Satellites, the only one keeping us connected everywhere

Satellites, satellites and more satellites. There is no denying humans have launched plenty over the 66 years since the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 was launched off into orbit in 1957. After only three weeks, its mission came to an end when the batteries on board ran out. A lot has changed since then from technology to materials, and size. Within the next decade or so 100s of large satellites and about 1000s of micro and nano satellites will be launched into Earth's orbit.

With the connectivity of global communications as a result of the internet, artificial satellites have boomed. Humans are more connected than ever before with an approximate 17 billion devices currently part of IoT (internet of things report of May 2023). It is forecasted to surpass 50 billion devices by 2030 of IoT connected devices. This is anything from your smart watch to self-driving cars. This figure is only set to grow.

Satellites have played a fundamental role in this connectivity where the many types of satellites provide data acquisition, research, telecommunications, safety and weather forecasts, navigation, business insights, environmental monitoring and defense. In the last five years alone, the space industry has seen a rapid increase in satellite launches, specially since SpaceX entered the market.

SpaceX alone has launched over 4500 satellite into space with over 4000 satellites from Starlink (Spaceflightnow.com Report of May 4, 2023).

India's successful launch of a record breaking 104 satellites into Orbit served as a wake-up call for China's commercial space industry and there are a number of lessons for the country to learn.

And, with successful launch of SpaceX Vertical takeoff and landing system the game for space has entered into a new generation of low cost and more effeciant launching system. All major Space Rocket players around the world are now working on vertical landing and takeoff rocket system to reduce the cost, with India, USA, EU, Russia, and China making most advancements.

China recently (April 2023) carried out a successful rocket vertical landing test at sea, with developers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

CAS Space, a commercial spaceflight firm that is partly owned by CAS, revealed that it successfully carried out the launching-from-land and landing-at-sea flight trial in Haiyang, East China's Shandong Province, which verified the rocket stage recovery at sea, communication and spacecraft tracking and measuring technology under the impact of sea clutters.

The full success of the vertical sea landing of the rocket has laid the foundation for future technological development for applications including the near-space scientific experiment platform, rocket stage recovery as well as space tourism.

How many satellites are in space?

In total, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs – there are approximately 7,702 satellites in orbit (Space Report May 4, 2023). About half of these are active and the other inactive. Up until about 2010, around 70 – 100 satellites were launched yearly. That figure started to rise dramatically with the year 2020 surpassing 1000 new satellites in one year. However, 2021 is by far the winner. A total of 1,400 satellites were launched this year alone and there have been numerous organizations announcing their satellite constellation launches over the new few years.

Why the sudden increase in satellite launches?

Technology has never been more abundant than the now. Communication demand to bring faster internet and accessibility to people across the globe is a driving factor. The development of smart cities where the world of IoT and AI is also booming. As is observing Earth in greater detail to understand our planet. Through research we are able to improve current Earth practices, while also providing valuable insights for beyond Earth exploration. Satellites play a major part in all of these developments.

Another interesting reason as to the increase in satellites is a simple matter of size. Rockets of today are more powerful than ever before and can carry greater payloads while satellites are getting, well, smaller.

More satellites are better

There are two factors likely to drive the explosion in satellite numbers. One is the advent of private spaceflight companies, which have provided the rockets needed to bring large numbers of satellites to orbit. The other is CubeSats, small, modular satellites that are cheaper to build, and easier to take to orbit than traditional custom-built satellites.

Because they’re small, it costs far less to take a CubeSat weighing perhaps a few dozen pounds to orbit than a larger satellite weighing over a thousand pounds. And CubeSats, unlike built-to-order satellites, can be manufactured quickly and more cheaply. Those cost efficiencies have made it feasible for companies like SpaceX to imagine creating and launching thousands of satellites in just a few years.

Satellite swarms offer a few key advantages over traditional satellites, especially for communications and internet access. Normally when a satellite orbits Earth, it must go extremely quickly, meaning it won’t stay in range to deliver, say, broadband for long. Geostationary satellites solve this problem by orbiting exactly as fast as the Earth does, but the tradeoff is that they must remain very far away: 22,236 miles versus a few hundred for low Earth orbit. That means transmissions take far longer and need more power — not ideal when you’re trying to ensure fast internet access.

But a constellation of many satellites can stay in low Earth orbit while ensuring that one or several of its members is in range of ground-based transmitters and receivers at all times. That means the constellation can talk to, or keep an eye on, the same places on Earth at all times. With enough satellites, the constellation could reach every point on the planet 24/7 — the ultimate goal of many satellite constellation providers.

Sharing low Earth orbit

The first satellite constellations actually date back decades. The Global Positioning System, or GPS, relies on a network of at least 24 satellites orbiting Earth, maintained by the U.S. government. Today, everything from smartphones to mapping apps to financial systems rely on GPS to operate. Similar systems, like the European Union’s Galileo Network and Russia’s GLONASS also rely on their own groups of satellites. On the commercial side, the privately-owned Iridium network of 66 spacecraft has been providing satellite phone coverage for more than two decades.

Today, many of the satellites in orbit are involved in communications. That holds true for satellite constellations as well, many of which are aimed at providing internet access, à la Starlink. Europe’s O3b began offering satellite internet to clients in 2014 using its own network of spacecraft. OneWeb, which has partnered with Airbus, plans to launch a total of 900 satellites in coming years to flesh out its own internet network. China, meanwhile, recently announced plans to put some 13,000 satellites in space to establish its Gouwang internet program.

But it’s not all about the internet in space. San Francisco’s Planet Labs is using nearly 200 Dove satellites to continually photograph the entire planet. These images allow them to provide pictures of Earth’s surface at 3 to 5 meters resolution, updated multiple times a day in some cases, the company says. They’re aiming to nab clients in industries ranging from agriculture to research to infrastructure.

Spire, another imaging and space-based monitoring company, offers services like ship and aircraft tracking and weather monitoring using its proprietary satellite network. GHGSat’s satellites track emissions on Earth, searching for methane leaks and other sources of greenhouse gases. The company achived the target of 10 satellites in orbit by the end of 2022.

Another company, Cloud Constellation, is attempting to solve another problem entirely. The startup hopes to convince companies to store their data in orbit, in servers aboard its satellite swarm.

More and more startups, companies and governments have the capacity to have their own satellites. In fact, SpaceWorks expects between 513 and 745 launches in 2023. If those forecasts are met, the number of small satellites launched into space would at least double within five years. And in the most optimistic scenario, it would almost triple.

Risks of reaching for the stars

An exponential increase in the number of metal boxes flying through near-Earth space poses a number of risks, some more obvious than others. Some come from astronomers, who worry that swarms of satellites will interfere with their observations of deep space.

Those concerns were put on display almost immediately after SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites to orbit. A photo taken at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in May 2019 reveals dozens of bright streaks obscuring the sky as Starlink spacecraft flew overhead. The photo is a bit of an exaggeration, as the satellites continued to spread out after launch. But it could be a harbinger of the crowd to come.

More satellites could also mean more radio frequency transmissions flying about the atmosphere. In addition to looking visible light, astronomers monitor the sky across much of the electromagnetic spectrum, including in radio frequencies. Radio waves can travel through things that block light, like dust, meaning astronomers can see things otherwise obscured. Images of new galaxies, pulsars, quasars, and even the first-ever image of a black hole have come thanks to radio telescopes.

More satellites in orbit also increases the odds of collisions. Two spacecraft smashing into each other at speeds of tens of thousands of miles an hour might lead to the dreaded Kessler Syndrome, a feedback loop of destruction that could render Earth orbit a no-fly zone for decades. The process is simple: An initial collision creates a cloud of thousands of pieces of debris whipping around the planet. Some of these pieces hit other spacecraft, creating more debris, and the result is a cascade of satellite mayhem. The resulting cloud of debris might be dense enough that any spacecraft put into orbit would be destroyed, putting a premature end to the satellite era.

That eventuality could be averted by ongoing efforts to clean up low-Earth orbit, where an estimated 12,000 trackable pieces of debris already circulate. Some of those are from past satellite accidents, such as the 2009 collision between a defunct Russian satellite and an Iridium satellite. While the odds of a spacecraft being damaged by debris remain slim, it’s still cause for caution. The International Space Station has been moved on multiple occasions to minimize the risk of being hit by nearby objects.

And more satellites above us could result in changes to our planet, too. A recent study estimates that Starlink’s satellites alone might bring more aluminum into the upper atmosphere upon re-entry than meteoroids do. That extra metal might damage the ozone layer, some scientists speculate, further harming the environment. It’s a reminder of one of the fundamental principles of satellite operation: What we put up into orbit will someday come back down to Earth.