Download Satellites 10.3

Day 13: Satellites 10.3
Name __________________
Until 50 years ago, the only way we could learn about the universe was by observing light while
remaining on Earth. However, since then we have sent out over 6,000 satellites and probes.
1) Draw a circle with a radius of 6.4 mm on the far left to represent the Earth’s northern hemisphere
which has a radius of 6.4 Mm (mega meters, 106 m). Draw the orbits of the following satellites at the
correct radii: ISS (6.7 Mm), Hubble Space Telescope (6.8 Mm), Polar (7.6 Mm), GPS (Global
Positioning System, 26.7 Mm), GSO (Geostationary orbits, 42.2 Mm) and Moon (384 Mm).
2) About half of the satellites are in near earth orbits (NEO).
a) What is the advantage of an orbit close to the Earth? What are their uses? Why aren’t they closer?
b) What is the advantage of a polar orbit?
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c) The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest artificial satellite and is visible to the naked
eye. When is it next visible? http://iss.astroviewer.net/
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3) About half of the satellites are in geosynchronous orbits (GEO). What is its advantage?
4) Many satellites are orbiting telescopes. What is the advantage of a telescope in space?
5) Two dozen satellites are part of the Global Positioning System. Watch the GPS and Relativity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQdIjwoi-u4
a) What is the global positioning system (GPS) used for? What do you use it for?
b) What happens if they don’t use relativity in the GPS?
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6)
a)
b)
c)
You will do a simplified version of the GPS. The signal travels 1.25 cm in 1 ms on the map given.
A signal from Toronto took 7.92 ms to get to you. Draw an arc of your possible locations on the map.
A signal from Kamloops took 5.04 ms to get to you. Draw your possible location on the map.
A signal from Sept-Iles took 8.16 s to get to you. Draw your possible location on the map.
7) Probes have been placed in orbit or flown by the Sun, planets, moons, asteroids and comets.
a) Voyager 1, launched in1977, is now over 20 billion km away. What was its average speed?
A) 60 km/h
B) 600 km/h
C) 6,000 km/h
D) 60, 000 km/h
8) Probes have successfully landed and transmitted information from the Moon, Mars, Venus, Eros
(asteroid), Titan (moon of Saturn) and a comet. This is much harder than flying by or orbiting. Why?
Go to https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/lunar-lander Contest: Get the most landings.
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10) Watch Space Debris Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cd0-4qOvb0
a) Where is the greatest chance of collision? Why?
b) Why is the amount of space debris increasing exponentially?
c) What is maximum collision speed for a NEO? The period is 1.5 hours and the radius is 7,000 km.
d) What can be done to reduce this problem?
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Textbook Consolidation: Read pages 426 – 430 and answer questions 5, 6, 7