电子与通信技术 知识专业英语（第4版）Unit 3 lesson 14.pptVIP

PART1 Satellite communication has become a part of everyday life in the late 1980s. An international telephone call is made as easily as a local call to a friend who lives down the block. We also see international events, such as an election in England and a tennis match in France, with the same regularity as local political and sporting events. In this case, a television news program brings the sights and sounds of the world into our homes each night. This capability to exchange information on a global basis, be it a telephone call or a news story, is made possible through a powerful communications tool—the satellite. For those of us who grew up at a time when the space age was not a part of everyday life, satellite-based communication is the culmination of a dream that stretches back to an era when the term satellite was only an idea conceived by a few inspired individuals. These pioneers included authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, who fostered the idea of a worldwide Lesson 14 Satellite Communications Text New word Notes Exercises Translation Vocabulary PART1 Lesson 14 Satellite Communications satellite system in l945. This idea has subsequently blossomed into a sophisticated satellite network that spans the globe. The latter type of satellite system would have entailed the development of a very complex and cumbersome earth and space-based network. Fortunately though, this problem was eliminated in 1963 and 1964 through the launching of the Syncom satellite. Rather than circling the earth at a rapid rate of speed, the spacecraft appeared to be stationary or fixed in the sky. Today’s communications satellites, for the most part, have followed suit and are now placed in what are called geostationary orbital positions or slots. Simply stated, a satellite in a geostationary orbital position appears to be fixed over one portion of the earth. At an altitude of 22,300 miles above the equator, a satellite travels at the same speed at which t