeds, and if you get far enough out there,

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Speaker 1: you can have a satellite that orbits at the same

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Speaker 1: speed as Earth's rotation. Uh those would be geostationary orbits.

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Speaker 1: They would appear to be directly above a fixed point

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Speaker 1: on the Earth and they would not move from that point.

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Speaker 1: I'll get into that more in it just a second. First,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the various types of orbits from an altitude,

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Speaker 1: because we can describe orbits in different ways. You can

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Speaker 1: describe their orbital pathway, whether it's circular or elliptical, you

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Speaker 1: can describe it in its altitude, and you can describe

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Speaker 1: it in its orientation as in, is it equatorial, is

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Speaker 1: it directly above the equator? Is there any degree of inclination? Uh?

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Speaker 1: Is it a polar orbit which goes north south not

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Speaker 1: east west? Lots of different ways to describe them. So

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Speaker 1: from an altitude perspective, we start with lower thorbit. That's

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Speaker 1: the one closest end to the Earth, and that's an

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Speaker 1: arrange that's between a hundred eleven miles and one thousand,

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Speaker 1: two hundred forty three miles above the surface of the Earth.

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Speaker 1: In kilometers that would be a hundred eighty to two

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Speaker 1: thousand uh. This tends to be the altitude we use

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Speaker 1: for satellites that collect surface observations, photography, weather satellites, that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing. When you go further out, you get

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Speaker 1: to medium Earth orbit that's in a zone that's between

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Speaker 1: one thousand, two hundred forty three miles and twenty two thousand,

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Speaker 1: two hundred twenty three miles or in kilometers way easier

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Speaker 1: two thousand to thirty six thousand kilometers. Navigation satellites like

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Speaker 1: GPS tend to be at this altitude, although summer at

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Speaker 1: higher altitudes. Then you get to geosynchronous orbit. That's when

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Speaker 1: you are at an altitude that's greater than twenty two

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Speaker 1: three miles, in other words, greater than thirty six thousand kilometers.

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Speaker 1: The orbital period is the same as the Earth's rotational period,

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Speaker 1: meaning it takes a full day for the satellite to

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Speaker 1: go all the way around the Earth. There is a

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Speaker 1: subset of geosynchronous satellites called geo stationary satellites, So all

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Speaker 1: geostationary satellites are also geosynchronous, but not all geosynchronous satellites

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Speaker 1: are geo stationary. If you have a geostationary satellite, that's

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Speaker 1: one of those satellites that remains over a fixed position

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Speaker 1: on the Earth's sir So you could build an antenna

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Speaker 1: at that point pointed straight up into the atmosphere and

433
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: it's going to be aimed directly at that satellite, and

434
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 1: as long as nothing changes in that satellite's orbit. Things

435
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,639
Speaker 1: do change over time, so you have to correct it occasionally,

436
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: but as long as nothing changes, UH, the antenna and

437
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: satellite will always be in alignment. That's a geostationary satellite. UH.

438
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if it's day or night. You're always

439
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 1: going to have a direct line of sight between the

440
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: antenna and the satellite, and the satellite is gonna be

441
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 1: too far away from you to see it, but there's

442
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: a direct line of site as far as the antenna

443
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,920
Speaker 1: is concerned. All geostationary satellites are geosynchronous, like I said,

444
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 1: But if the opposite isn't true, what's going on? How

445
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:48,159
Speaker 1: are geo secret as satellites that aren't geo stationary? How

446
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 1: does that work? Well, the geosynchronous satellite does make one

447
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: orbit around the Earth in the same amount of time

448
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: it takes Earth to make one rotation in inertial or

449
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 1: fixed space, which is also called a sidereal day. It's

450
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:06,159
Speaker 1: actually not twenty four hours, specifically, it is twenty three hours,

451
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: fifty six minutes and four seconds of mean solar time.

452
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: If the satellite has any inclination or a non circular

453
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: orbital path, it will not be geo stationary. The satellite

454
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,920
Speaker 1: will appear to roam over the Earth's surface, so in

455
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,679
Speaker 1: elliptical orbits, those egg shaped orbits, the satellite would be

456
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: moving at different speeds along its journey. Remember the paragean apogee.

457
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: It's going to be moving at at different velocities as

458
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 1: it goes around the Earth. Inclination, by the way, is

459
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane.

460
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: The reference plane in this case, UH, we're talking specifically

461
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: about the equator. So imagine you've got the Earth's globe,

462
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: You've got it tilted at a slight angle because the

463
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: axis is on an angle, and you've got the equator.

464
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: If you have a geosynchronous satellite directly above the equator,

465
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: it's going to be geo stationary. It's gonna stay around

466
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: that fixed point. But if you go north or south

467
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: of the equator and you place a satellite there, it

468
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: will it will not stay above a fixed point. Its

469
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 1: orbit is going to be slightly angled. That's the inclination

470
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: we would talk about. UH. So as it would go

471
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: around the pathway, uh, it would actually roam over the

472
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: surface of the Earth. So a satellite that has degrees

473
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: of inclination and its orbit with respect to the equator

474
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: will move north and south of the equator as it

475
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 1: completes an orbit. So this satellite is going to stay

476
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: more or less in the same east west area, but

477
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: it's going to go north south as it goes throughout

478
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: its orbit. Satellites with an elliptical path will drift east

479
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 1: and west from any fixed point on the Earth as

480
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: a satellite moves faster or slower through its Earth orbit.

481
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: We have seen there are several satellites that use this

482
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: where they are both the inclination and an elliptical path,

483
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 1: so they make this almost like a figure eight kind

484
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: of pattern over a general region of the Earth's surface,

485
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: which could be really useful for things like communication satellites

486
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: or or even GPS in that in that sense, there

487
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 1: are some GPS satellites that work under this principle. Geo

488
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: stationary satellites have a view of about of the Earth's surface.

489
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: Just a single geo stationary satellite can see about of

490
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: the Earth's surface from where it is. So if you

491
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: just create a network of a few geo stationary satellites,

492
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: you can get a view of practically the entire Earth,

493
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: really everything between eighty one degree south and eighty one

494
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: degrees north. Beyond those those uh those degrees, you wouldn't

495
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: be able to see it just from the way the

496
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 1: Earth is curved, but you'd get to see everything between

497
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: the two. Geo stationary satellites tend to be used for communications.

498
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 1: It's great solution for us on the ground because you

499
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 1: don't need to move the antenna on the surf to

500
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 1: stay in contact with the satellite. If the satellite we're drifting,

501
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: if it if it orbited the Earth multiple times during

502
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: a rotation, you would constantly have to adjust your antenna

503
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: to remain in contact with the satellite, and there will

504
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,480
Speaker 1: be times where you would be out of contact with

505
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 1: the satellite. It would have the Earth between you and

506
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 1: the antenna. So geo stationary makes this easy because it's

507
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: always going to be directly above the antenna. So it

508
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 1: makes an ideal communication satellite in that respect, But there

509
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 1: are a limited number of slots for geostationary satellites. You know,

510
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: you could go to different altitudes, but you're going to

511
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: be you're going to be stuck at that equator plane.

512
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: So you don't want satellites to collide with one another.

513
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:48,560
Speaker 1: Obviously they would destroy or at least damage one or

514
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 1: both satellites, and you don't want the actual data communication

515
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: to interfere with each other, so you have to separate

516
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 1: them out by space. You can't have them to pack

517
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: pecked in too closely together, and a satellite geo stationary

518
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 1: orbit will not stay there forever. Other gravitational forces from

519
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: the Sun and the Moon, plus the fact that the

520
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 1: Earth is not perfectly round, will cause the satellites to

521
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 1: increase in inclination over time, so they'll they'll start to

522
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: drift a little bit, and then they will no longer

523
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 1: be geo stationary UH satellites. They'll have thrusters on them

524
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 1: and fuel inside them in order to make small corrections,

525
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: which is called station keeping, and that's so that they

526
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 1: can stay in the right relative location. But once the

527
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 1: satellite is used up all its fuel, it will experience

528
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: an increase in inclination. It's unavoidable. You can't fix it

529
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: at that point, and it's possible, depending upon how the

530
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 1: satellite is located, that it could become a hazard to

531
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 1: other geo stationary or geosynchronous satellites. So normally, at the

532
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: end of a geostationary satellites useful lifespan will send a

533
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: command to the satellite to say, get the heck out

534
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 1: of the neighborhood. Boost it at a higher altitude, a

535
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 1: higher orbit, which moves out of the way of other satellites,

536
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 1: because it's not gonna be useful anyway, so you might

537
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 1: as well boost it further out and not have it

538
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 1: become space junk closer into the Earth. There's already a

539
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: lot of space junk that's out there. Fortunately, space is

540
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: really big, so while there's always a threat of space

541
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 1: junk being a problem with satellites, it's such a huge

542
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:29,719
Speaker 1: space that the odds on any given day are fairly

543
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: low of an incident. But the more stuff we send

544
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: up there, the better the odds are that something bad

545
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,120
Speaker 1: will happen. Now, not all orbits are in an east

546
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: west orientation. You're probably imagining that these satellites are orbiting

547
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: the Earth more or less in the same direction that

548
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: the Earth rotates, that they are going around and around, uh,

549
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: the same axis of rotation. Not all of them do.

550
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 1: Some of them are rotating north south. They're going around

551
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: uh the poles, you know, Poller orbits, which are really

552
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 1: good for photography and mapping because as these satellites move

553
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 1: north to south or south and north, depending upon which

554
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 1: way you're going, UM, the Earth is rotating under the satellites,

555
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: so they get a really good view of the Earth.

556
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 1: They're great if you want to have a satellite map

557
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: of a region. They're also not bad if you're hoping

558
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 1: for satellite to pass over a certain region on the

559
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: Earth so you can get a better look. In other words,

560
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 1: these are used for spying. And one particular type of orbit,

561
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:40,760
Speaker 1: very specific type of orbit, is the mulnia or lightning orbit,

562
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 1: and the orbit takes its name from Soviet satellites that

563
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 1: use this particular style of orbit for communications networks. It's

564
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 1: an elliptical shape, which means the satellite spends a lot

565
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 1: of its time near the apogee poet point the of

566
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: the orbit, because that's where it moves the slowest. So

567
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:03,480
Speaker 1: if you plan out the telemetry of your satellite in

568
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: such a way so that the apogee is over a

569
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 1: specific region, you know that when the satellite orbits the Earth,

570
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:13,280
Speaker 1: it's gonna be spending the majority of its orbit over

571
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 1: where the apogee is. So if you locate it in

572
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 1: a place that you're interested in, you're gonna get more

573
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:24,440
Speaker 1: coverage of that region throughout the duration of the orbit

574
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: of the satellite. So the Soviets planned the apoge to

575
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:29,959
Speaker 1: be over the northern hemisphere so that they could serve

576
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 1: as a communications network and maybe also you know, spy

577
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 1: on Europe a little bit. Perhaps one thing we use

578
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: satellites for is to spread a signal from one location

579
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: to another. And this is a pretty simple idea. Actually,

580
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 1: it's just bouncing a signal off of a satellite. It's

581
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 1: almost like the satellite acts as a mirror, although it's

582
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:51,839
Speaker 1: also an amplifier. So we use an antenna on the

583
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 1: Earth pointed up towards the satellite we're interested in, and

584
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 1: we beam as signal into space. It might be audio,

585
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: it might be video, it could be anything really, and

586
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 1: that antenna is the up link. Now the satellite receives this.

587
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:08,400
Speaker 1: They have it has its own antenna and receives the

588
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: signal and then runs it through an amplifier and the

589
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 1: beams the amplified signal back down to the Earth. And

590
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 1: on Earth we have other antenna known as the down links,

591
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: that receive the incoming signal from the satellite. And using

592
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 1: this model, we can beam all sorts of useful stuff

593
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: like communication signals. Television studios would send feeds up to satellites,

594
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: which then act as a distribution system. So you would

595
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 1: have a centralized location where you would have the the

596
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,719
Speaker 1: video feed, video and audio feed. You would send that

597
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:43,400
Speaker 1: through an up link to a satellite that would receive

598
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,680
Speaker 1: it and beam it back down to receiving stations, and

599
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: that was how you know, that's how we get television

600
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 1: broadcast beyond just over the air broadcast. In fact, if

601
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:59,160
Speaker 1: you have a cable company, you could receive these signals

602
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 1: yourself using satellites. Right, you could have part of the

603
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 1: satellite TV system and you have your own little satellite

604
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:08,399
Speaker 1: that's pointed up and you receive your television signals that way.

605
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,800
Speaker 1: Or you could end up having cable but cable companies

606
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,840
Speaker 1: also use this method. You would have a centralized location

607
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,759
Speaker 1: that beams a signal up, it comes down so that

608
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,399
Speaker 1: various cable distribution networks received the signal and then they

609
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:26,560
Speaker 1: send that through the actual cables that eventually terminate at

610
00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:30,839
Speaker 1: your television. So this is a very important way of

611
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,880
Speaker 1: using satellites. Now, I want to conclude this episode with

612
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: a quick discussion about how relativity affects satellites, both special

613
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 1: and general relativity. Now, these, of course, are the the

614
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: theories proposed by Einstein that ultimately proved true at least

615
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 1: in the case of time dilation, because we see it

616
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: in practice with satellites. One of the things we use

617
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: satellites for is GPS, the Global position system. So GPS

618
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 1: positioning system, I should say, and GPS is incredibly useful.

619
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:09,879
Speaker 1: That's what lets us use real time maps on our

620
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: phones and GPS devices to go from point A to

621
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 1: point B. But in order for GPS to work, it

622
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: needs to be able to measure time very accurately, both

623
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:25,520
Speaker 1: for the person who's on Earth and the satellite that

624
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,680
Speaker 1: is providing the very satellites I should say that are

625
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 1: providing the information that allows us to UH to triangulate

626
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 1: where we are on the service of Earth. So here's

627
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 1: the problem. Time dilation. Einstein's theory gives us some uh

628
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:45,440
Speaker 1: some issues with time. Special relativity tells us that the

629
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:52,320
Speaker 1: faster we move relative to an independent observer, the slower

630
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 1: time seems to pass for ourselves. Um again, based upon

631
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 1: the relative observer to us, time will pass exactly the

632
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:02,799
Speaker 1: same way. No matter how fast we're going we will

633
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 1: it will feel the same. So if you get on

634
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 1: a spaceship that's going near the speed of light and

635
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 1: you look at your watch, the second hand is going

636
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 1: to take away as if you were on Earth. But

637
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,760
Speaker 1: to an independent observer, it would look like that second

638
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:23,360
Speaker 1: hand is going super slow, and it would mean that

639
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: when you finished your journey and came back to Earth,

640
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: more time would appear to have passed on Earth than

641
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 1: it did for you, even though for people on Earth

642
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 1: time was passing normally, for you on the spaceship time

643
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:38,759
Speaker 1: was passing normally. It's really only when you have this

644
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:43,120
Speaker 1: point of reference that you realize that you've experienced different

645
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:47,879
Speaker 1: amounts of time. Uh, it's kind of a mind bender, right. Well,

646
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:52,200
Speaker 1: special relativity tells us that these clocks on board the

647
00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: satellites will take a little more slowly because they're moving

648
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:59,600
Speaker 1: so fast out in space. Uh, they should actually fall

649
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:03,720
Speaker 1: behind the clocks here on Earth by about seven micro

650
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 1: seconds per day, which doesn't sound like a lot, but

651
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 1: if you're talking about very precise measurements to give you

652
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 1: an idea of where you are before long, that becomes

653
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:20,839
Speaker 1: an insurmountable problem. So seven microseconds per day slower on

654
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: the satellites compared to the clocks on Earth. If that

655
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: were all there were to it, then we would just say, well,

656
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: we have to find a way, like a program that

657
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: will build in this error so that we know ahead

658
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:34,760
Speaker 1: of time how to adjust for it. But it gets

659
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:39,240
Speaker 1: more complicated than that. So that's special relativity. But general

660
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: relativity also plays a part. So one of the predictions

661
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,319
Speaker 1: made by general relativity is that clocks closer to a

662
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 1: massive object will seem to tick more slowly than those

663
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 1: that are further away from a massive object. So if

664
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:59,879
Speaker 1: we look at it that way, these satellites are very

665
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,239
Speaker 1: are away from the surface of the Earth, so the

666
00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:04,360
Speaker 1: clocks on the surface of the Earth are much closer

667
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 1: to a massive object. The clocks on the satellites are

668
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,439
Speaker 1: much further away from a massive object, and it's enough

669
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 1: to make a big difference. It also means that the

670
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,879
Speaker 1: clocks on the satellites appear to be taking faster than

671
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 1: the clocks on the ground. So if you calculate a

672
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,840
Speaker 1: prediction using general relativity as your basis for how fast

673
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 1: those clocks will be ticking on the satellites, you would

674
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,279
Speaker 1: see that they'd be ahead of our ground clocks by

675
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:35,000
Speaker 1: about forty five micro seconds per day. Now, this actually

676
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: means that you have to take the difference between the

677
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 1: forty five seconds in advance and the our forty five

678
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:44,280
Speaker 1: micro seconds I'm sorry, forty five micro seconds in advance

679
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,360
Speaker 1: from general relativity, and you have to subtract the seven

680
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:51,759
Speaker 1: micro seconds behind from special relativity, and it tells you

681
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 1: that the clocks on board the satellites should take a

682
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 1: little bit faster than the clocks here on the ground,

683
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:01,160
Speaker 1: by the tune of thirty eight my acrow seconds per day.

684
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 1: You take those forty five microseconds ahead general relativity, subtract

685
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 1: the seven microseconds from behind from special relativity, and you

686
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: get thirty eight microseconds ahead. Uh net. So it again

687
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:19,360
Speaker 1: is enough for it to cause a high precision system

688
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:23,840
Speaker 1: like GPS two have errors after just a few days,

689
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 1: so you have to correct for that. You actually have

690
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:36,320
Speaker 1: to create a navigational fix so that the system is accurate. Uh.

691
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:40,080
Speaker 1: Otherwise you would get errors in where the map would

692
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:41,520
Speaker 1: say you were. You would look at the map, and

693
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:43,919
Speaker 1: as time would go by, these errors would get worse

694
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 1: and worse, to the point where it would show you

695
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 1: locations that are just ridiculous, you blocks away from where

696
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 1: you actually were. And uh and more if time went

697
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,800
Speaker 1: on long enough in the GPS satellite system was limited,

698
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 1: so you're talking about you know, errors of around ten

699
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 1: kilometers every day. That's that's a big deal. You know,

700
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:10,360
Speaker 1: you're trying to get from point A to point B,

701
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,719
Speaker 1: and you're getting errors that are ten kilometers off that

702
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 1: could be disastrous, so it would actually be useless after

703
00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 1: a very few days. That's why you have to have

704
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 1: algorithms built in that take these relativistic effects into account

705
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: so that the results you get on your GPS device

706
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 1: remain accurate. So I think that's pretty cool that you know,

707
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,279
Speaker 1: satellites are a practical way for us to see how

708
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:43,799
Speaker 1: relativity can affect us, and that relativity is in fact real.

709
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:47,800
Speaker 1: It's it's it's not it's not quote unquote just a theory.

710
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 1: It's something that we can observe directly and though and

711
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:55,319
Speaker 1: know that this is at play. So I wanted to

712
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 1: mention that because you know, it's it's pretty cool stuff

713
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 1: and on slee When I was first looking into it

714
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,080
Speaker 1: years ago, when I was looking at how GPS works,

715
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: I had a handle on special relativity. I understood that

716
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:14,960
Speaker 1: the speed of the movement of the satellites would affect

717
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 1: how time passes compared to what we see here on

718
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 1: Earth on the surface, but I was not aware of

719
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:26,480
Speaker 1: the effects of general relativity. That was something I had

720
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 1: to learn when I looked up GPS back in the day,

721
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: which I think was a Tuesday. If I'm not mistaken

722
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:39,319
Speaker 1: so relatively obviously a very fascinating subject. I would love

723
00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 1: to go into further detail, but I think that's more

724
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 1: of a stuff to blow your mind than a tech

725
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 1: stuff topic. We have, of course touched upon relativity a

726
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,399
Speaker 1: few times in our conversations about various types of technology.

727
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,640
Speaker 1: But maybe one day I'll get some stuff to blow

728
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 1: your mind folks in here, and then we'll have a

729
00:44:56,600 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 1: big discussion about relativity, not just what it is is,

730
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:05,240
Speaker 1: but how it directly affects some of the things we do. Alright,

731
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 1: So that wraps up this discussion about satellites, and I

732
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 1: may do a future episode where I go into more

733
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,640
Speaker 1: detail about the different types of satellites, the instrumentation that

734
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:20,560
Speaker 1: is aboard these satellites, how they work, who owns them,

735
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: maybe some interesting stories about notable discoveries that satellites have

736
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 1: made and notable incidents that have happened because of satellites.

737
00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:35,280
Speaker 1: There's a lot of information out there and it's really

738
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff. So that might end up being a future episode. Heck,

739
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,520
Speaker 1: it might be the next one. I haven't yet scheduled

740
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 1: what my next episode will be, so keep any year

741
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 1: out for that. But if you guys have suggestions for

742
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:52,399
Speaker 1: future episodes. Why don't you do what? What aisles? Did

743
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:54,760
Speaker 1: you know? It was very helpful sending me a message,

744
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 1: whether it's on Twitter or Facebook or email. So the

745
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:04,640
Speaker 1: email address for this show is text stuff at how

746
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,919
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com or drop me a line on

747
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter to handle it both of those as

748
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:14,160
Speaker 1: tech stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again.

749
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:22,720
Speaker 1: Really see for more on this and thousands of other topics.

750
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:33,759
Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com