Exploring Artificial Constellations in Space

An artificial constellation, or more accurately a satellite constellation, is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system. Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global coverage, such that at any time everywhere on earth at least one satellite is visible.

Examples of satellite constellations include the Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo and GLONASS constellations for navigation and geodesy, the Iridium and Globalstar satellite telephony services and the Disaster Monitoring Constellation and RapidEye for remote sensing.

Currently, there are about 4,000 intact spacecraft living in orbit around Earth, only 1,800 of which are operational. Yet many companies want to dramatically increase that number including SpaceX, which has filed applications with the FCC to launch nearly 12,000 internet-beaming satellites. Satellite operators are eager to launch thousands of probes that can beam internet connectivity down to Earth, providing global coverage.

Whilst connectivity and coverage moves forward, as satellite constellations grow larger, NASA is worried about the orbital debris that this creates.

We catch up with Space UK 2019 and talk about satellite constellations!

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