The launch of the satellite into space marked a new era and became a breakthrough in the field of technology and astronautics. The need to create a satellite was identified at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, from the very beginning, there were many problems on the way of launching a satellite into outer space, over which the best engineers and scientists worked. These problems were associated with the need to create engines capable of working in the harshest conditions and at the same time, they must be unusually powerful. The same problems were associated with the correct determination of the trajectory of the satellite.

So, Soviet scientists solved the assigned tasks, and on October 4, 1957, an artificial satellite was successfully launched in the USSR, the movement of which was watched by the whole world. This event became a world breakthrough and marked a new stage, both in science in general and throughout the world.

Live broadcast of Soyuz-Progress launch (mission to ISS)

Tasks solved by the satellite

The tasks solved by the satellite launch can be defined as the following:

1. Study of the climate;

Everyone knows what impact the climate has on agriculture and military infrastructure. Thanks to satellites, you can predict the appearance of destructive elements, avoid a large number of victims.

2. Study of meteorites;

In outer space, there are a huge number of meteorites, the weight of which reaches several thousand tons. Meteorites can be dangerous not only for satellites, spaceships, but also for people. If during the flight of a meteorite the friction force is small, then the unburned part is able to reach the Earth. The speed range of meteorites reaches from 1220 m / s to 61000 m / s.

3. Application of television broadcasting;

Currently, the role of television is great. In 1962, the first television broadcast was launched, thanks to which the world saw video footage across the Atlantic for the first time in a matter of minutes.

4. GPS system.

The GPS system plays a huge role in almost every area of \u200b\u200bour lives. GPS is classified into civil and military. It represents electromagnetic signals emitted in the radio wave part of the spectrum by an antenna installed on each of the satellites. Consists of 24 satellites, which are located in orbit at an altitude of 20,200 km. The time of revolution around the Earth is 12 hours.

Telecommunication satellite "Arabsat-5B"

Soyuz launch

Launching satellites and putting them into orbit

To begin with, it is important to indicate the trajectory of the satellite's flight. At first glance, it seems that it is more logical to launch the rocket perpendicularly (along the shortest distance to the target), however, this type of launch turns out to be unprofitable, both from an engineering point of view and from an economic point of view. A satellite launched vertically is acted upon by the Earth's gravity, which significantly pulls it away from its intended trajectory, and the thrust becomes equal to the Earth's gravity.

To avoid the fall of the satellite, first, it is launched vertically so that it can overcome the elastic layers of the atmosphere, such a flight continues for only 20 km. Then the satellite tilts with the help of the autopilot and moves horizontally towards the orbit.

In addition, the task of engineers is to calculate the flight path so that the speed spent on overcoming the atmospheric layers, as well as on the fuel consumption, is only a few percent of the characteristic speed.

It is also important in which direction to launch the satellite. When the rocket is launched in the direction of the Earth's rotation, there is an increase in speed, which depends on the launch location. For example, at the equator it is maximum and is 403 m / s.

The orbits of the satellites are circular and elliptical. An elliptical orbit will appear if the rocket speed is higher than the circumferential speed. The point located in the closest position is called the perigee, and the most distant apogee.

The launch of the rocket with the satellite itself is carried out in several stages. When the engine of the first stage stops working, the angle of inclination of the launch vehicle will be 45 degrees, at an altitude of 58 km, then it is separated. The engines of the second stage are switched on, with an increase in the angle of inclination. Further, the second stage is separated at an altitude of 225 km. Then, by inertia, the rocket reaches an altitude of 480 km and finds itself at a point located at a distance of 1125 km from the start. Then the engines of the third stage start to work.

Return of the satellite to earth

The return of a satellite to Earth is accompanied by some braking problems. Braking can be done in two ways:

1. Thanks to the resistance of the atmosphere. The speed of a satellite entering the upper atmosphere will decrease, but due to its aerodynamic shape, it ricochets back into space. After that, the satellite will decrease its speed and enter deeper into the atmosphere. This will be repeated several times. After reducing the speed, the satellite will descend using retractable wings.
2. Automatic rocket engine. The rocket engine should be directed in the direction opposite to the movement of the artificial satellite. The advantage of this method is that the braking speed can be adjusted.

Conclusion

So, satellites entered human life in just half a century. Their participation helps to explore new outer spaces. The satellite as a means of uninterrupted communication helps to make the everyday life of people convenient. Paving the way into space, they help make our life what it is now.

08/30/2019, Fri, 18:00, Moscow time , Text: Elyas Kasmi

The operator of the Russian GLONASS system brought the third navigation satellite GLONASS-M for maintenance in a month. It, like all second-generation satellites from the constellation, has gone beyond its seven-year service life. The lack of satellites has led to incomplete coverage of the planet's surface by the system, and the timing of the return of two of the three vehicles is unknown.

GLONASS without satellites

The Russian navigation system GLONASS lost its third satellite during August 2019.The spacecraft (SC) 745 (7th operating point), launched into orbit eight years ago, in 2011, was decommissioned.

According to the information and analytical center for coordinate-time and navigation support GLONASS, the satellite was temporarily removed from the system - it needs to be serviced. As a result, as of August 30, 2019, of the 27 GLONASS-M spacecraft in orbit, only 21 are used for their intended purpose.

Three satellites are under maintenance, one is in flight tests, and the other two are in backup. According to RIA Novosti, this amount is not enough for 100% coverage of the planet's surface - for this, at least 24 spacecraft must be in service.

Non-warranty satellites

At present, the current GLONASS system consists of half of the second generation GLONASS-M satellites, which replaced the first generation (the launches were made between 1982 and 2003 inclusive). The maintenance timeline for satellite number 745 was unknown at the time of publication. The exact dates of the return of satellite 742, which was removed from the system a few days earlier, are also not named. The 717 spacecraft is scheduled to return to service on September 1, 2019, it has been in service since August 1, 2019, and it was launched into Earth orbit in 2006.

Satellite GLONASS-M, the basis of the GLONASS system

The second generation of GLONASS spacecraft has certain warranty periods of operation established by a subsidiary of Roskosmos, Information Satellite Systems named after MF Reshetnev, and equal to seven years. In other words, half of the 27 satellites are operating outside of their warranty period. In addition, new GLONASS-M are not being produced - their production was discontinued in 2015.

Incomplete coverage and the future of GLONASS

For the Russian analogue of the American GPS, inadequate coverage of the Earth has become a regular occurrence in the past few years. So, in April 2018, the signal from the device No. 723 was absent for a short time, a little later satellite 734, which was reanimated only a month after the failure, in May 2018, joined it.

In September 2018, due to routine maintenance, the GLONASS-M 730, 743 and 745 devices did not work.However, at that time, the work completion time was exactly two days - September 9 and 10, 2018, in contrast to the situation with No. 717 , service of which dragged on for a month.

The update of the GLONASS satellites in orbit, according to RBK, is carried out exclusively when necessary - in such situations, the old device is simply replaced with a new one. All GLONASS-M satellites will gradually be replaced by the third generation of spacecraft, called GLONASS-K and a 10-year service life. This is three years more compared to GLONASS-M and seven years more than the first generation of satellites. The first GLONASS-K was launched into orbit on February 26, 2011.

GLONASS-K can be used for 10 years, instead of 7 for GLONASS-M

In June 2019, the Russian authorities stated the impossibility of serial production of GLONASS-K devices within the budget for 2019.The reason was the shortage of imported components associated with the sanctions imposed by the West against Russia in relation to military and dual-use electronics.

GLONASS history

GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) was originally a Soviet dual-use navigation system, civil and military. Development was started in 1963.

The system was developed as a domestic alternative to the American GPS, the first satellite was launched into orbit in 1982 (the first GPS spacecraft was launched in 1978). Initially, it had an exclusively military purpose. The GLONASS satellite constellation moves in three orbital planes with an orbital altitude of 19.1 thousand km. Unlike GPS, GLONASS satellites do not have synchronization with the rotation of the planet, due to which a higher stability of the entire system as a whole is achieved. It also simplifies system maintenance by eliminating the need for additional satellite corrections.

The new series of space satellites Ilona Mask, launched into orbit, doubled the number of satellites of the Internet project Starlink. While skeptics talk about the dangers of littering space above the Earth, Musk's competitors - Jeff Bezos' Project Kuiper, Mark Zuckerberg's own projects and the international network OneWeb, which promises a space Internet as early as 2021 - are developing their ideas. The head of Roskomsvoboda, Artem Kozlyuk, explains how the space Internet will work, what risks will arise from it for society and states, and how its appearance will affect the freedom of the Internet.

How it works

In November, Elon Musk's space company SpaceX launched a new batch of near-Earth satellites as part of a project to create a cheap and fast satellite Internet - Starlink. As in the last time, 60 satellites entered orbit - now there are 122 of them, including two test ones. In total, it is planned to launch about 42 thousand satellites in different orbits with heights from 238 to 580 km: in October it became known that SpaceX had filed applications with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy 30 thousand additional Starlink satellites.

So far, the launches of satellites of the space Internet system are going well. Looking at the video footage of the landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9, which has successfully landed on the platform in the Atlantic Ocean for the fourth time with the romantic name Of Course I Still Love You, one cannot help but experience partly childish, partly scientific delight.

It is surprising that back in 2015 the project was only in development, in 2018 prototypes of satellites were created, and today we see how Musk's new global idea is being implemented, which goes beyond the established paradigm. Swiftness and play outside the rules in a good way are the main trump cards of the famous entrepreneur and engineer. His projects, of course, are criticized, among other things, for hype or disproportion of the invested efforts in relation to the result. But the search for something new and unconventional is always a mistake and criticism from the outside. And, of course, competitors.

Why space internet is not so simple

One of the main arguments against so many satellites near the Earth is a sharp surge of "space litter". In addition to the understandable and obvious man-made clogging, which is increasing due to unforeseen collisions of man-made objects and their debris already flying in near-earth orbits, scientists fear that SpaceX satellites, due to their brightness, may eclipse the stars. If this happens, astronomers will not be able to observe the universe from Earth.

“If there are many, many bright moving objects in the sky, it makes our job extremely difficult. This potentially threatens the very science of astronomy, ”astronomer James Lowenthal told The New York Times.

The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates that 42,000 satellites from Starlink are 8 times the current number of all satellites in orbit. A series of catastrophic collisions could turn near-Earth space into a minefield of debris. In the worst case, a spiral trash catastrophe could trap humanity on Earth, making it impossible to launch new spacecraft. How do you like this scenario?

In the worst case, a spiral trash catastrophe could trap humanity on Earth

Starlink engineers are trying to solve the problem in different ways: by making plans to move satellites to higher orbits, promising to paint their satellites black on the sides facing the Earth, making them less reflective and even planning to incapacitate them in advance, sending them into the Earth's atmosphere after a few years of operation so that all their parts are completely burnt in it. Time will tell whether they will succeed in all this. But apart from this, Starlink also needs to monitor its competitors, primarily OneWeb, Athena from Facebook and Project Kuiper from Amazon.

Competitors

Facebook has its own UHV-based Internet distribution program that is constantly transforming. The latest information about it dates back to early 2019, when it became known that Facebook began cooperation with Airbus in the framework of the Zephyr project. At the same time, there is information about the space project of Mark Zuckerberg. In 2018, Facebook created its subsidiary PointView Tech, which is working on the Athena satellite, which can deliver data 10 times faster than Starlink. There are few details about that project - it looks like it is still at the stage of preliminary approvals.

Project Kuiper is the youngest of the satellite megaprojects. But knowing the capabilities of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, no less ambitious than Musk, you can bet on fast acceleration. Moreover, Bezos has his own aerospace company, Blue Origin, which is developing his own space rocket, New Glenn. Blue Origin has already signed a multi-launch agreement with Telesat, another company that develops low-Earth orbit satellites with broadband services around the world. Satellites from Amazon will be located in orbits similar to Starlink: 590 km, 610 km and 630 km. The project plans to deploy 3236 satellites.

Currently, Amazon has 146 vacancies open within the Kuiper project, which indicates the seriousness of intentions and very specific goals. Amazon is in active correspondence with the FCC about registering its satellite system.

In turn, OneWeb is an international space project to create a constellation of a large number of satellites to provide broadband access to Internet users around the world by fully covering the Earth's surface. The satellites will be in orbits 800 and 950 km. The OneWeb project investors are such well-known companies as Airbus Group, Intelsat, Qualcomm Incorporated, The Coca-Cola Company, etc. OneWeb promises that in 2021 the provision of global Internet services will already begin. For this, hundreds of microsatellites will be launched into orbit.

OneWeb declared the main mission to build a global communication network to provide communication to the half of the world's population that does not have it. Russian companies are also participating in the project. In 2015, Roskosmos signed a contract with the OneWeb project to launch satellites using 21 Soyuz launch vehicles. The satellites will be launched in 2019–2021 from the Baikonur (Kazakhstan), Vostochny (Russia) and Kuru (French Guiana) cosmodromes. The contract value is one billion dollars. In February of this year, Roskosmos announced that a Soyuz-ST-B launch vehicle was launched from the Kourou space center in French Guiana, which delivered the first satellites for the OneWeb project into orbit.

How it will work in Russia

Roscosmos' participation in OneWeb might not have happened. A year ago, the FSB opposed the deployment of a foreign satellite communications project over Russian territory. As the representative of the Russian special services Vladimir Sadovnikov said at the time, the OneWeb system poses a threat to national security and can be used for intelligence.

Apparently, there is a struggle over where the ground stations will be located to cover the territory of Russia with satellite Internet. Obviously, the FSB wants the stations to be located in Russia, and not on the territory of neighboring countries. In case of refusal, the Russian special services, I do not exclude, will try to somehow "jam" the signal of satellite Internet distributions, but this is not a trivial task, I do not think that Russia is already ready to launch such a fight on a full scale, especially in the coming year. We will not be able to find out about this yet - these are all secret budgets, in principle it is not known whether they have already been formed or not yet. Also, we do not know how Internet traffic will be received and transmitted from end consumers. The most obvious reception option is a satellite dish in one form or another, or maybe "space projects" will come up with some more portable receiving modules. With the transfer, the question is also open and more complex. Perhaps there will be a combined option using existing networks, or maybe these projects will come up with some kind of domesticated transmission devices to base stations. I have not yet seen such details of building networks.

Russian special services may try to "jam" the signal of satellite Internet distributions, but this is not a trivial task

The secret services, of course, would like to have control over them, forcing OneWeb, Starlink and others to interact directly, otherwise the communications of citizens via the satellite network will break out of their gaze. But so far this is a problem even for the regular Internet.It is not that SORM worked "with a bang", "pumped up" to the "Yarovaya package" (SORM - "System of technical means for ensuring the functions of operational-search measures"). According to numerous testimonies from the operator's market, not all Internet providers can, in principle, reach "Comrade Major" with the requirement to provide a channel to the console of the local FSB branch. And those "boxes" that are, not the fact that they work, and were not just installed "for show" as part of the development of funds affiliated with the secret service offices, earning on the installation of iron SORM.

At the same time, the third generation system "Yarovaya +" is also a long-term construction with certification problems. Even with their full implementation, the problem of reading encrypted traffic remains: three years ago, the share of HTTPS traffic on the Internet exceeded 50%. Even if the FSB has access to all user traffic, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack, which in itself is ephemeral.

Legal issues

Until now, there is still no clear explanation from all the listed satellite projects - on what conditions and according to what scheme users should connect to the space Internet. It is not even clear which of them will be commercial projects that take money from consumers, and which will be with conditionally free access. For example, we do not pay directly to satellite companies for using GPS and GLONASS, but we pay for gadgets with the module included there. Will these projects be developed with the participation of states or will there be a direct link with users? We will most likely get answers to all these questions closer to the start of operation of these systems - in a year or two.

Whether one of the satellite systems for the worldwide distribution of the Internet will turn out to be under state control in Russia is also an open question. But if similar projects of Mask, Bezos, Zuckerberg and others appear ground stations on the territory of the Russian Federation, this will show that interaction with the Russian special services has begun, but in what phase - we will hardly be able to find out, unless there is a drain from the inside.

Therefore, when communicating on the Internet, first of all, one must rely on oneself, increasing one's security and using services that make it confidential and hidden from prying eyes. Fortunately, there are many such tools now and they have a small entry threshold.

Well, the space Internet will be! The right to access the web is becoming a basic human right in the digital age, and without satellites, this cannot be fully achieved.

Artem Kozlyuk - head of the public organization "RosKomSvoboda ", member of the expert council at the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications

The weight of the cargo turned out to be a record

Sixty satellites, created by SpaceX's Starlink project, have been successfully delivered into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. This marks the next step in creating a network that provides people around the world with affordable high-speed Internet access.

Starlink is a low-orbit satellite system project that began development in 2015. The first step towards realizing these goals was the launch of the Tintin-A and Tintin-B test satellites last February. This time, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle delivered 60 satellites to orbit at once - the "payload" was a record 18.5 tons for the company.

The launch was made at 22:30 US East Coast time or at 05:30 Friday Moscow time. All of them were successfully delivered into orbit. Some time later, American entrepreneur Elon Musk wrote on his Twitter page that the satellites are online, and the deployment of a solar battery is expected in the near future.

All 60 Starlink satellites online, solar array deployment coming up soon

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2019

Nevertheless, for the successful implementation of the project, according to the calculations of the company's employees, it is necessary to launch two hundred times more satellites into orbit - it is planned that their total number will be about twelve thousand, and the weight of each will reach from 100 to 500 kilograms.

According to the project, about three and a half thousand satellites operating in the Ku- and Ka-bands will be located in 83 orbital planes at an altitude of 1,110 to 1,325 kilometers, and the remaining seven and a half thousand will operate at an altitude of 335 to 346 kilometers. Constant access to the Internet should be ensured due to the fact that at any given moment of time at least one satellite is located above any point on the planet, and if it goes beyond the horizon, another immediately appears from the horizon.