Deep Space Observation Satellites

Fascinating Information Details the History, Design, Use and Future Development of Six Types of Satellites Currently Orbiting Our Planet Since the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957, space has been considered the latest--and perhaps final--frontier of exploration, research, espionage, and even warfare. Forty-five years after the Soviets placed the small, beeping metal ball into orbit, there are now thousands of satellites orbiting our planet with very specialized jobs. Some of them, like earth imaging satellites, photograph Earth in order to track environmental changes. Others, like communications satellites, connect the peoples of the world together in an ever faster and tighter web of radio, television, cell phone, and computer connections. Some gaze outward to explore the darkest mysteries of deep space, while others gaze down on Earth to reveal the most shadowy secrets of our enemies. The Library of Satellites examines in detail some of the most intriguing, sophisticated, and technologically advanced satellites orbiting Earth. This book tells the story of the use of unmanned space probes to explore both the planets of the solar system and the distant objects of deep space such as galaxies, nebulae, and quasars. This book examines the instrumentation that makes such observations possible. These satellites have not only given us dramatic close-up pictures of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, but they have probed the universe's origins through the imaging of strange objects such as neutron stars and black holes. They have allowed us to witness the birth and death of stars across the Milky Way.