Question

What do you mean by artificial satellite? Write its uses.

Answer 1

Hint-The satellites that are built by humans for some specific purposes are known as artificial satellites. They are made to orbit around earth and other planets in the solar system. They are used for various purposes including communication, weather forecast etc.

Complete step by step solution:
An artificial satellite is a human made object which orbits around the earth and other planets in the solar system. Artificial satellites are built in order to study the earth and other planets, to help in communication and to observe the distance universe. Satellites can also have people in them just like International Space stations.

Soviet Sputnik 1 mission was the first artificial satellite which was launched in 1957. After that many countries have launched many satellites and there are around 3000 satellites orbiting the earth currently. It is estimated that there are eight thousand pieces of space junk and the dead satellites which are also going around the earth. The satellites are launched into various orbits depending upon their function.

The most commonly used orbit is a geosynchronous orbit. A satellite in the geosynchronous orbit will take 24 hours to orbit the earth which is the same as the time taken for the earth to rotate once about its axis. This helps the satellite to remain at the same spot over the earth. Hence the satellite in this orbit can be used for communication and the television broadcast.

Low earth orbit is another orbit in which a satellite will be about a few hundred kilometers from the planet. That is the satellite will be outside the earth's atmosphere but it can still be used for communication purposes.

The artificial satellites can be used for many other purposes. The main uses of artificial satellites include scientific research, weather forecast, communication, military support, navigation, earth imaging etc. Communications including television and telephone and Earth observation for tracking weather, Storms pollution etc. navigation purpose which includes the global positioning system are all done with the help of satellites.

The satellites can be used for multi purposes. It is not necessary that a single satellite will have a single purpose; it can simultaneously do several functions.

The equipment used in the satellite is made in such a way that they can survive the radiation and vacuum of space.

The altitude at which the satellite orbits around the planet decides the time it will stay in the orbit. The satellites which are orbiting in high orbits can remain there for millions of years.

Note:The satellites are objects that orbit around the planets. The satellites that exist naturally are termed as natural satellites. The moon is an example of a natural satellite of the earth. Whereas artificial satellites are human made satellites which are made to orbit the planets for some specific purpose.