Despite the noticeable expansion of the space industry, one of the apparently perpetual questions among the public remains the famous: “Is space really useful?”
A few decades ago, the concept of spending tremendous amounts of money on space programs in support of political rivalries was already quite controversial. Very quickly after the biggest highlights of the famous US and Soviet space-race (mainly around the ’60s and ‘70s), scepticism sparked at how reasonable it was to invest billions of dollars (or rubles) on such activities — despite more “perceivable” priorities on the firm ground. It was only fair at this time for inevitable questions to arise. After all, major space activities at that time were all very distant from any citizenry’s daily concerns. And it was sometimes difficult for the public eye to realise how exactly sending dogs and monkeys to orbit the planet or asking elite soldiers to plant flags on the moon had any sort of impact on their daily lives.
Today, however, with the widespread availability of multiple space reliant technologies it is sometimes surprising to hear these questions again.
Today, we live in an age where almost anyone uses satellite data repeatedly every day — sometimes without even realising it. Here is a quick overview of the average person’s interactions with space technology.
To exemplify this, let’s delve into the daily routine of our average consumer, Sam. In this following case, you are invited to notice every instance where Sam relied on satellite technology in one way or the other.
Sam’s morning:
It’s 7.00 AM. Sam wakes up and gets ready for work. Shortly after attending to his brief morning grooming routine, he puts together an expeditious breakfast and turns on the TV as a form of background distraction for when he would eat his toasts. Unsure of what he wants to wear on that day, he quickly checks for the weather forecast on his phone; pulls out a big coat for an expected cold day and is now ready to go. While driving to work he stops at a red light, turns the radio on and quickly checks his phone as it suggests to him an alternative route to avoid heavy traffic. After parking his car in front of the office, he grabs a quick coffee at the nearest cafe, pays by card, and runs to make it to work on time before his first meeting of the day.
Alright let’s pause here for now. If you followed Sam’s morning, you should realise by now that despite not seriously starting his day yet, he has already interacted with satellites a significant number of times.
Let’s break some of these interactions down.
Television:
Satellite TV is one of the big players in the TV services industry, it is usually cheaper than Cable TV (but less reliable in bad weather for example) and it is especially useful in areas where cable infrastructure is more limited (rural areas, or countries with less telecoms infrastructure). After almost fifteen years of market growth, satellite TV is now seeing a progressive decrease in its user base mostly due to the rise of streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc…).
Weather forecast:
This one is also relatively easy to understand. The first step of weather forecasting, before the massive computation capacities to support powerful modelling methods, is gathering the data. This includes air pressures, temperatures, cloud distribution, humidity and many other parameters covering very large areas of the planet (if not the whole thing). It is then easy to understand that one of the most efficient methods to gather and relay all this data on a regular basis is by satellite coverage. Satellites can measure various parameters on a daily basis across the whole planet and to quickly dispatch the information for immediate use by weather forecasters.
Car Radio:
Traditional radio (aka Terrestrial radio) mainly relies on a network of ground antennas relaying radio waves to users in their serviced areas. This type of radio coverage remains the most common, but Satellite radio is also a well-established part of the radio market today (a little less than 20% of this market).
Satellite radio, while more costly than other formats, presents several advantages such as wide coverage, better sound quality and even less ads.
Navigation:
Probably one of the most well-known and straightforward satellite applications today, GPS navigation has now become a daily necessity. Whether it’s to find your friend’s address, to try this highly recommended restaurant, to find alternative routes to counter traffic, or for simply wandering around the most remote locations on the globe using Google Earth, if you’re reading this you most likely have used satellite navigation countless times.
Navigation, whether it is using the GPS network or its Russian, Chinese and European competitors, relies on a network of satellites constantly supplying users with precise position and timing information. This information is treated to deduce distances between the user and the connected satellites which in turn allows to calculate precise location coordinates.
Time synchronization:
This one was a bit harder to catch. We just mentioned GPS earlier where a network of satellites provides your phone with its Longitude, Latitude and Altitude on any point of the globe. But the fourth dimensions GPS satellites provide is just as crucial. That is: Time.
Time synchronization is vital for GPS technology and GPS satellites are equipped with several atomic clocks that ensure all the data communicated is relayed with a precise and reliable timescale to calculate positions accurately. This crucial capacity is used by many industries to maintain precise timestamps and efficient synchronization between their equipment. A few examples include financial services (remember that coffee Sam grabbed) where precise timestamps of each transaction ensure reliable recording and up to date information. Time synchronization is also used by traffic lights to synchronize the different crossings across many cities and to optimize green and red times. Power companies also need precise timings of any issue on their grid to locate and solve the problem quickly and efficiently.
The use cases are varied and most of us rely on these capacities almost constantly.
Conclusion:
This overview is just a brief snapshot of some satellite technologies most of us use daily. But one must remember that this doesn’t fully represent the real importance of satellite technology today. Countless critical industries rely on satellite technology, from the stock market, to logistics, travelling, defence, or even to home heating.
The space industry today is long past the time where it was merely a diplomatic or political objective. It is now playing a pivotal role in our daily needs.
