A Future Where Nano Satellites Beam Information

Satellites provide the earth with the ability to run critical infrastructure which includes Telecommunications, Television Transmissions and even that annoying little Sat Nav who tells you it’s more convenient to take a shortcut through a swamp. But according to Anthony Previte who is CEO of the space company Terran Orbital, Space Satellites could provide all of us with even greater information tools to relay data.

This concept involves multiple constellations of “nano satellites” which are designed to provide small battery-powered sensors with a cheap data connection that never goes down. To explain this idea simply, imagine if every petrol station had a sensor fitted to each pump, if there was a petrol shortage in one part of the country, this information would be relayed to a Satellite and conveyed to the government with the aim of moving fuel around to solve this particular problem

As the internet is expanding even further, more and more industrial equipment is becoming connected to Networks with the aim of managing these operations more cheaply, sorry efficiently, no cheaply. The aim of Nano devices is to orbit 600 Kilometres over the equator, this compares to standard Satellites which fly around 36,000 Kilometres over the equator.

A fascinating concept also lies with the vision of using these sensors in disaster areas which are hard or impossible to be reached by traditional modes of transport. Say there is an oil leak, think Gulf of Mexico; a sensor could be dropped into the ocean via a plane to continually monitor the leak in real-time with the data being beamed to a Nano Satellite in space, the information would then be sent to a centre with the aim of tracking the events in real-time.

This concept has the ability to radically revolutionize the ways in which we are able to gain a clearer picture of events in the world.

Thank You MIT for providing us with this information

Image Courtesy of Intelsat