Mobile Satellite Communications Handbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1Introduction to Satellite Communications

1.1 A Brief History of Satellite Communications

1.1.1 Origins of Communications Satellite Technology

The advent of satellite communications has revolutionized the world's ability to communicate. The modern age of space-based communication probably began in 1945, when Arthur C. Clarke, then secretary to the British Interplanetary Society and later the author of such popular works of science fiction as 2001: A Space Odyssey, wrote an article entitled “Extraterrestrial Relays” for Wireless World. In it, Clarke described his idea for a worldwide satellite communications system that would be based on three satellites positioned equidistant from each other in orbit over the equator at an altitude of 22,300 mi/36,000 km. Each satellite would be linked by radio to the two others and to the ground, thereby allowing anyone on earth to reach anyone else in the world—wherever that person would be located—by tapping into this radio network. Clarke described the orbital path as a geosynchronic orbit, referring to the fact that a satellite at that specific altitude above the equator could orbit the earth at precisely the same speed as the earth itself rotates, thereby making it appear to be stationary from the perspective of someone on the ground. Because such a satellite would stay above the same spot in the sky at all times, radio signals could be relayed through it without interruption. This orbit today is normally called geostationary, ...