"Going in Circles"

WEB SHEET

 

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  1. A pencil
  2. Your blank WEB ANSWER SHEET
PREFACE: What is my latitude and longitude and time in GMT?
SECTION 1: What is a satellie, and how many are there?
SECTION 2: How does a satellite orbit the Earth?
SECTION 3: What are satellites used for?
SECTION 4: Let's look at some real satellites
 

PROJECT: Where are they now???

Preface: What is my latitude and longitude and time in GMT?

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

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 on your answer sheet.
Step 4- CLOSE the new window by clicking on the box in the upper left hand corner. DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW!!!

 

-Next, most of the times we will be looking at are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Step 1- To learn about GMT, go to http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/clocks/time-gmt.html
Step 2- Read this page, and determine how many hours you must add or subtract from GMT to get to the time in your town
Step 3- Put your answer on the answer sheet
Step 4- CLOSE the new window

Section 1: What is a satellite, and how many are there?

DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully. Put all answers on your answer sheet.

Go to the Technical Museum of Innovation (http://www.thetech.org/hyper/satellite/). 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:

Step 1- CLOSE the new window.
Step 2- 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?

CLOSE the new window!!!

Section 2: How does a satellite orbit the Earth?

DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully. Put answers on your answer sheet.

- Go to http://www.thetech.org/hyper/satellite/. Use this website to answer the questions

LEO- Low Earth Orbit
GEO- Geosynchronous Orbit (or Geostationary Orbit)

7. Circle the best answer:
. a. What kind of orbit would have an inclination between 75-90 degrees? (a). LEO (b) Polar (c) GEO
. b. Which kind of orbit requires very fast speeds (over 25,000 km/h)? (a). Elliptical (b) GEO (c) Polar
. c. What kind of orbit has the closest satellites to Earth? (a). LEO (b) GEO (c) Elliptical
. d. What kind of orbit MUST be at 22,300 miles above the Earth at all times? (a). LEO (b) GEO (c) Polar.
. e. What kind of orbit is a polar orbit? (a). LEO (b) GEO (c) Elliptical
. f. What kind of orbit is always directly above the same spot on the Earth? (a). Elliptical (b) GEO (c) Polar
. g. What kind of orbit does not have circular path? (a). LEO (b) GEO (c) Elliptical

8. Give at least one reason why each orbit would be useful.
. a. LEO-
. b. GEO-
. c. Elliptical-
. d. Polar-

Section 3: What are satellites used for?

DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully. Be sure that you are using the website at http://www.thetech.org/hyper/satellite/ to answer the questions. Click here if you accidently closed the window. Put all answers on your answer sheet.

9. What are some things that satellites can be used for? List 5 things.

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!*)

 

12. What are 3 ways you can use a weather satellite BESIDES looking at the clouds?

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?

CLOSE the new window...

Section 4: Let's look at some real satellites.

DIRECTIONS: Read each instruction carefully. Put all answers on your answer sheet.

-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)?
. 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?

CLOSE the new window!

-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?

CLOSE the new window!

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?

CLOSE the new window!

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?

CLOSE the new window!

PROJECT: Where are they now?

-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...-

Step 4- 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 P1: When will the next satellite be overhead, and what is its name? Put your answer on the answer sheet.


Question P2: When will the next satellite be VISIBLE overhead, and what is its name? Put your answer on the answer sheet.



****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

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/JPass.asp

Simply input all the information you want.

Question P3: 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

http://www.eoc.nasda.go.jp/guide/guide/satellite/satdata/adeos_e.html

...and get the following information:

Question P4: 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 21, 1998.

If a satellite you want to research is not listed here, please research it! Just list it (any websites you used) in the blanks on your answer sheet.