Name:_______________________
Partner's name:_______________________
DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully.
-Before we begin this activity, it will be important to know the latitude and longitude of where you live. You will need to know this as precisely as you can. To do this, use the internet:
Step 1- Go to http://www.mit.edu/geo
Step 2- Enter the name of your town and state
Step 3- Enter your latitude and longitude below.
Latitude:___________________. .
. . . . . . . Longitude:__________________________
-Next, most of the times we will be looking at are in
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
-To learn about GMT, go to http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/clocks/time-gmt.html
-Read this page, and determine how many hours you must add or
subtract from GMT to get to the time in your town.
GMT to your local time:
____________________________
DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully.
Step 1- Go to http://www.thetech.org/hyper/satellite/
Step 2- You are looking at the home page for satellites at the Technical Museum of Innovation. Use it to answer the questions that follow.
1. What is a satellite?
2. What is the difference between the payload and the bus part of the
satellite?
Now... 3a. Guess how many satellites are above our head?
_______________
. b. Guess what country has the most satellites in orbit?
____________
LET'S FIND THE REAL ANSWERS, NOW:
Go to http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/satellites/ssr.html
4a. How many satellites ("payloads") TOTAL are there IN ORBIT (not
decayed)? __________
. b. Which country has the most "payloads" IN ORBIT?
__________________
. c. Were your guesses in question 3 high, low, or right on?
___________________
. d. Why do you think your guess was different (or similar) ?
__________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
5a. How many pieces of "space junk" (labeled "debris") are IN ORBIT?
_______________
. b. What country is responsible for most of the debris?
_____________
. c. Is there more debris, or more payloads in orbit right now?
_____________________
. d. Where do you think the debris come from?
_____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
6. Why do you think it would be important to know where space
debris is?
DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully.
Step 1- Go to http://www.thetech.org/hyper/satellite/
Step 2- Use this website to answer the questions
LEO- Low Earth Orbit
GEO- Geosynchronous Orbit (or Geostationary Orbit)
7. Circle the best answer:
8. Give at least one reason why each orbit would be useful.
. a. LEO-
. b. GEO-
. c. Elliptical-
. d. Polar-
DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully. Be sure that you are using the website at http://www.thetech.org/hyper/satellite/ to answer the questions.
(3)
(5)
10 a. What do communications satellites do?
. b. What is a satellite footprint?
11. What is remote sensing?
(*Check out the pictures at the bottom of the remote sensing screen!*)
13. What is a GPS satellite used for?
14. What does the SOHO satellite do?
. b. SOHO does not orbit the Earth. What does it orbit? ____________________________
DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully.
-Now that we know a bit about satellites, let's look at some REMOTE
SENSING satellites and the data they send back to Earth.
Go to http://sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ISTO/dro/global/control2.html
Be patient... it might take a minute or two...
-Take a minute to look at the computer screen, and read these hints:*The globe can be rotated by clicking on the arrows surrounding it.
*The name of the satellite taking the picture is above the globe to the right.
*If you want to, you may press the ANIMATE button on some of the pictures.
*Below the current time is the DATE and TIME the image was taken in GMT.
*Click INFO at any time to learn about the satellite taking the picture.
*Click on the globe to zoom in on any spot. Then, to zoom out, click on the map.
*If you need a tutorial on how to use this, go to
. http://sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ISTO/dro/global/about/page1.html
*If you want more detailed information on the satellites, go to
. http://sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ISTO/dro/global/science/page1.html
15. What satellite is responsible for the US East Coast Weather
picture? __________________
16a. What is the ozone thickness over New York City today (in Dobson
Units)?_________DU
. b. What time was this picture taken locally? (Convert GMT to your
time) _______________
17a. What kind of orbit is GOES 8 in? __________________________
. b. How many miles high is GOES 8? ___________________________
-Besides these general remote sensing satellites, NASA also has many new missions to explore Earth from Space
Go to http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/
-This is the TRMM satellite homepage
18a. What does TRMM stand
for?________________________________________________
. b. What other country joined with NASA to launch TRMM?
_____________________
Go to http://umpgal.gsfc.nasa.gov/uars-science.html
-This is the UARS satellite homepage
19a. What does UARS stand
for?_______________________________________________
. b. What was its main purpose to
study?________________________________________
Go to http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/eptoms/tomstech.html
-This is a page describing the EP-TOMS satellite
20. What does EP-TOMS stand
for?___________________________________________
-There are lots of satellites in space, and most of their
information can be found on the web!
-You can use the web to locate when a satellite will fly over your
head!
Step 1- Go to http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/SetupJr.html
Step 2- Use the information you gathered in the Preface and follow directions.
Step 3- Click on "Now go to J-Pass"
-
Be patient... It might take some time to load...-
When you see the three buttons on the left, you want to hit "Start"
to determine when the next satellite will pass over your head.
Question: When will the next satellite be overhead, and what is its name?
Question: When will the next satellite be VISIBLE overhead,
and what is its name?
****Note: Keep in mind, satellites will not be visible when the
Sun is up.... The sky must be dark!!! Also, ONLY GREEN paths will be
visible to the naked eye. Purple paths show the satellite's position
while it will not be visible.
-To be more precise, you can use a more advanced program with this software at
Simply input all the information you want.
Question: When is the next time the ADEOS satellite will be partially visible overhead (at night) AT LEAST 30degrees above the horizon at your location?
-If you now wanted more information on ADEOS, you could go to its website
...and get the following information:
Question: What does ADEOS stand for?
...And more.
DIRECTIONS: Below is a list of satellites currently looking at
Earth. Pick 2 more of them, and find out the following information:
(1) What does the name stand for?
(2) What does it study?
(3) When was it launched?
(4) Who launched it?
(5) What kind of orbit does it have?
(6) Is it still operational today?
(7) When is the next time it will pass overhead?
(8) When is the next time it will be visible overhead?
...And any other useful information you can think of!
ADEOS-TOMS http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html
COBE http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/cobe/cobe_home.html
UARS http://umpgal.gsfc.nasa.gov/uars-science.html
GOES8 or GOES9 http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wds10.htm
Meteostat http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/meteosat
EP TOMS http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html
SeaWifs (SeaStar Satellite)
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html
TRMM http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/
LANDSAT http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/
EOS-AM http://eos-am.gsfc.nasa.gov/
EOS-PM http://www.trw.com/seg/sats/EOS.html
for a list... http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/ese/missions/spacecraft.html
The websites above were accurate as of August 20, 1998.
If a satellite you want to research is not listed here, please research it! Just list it (any websites you used) below:
____________________________________________
____________________________________________