GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Education
Satellite as a tool to boost space education & research – a bridge between scientific knowledge and society.
World's First Education Satellite
Teaching over 20,000 students at a single go is no simple task. But what makes it possible, making classrooms barrier-less will be India's EDUSAT – the world's first dedicated education satellite to be launched by India, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) exclusively for the education sector, the $20 million EDUSAT was launched in 2004 by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). EDUSAT is an acronym for Educational Satellite – a satellite dedicated to education with multiple channels. It is a technology network of uplink stations in selected national and state locations (to act as teaching ends) and downlink stations or facilities in various educational institutions (as learning ends) supported by satellite (Likhi, 2014).
"Compared to other satellites launched in the same series so far, EDUSAT will have several new technologies. The spacecraft is built around a standardised spacecraft bus called I-2K. It has a multiple spot beam antenna with 1.2 m reflector to direct precisely the Ku band spot beams towards their intended regions of India, a dual core bent heat pipe for thermal control, high efficiency multi-junction solar cells and an improved thruster configuration for optimised propellant use for orbit and orientation maintenance. The satellite uses radiatively cooled Ku-band Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs) and dielectrically loaded C-band DEMULTIPLEXER for its communication payloads." (Henlon, 2005)
How it works?
Classrooms in government schools are supposed to be provided either with a large 29 inch television, a camera and audio equipment or a computer with an LCD projector. When a student asks questions, the audio and visual signals get beamed to the satellite which in turn will be sent back to the teaching end.
The network has the facility to record the lessons taught as well the questions asked and to store the same in a digitized form to enable running of a virtual classroom. Lessons, therefore, can be stored and retrieved by anyone who has access to the computer. As a result, it is now possible for students to revisit and relive the classroom experience (Likhi, 2014).
Millions of illiterate people in remote, rural India could soon have access to education with such satellite devoted exclusively to long distance learning.
Benefits
Satellites can establish connectivity between urban educational institutions and a large number of rural and semi-urban educational institutions to provide an educational infrastructure.
Besides supporting formal education, a satellite system can facilitate the dissemination of knowledge to the rural and remote population about important aspects like health, hygiene and personality development and allow professionals to update their knowledge base as well.
Thus, in spite of limited trained and skilled teachers, the aspirations of the growing student population at all levels can be met through the concept of tele-education.
This will also promote development of scientific workforce, opening up more job opportunities. Space education and research at higher education institutions in Iraq are due for a major boost next year when the country, collaborating with La Svanza University in Italy, launches its first experimental scientific satellite, to be called ‘Dijlah’ (Tigris River) (Sawahel, 2012).
Weather
The First Weather Satellite
Harry Wexler is one of the first scientists to come up with the idea to use satellites for meteorological reasons, known also as ‘Father of Weather Satellites’ (Harry Wexler: Father of weather satellites, n.d.)
Before there were any satellites, Wexler made history by being the first scientist to fly directly into a hurricane to collect scientific data. However, this was not enough to aid in the prevention of future lives lost due to the unpredictable changes of the weather (Harry Wexler: Father of weather satellites, n.d.).
Without proper preparation, people have nothing to rely to give them a signal to run. They can only react by the futile effort of running when the storm/ natural disaster hits.
Scientists recognized the need for this form of preparation in order to secure people’s life. Therefore, they built a weather satellite, which was able to send images of weather pattern to scientist who can analyse and predict future weather changes
Although we are unable to stop or prevent natural disasters, we cannot change wind directions, we can prepare for it and this gives us more time to evacuate in times of danger.
Main Roles
The main functions of weather satellites are to keep a look out on cloud cover, storms, hurricanes, typhoons, surface temperatures, rainfall, ice and snow cover.
Data collected from the satellites will be sent back down to Earth for experts to analyse. All of which aim to warn people of incoming changes in weather, especially when for extreme weathers. Weather satellites also monitor effects of global warming
Weather satellites are also able to provide data to scientists and analysts to estimate the temperature of the ocean. This is a a key signal of climate change (Satellites, n.d.).
Commercial operators, who own some weather satellites, sell weather images to organisations to show the public weather maps, thus, benefiting the public by allowing public to check “real time” weather forecasts
Weather satellites owned by governments also help nations to monitor short-term events, such as volcanic eruption or a bushfire (that happens once in a while).
