What is a satellite?

A satellite is a small thing orbiting or circling a larger thing. The complete path it follows is called an orbit. The moon is a example of a natural satellite of the earth. Manmade, or artificial satellites are placed into orbit by rockets or space shuttles.

After World War II, the former Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite in 1951, into space. In 1958, the United States launched its first artificial satellite Telstar I into orbit. Since then, many more satellites were made by different countries and launched into space.

How can they help us daily / what is the purpose with satellites

It has been helping scientists find answers to the unknown, and assisting tourists finding their way when they are lost. Today, satellites have become so widely used that some of them have become available to civilians around the globe with over 150 countries funding them. With over 2200 operational satellites orbiting the Earth. If we wish to understand why artificial satellites are so useful, we have to understand what each type of satellites are doing starting with Global Positioning system (GPS), Reconnaissance Satellites, and finally Telecommunications Satellites.

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The Global Positioning System provides users with accurate information about their latitude, longitude, velocity and altitude, as well as the time, anywhere in the world. The GPS was launch in 1973 by Navstar in the United States and then followed by the Soviet Union with their own GPS. Both GPS systems are free to use by anyone around the world and offers great benefits to the military, companies, and you and me.

There are various types of Reconnaissance Satellites. There are the basic models which are used for photography; then there are more sophisticated models called "spy satellites" which are capable of capturing motion pictures from Earth's surface, and finally there are the media satellites equipped with special sensors such as heat, infrared and ultra-violet sensors. Each type of satellite has its own set of equipment, and benefits humankind in many ways. The most basic models for instance, helps scientists learn what happened billions of years ago to our planet, how our solar system was born, the depth and activity of volcanoes around the world, and much more. Astronomers who also use the basic models can take pictures of Earth, nearby planets and faraway solar systems to study them and be able to determine facts such as, if life is possible to exist anywhere else in the galaxy, what are black holes and to discover new planets galaxies far far away.

The most common satellites in space are the Telecommunications Satellites. Capable of transferring massive amounts of data at a time, they are without a doubt the most widely employed satellites in the world. Similarly to GPS, Telecommunication Satellites are practically only used by the military, commercial companies and civilian residents. In commerce, communication is just as important and can benefit the entire world. The Internet is a great example of how satellites are able relay hundreds of countries in one single network and whether you are researching information on Egypt, online shopping in a Japanese site, or looking for television programs, it is the satellites which are doing all the hard work of transferring the information from one place to another with short delay.

This covers just a few of the thousands of different things that satellites have to offer in our everyday life.

How do they orbit?

An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one. An object in an orbit is called a satellite. A satellite can be natural, like the Earth or the Moon. It can also be man-made, like the Space Shuttle or a man made satellite.

Orbits are elliptical in shape, this means they are similar to an oval. For the planets, the orbits are almost round. The orbits of comets have a different shape. They are highly eccentric or "squashed." Satellites that orbit the Earth are not always the same distance from the Earth. Sometimes they are closer, and at other times they are farther away. The closest point a satellite comes to the Earth is called its perigee. The farthest point is the apogee. The time it takes a satellite to make one full orbit is called its period. The slope is the angle the orbital plane makes when compared with the Earth's equator.

Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion sounds like this any given object there is in motion will stay in motion unless something pushes or pulls on it. Without gravity an Earth-orbiting satellite would go off into space along a straight line. With gravity it is pulled back toward the Earth. There is a constant tug-of-war between the satellites tendency to move in a straight line, or momentum, and the tug of gravity pulling it back.

An object's momentum and gravity have to be balanced for an orbit to happen. If the forward momentum of one object is too great, it will speed past the other one and not enter into orbit. If momentum is too small, the object will be pulled into the other one and crash. When these forces are balanced, the object is always falling into the planet, but because it's moving sideways fast enough, it never hits the planet.

Escape velocity is the speed an object must go to break free from a planet?s gravity and enter into orbit. Escape velocity depends on the mass of the planet. Each planet has a different escape velocity. The object?s distance from the planet?s center is also important. The escape velocity from the Earth is about 11.3 kilometers pr second.

Earth Orbit (LEO) is restricted to the first 65 to 130 kilometer of space. LEO is the easiest orbit to get to and stay in. This is where the Shuttle and ISS conduct their operations. One complete orbit in LEO takes about 90 minutes.

Satellites that seem to be at the location on Earth, are in Geosynchronous(geostationary) Earth Orbit (GEO). These satellites orbit about 14,375 kilometer above the equator and complete one round of the Earth precisely every 24 hours. Satellites headed for GEO first go to an elliptical orbit with an apogee about 14,375 kilometer. Firing the rocket engines at apogee then makes the orbit round.

Any satellite with an orbital path going over or near the poles maintains a polar orbit. Polar orbits are usually in low Earth orbit. They remain in place while the Earth passes under. This means that eventually, the entire Earth's surface passes under a satellite in polar orbit.

Satellite Power Sources

Early communications satellites were very limited by the lack of suitable power sources. The only source of power available within early weight restrictions was a very inefficient panel of solar cells without battery backup. A major disadvantage of this type of power source is that the satellite has no power when it is in ECLIPSE (not in view of the sun). For continuous communications, this outage is unacceptable.

A combination of solar cells and storage batteries is a better prime power source. This is a practical choice, even though the result is far from an ideal power source. Only about ten percent of the energy of the sunlight that strikes the solar cells is converted to electrical power. This low rate is sometimes decreased even further.

Early satellites had over 8,500 solar cells mounted on the surface of the satellite, which supplied about 42 watts of power. No battery backup was provided in these satellites.

Nowadays satellites have about 32,000 solar cells installed on the surface of the satellite, and they supply about 520 watts. A battery is used for backup power during eclipses (not in view of the sun).

Nuclear power sources have been used in space for special purposes, but their use stops there. Technology has not progressed sufficiently for nuclear power sources to be used as a power source.

Satellite orientation in space is important for continuous solar cell and antenna orientation. Since the primary source of power in most satellites is from solar cells, a maximum number of the solar cells must be exposed to the sun at all times. The satellite antenna must also be pointed at the appropriate earth terminals. Our communications satellites use what is termed spin stabilization to meet these important requirements.

Once the system is in motion, spin stabilization requires actually no extra energy. A spin-stabilized satellite is usually constructed like a flywheel. After reaching its orbit, the jets are pulsed to start the satellite spinning. The satellite spin axis is orientated to the axis of the earth by means of small axial jets. Velocity jets, are used to place the satellite in orbit position and provide velocity correction.

Solar cells are installed around the outside surface of the satellite. This gives a large number of solar cells exposed to the sun 24 hours a day.

Impact Of Satellite TV On Our Culture

1.Satellite TV (Cable TV) channels started its journey in Bangladesh at 1992. Before that, BTV was the dominant medium for about 28 years and had the monopoly power.

2.But since the birth of the satellite channels in our country, it had a detrimental effect on the society. Gradually the Bangladeshi people are losing their Bengali norms and traditions and getting used to the foreign lifestyles.

AIM

3.The aim of today’s presentation is to orient the class about the mass eff of satellite TV channels on our culture and how we can overcome this prob.

Scope

4.For better understanding and easy assimilation I will discuss the lesson in fol pts:
a.Intro
b.What is Culture?
c.Major influences of satellite TV on the cultural area of Bangladesh
d.Some Statistical Data
e.Interpretation
f.Inference
g.Negative impacts of satellite TV
h.Conclusion
i.Remedies and Measures that can be taken

What Is Culture?

5. Every particular society has its own beliefs, ways of life, art etc. This belief, customs and tradition of a society they fol is known as culture. Bangladesh has its own culture and traditions also. The culture of Bangladesh is composite and over the centuries has assimilated influences of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. It is manifested in various forms, including music, dance, and drama, art and craft, folklore and folktale, languages and literature, philosophy and religion, festivals and celebrations, as well as in a distinct cuisine and culinary tradition.

Major influences of satellite TV on the cultural area of Bangladesh

6.The influence of technological advment is changing the present world very rapidly. Changes are taking place in all spheres of life and ultimately changing the social and cultural belief systems. Satellite TV, being one of the brainchild of this technological development, is having a definite eff on the social and cultural area of Bangladesh.

7.Labib(2001) suggests an evidence showing the influence on the women and girls in fds such as fashion and clo and fast food consumption. For Bangladesh, the significant cultural shift arises due to impact of regional channels of Satellite TV, particularly Indian channels like ZeeTV, MTV, Star Plus, Sony TV are influencing the cultural sphere of Bangladesh. Through watching these, cultural ties and values are getting threatened, specifically materials that favour divorce as a means to solve family problems or programming that includes obscenity, nudity, arousal of sexual instincts, or pre-marital sexual relations are completely destroying the cultural beliefs and values of Bangladesh.

8.Indian movie world Bollywood has a curse on the culture of Bangladesh. Renowned Bangladeshi auth and columnist Muhammad Zafor Iqbal said in his column – “Upto some years ago I could boast never having seen a hindi movie, but now I cannot. I have to travel by bus from Sylhet to Dhaka, and they show these movies where you are a captive audience.” This clearly indicates about the current picture of how Bangladeshi people are obsessed to the Indian culture, and to what extent these foreign elements has occupied our brains.

Some Statistical Data

9.A research was carried out on 40 persons in Ctg based on probability sampling on 2011 to understand the influence of satellite TV on cultural changes.

10.Most of the people think cable TV is the prime reason for the exposure to foreign culture as it is the most aval and easy means. Other means aval are internet, newspapers, magazines, social awareness, general increase in the lvl of edn. But they are not considered here.

The results of the svy on preference of cable TV channels by the consumers are showed in graphical form as follows:

Fig: Preference of Cable Tv Channels among 40 Responders

Interpretation

11.From the above bar diagram, we can see that out of 40 persons, the most viewed TV channel is Star Plus, fol by Sony TV and then HBO. All of them are foreign TV channels with no room for our own broadcasting channels.

Inference

12.Over the last 10-12 years, due to this easy exposure, there is a significant change in the dimensions of culture. Research also shows that consumers preference towards some of the aspects like fashion awareness, quality preference have increased. On the other hand, bargaining habit, attraction towards traditional songs, reading habit etc has decreased
whereas in some aspects there is no change.

13.Svy carr out on other parameters also showed that the changes in the dimensions which most people think that satellite TV has strong influence upon are increase in the fashion awareness, brand preference, following foreign customs, fast food consumption, interest in foreign music/movie, and for the decrease in the social bondage and good personality traits.

14.There is moderate influence upon increase in quality preference, gender balance, and knowledge based society, and decrease in the interest in Bangla movies/music.

15.There is less influence on eating out, children’s participation in decision making, and for the decrease in religious bindings.

16.A general pattern is observed in the result. People of middle/lower middle cl are affected the most rather than upper cl people possly due to their more exposure to other media/latest technology and greater awareness about changing society.

Negative Impact Of Satellite

17.Some consumers were asked about the negative impacts of satellite TV on our culture. The respondents were all almost on a common footing and admit that it certainly has some negative impacts like tendency of wearing indecent/short dresses especially by the ladies and the disturbance of study for the children. They also think there is an increase in the social crime and sexual violence. Some think that it has some influence on the attraction towards smoking/drugs by the young people.

Conclusion
18.The results of the study shows that over the last 8-10 years, there is clearly a change in our traditional culture and this change is likely to continue. Though all of this change is not due to the effects of satellite TV, this is playing one of the major roles as maximum exposure to the foreign culture is due to this media.

Remedies and Measures that can be taken

19.Business in today’s market is very competitive. To operate profitably in any business, the focus must be customer oriented. Like any other business, cable TV should also provide the customers with the channels they like most and improve the quality of sound and picture. People who provide the cable broadcast have a great resp towards today’s world. Therefore, corrected effort should be made to sensitize the producers and broadcasters for improving the quality of whatever prog they produce.

20.At the same time local channels should be strengthened and should have a better content. This channels should produce and broadcast quality programs that could help to promote Bangladeshi values and traditions and improve the image of Bangladesh at an international level.

REFERENCE
21. Effect of Satellite Television on the Culture of Bangladesh: The Viewers Perception by Robaka Shamsher & Mohhammad Nayeem Abdullah. European Journal of Business and Management, ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol 4, No.9, 2012

22.www.merriam-webster.com/

23.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Bangladesh