Spin-off from: Satellite communication
Mission: Project Telstar
Date: 1962
The first satellite capable of transmitting TV signals was Telstar 1. Launched at the top of one of NASA’s Thor-Delta rockets in 1962, it was a joint project to develop an innovative satellite communication network around the Atlantic Ocean. The satellite was designed by Bell Telephone Laboratories in collaboration with NASA.
The satellite used a transponder to relay data. It received microwave signals through an omni-directional range of small antennas positioned around its equator before upscaling and amplifying the frequency of the signal in a traveling-wave tube (this amplifies the signal by forcing it to combine with an electron beam in a vacuum tube, creating a bunching of electrons and triggering a higher current build-up, enhancing it as it passes through the device) and retransmitting them to ground stations.
NASA continued to evolve this technology in subsequent satellites, developing more sophisticated devices to minimize noise and signal loss, leading to the ability to transmit HD video and audio.
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I worked for Nasa many years ago, i have seen many things i would never have seen in my lifetime.
I have said for years and years that NASA, and the space industry, need to make public all the "spinoffs" that have come from, and been generated by, the industry. I don't believe that John Q. Public has any idea the number, and the importance and the benefits, derived from these discoveries in their daily lives. These include everyday items in the medical, technological, military, and many other areas which have filtered down, and benefited us all, but of which the average person is unaware,
If the person on the street became aware of how easier, safer, and in some instances, life-saving, our lives had become, they would put the space industry and its importance at or near the top of the budget list for America!
You are so correct! Our space program and NASA should be right at the top os list of programs to be funded!
It's all about R & D, Research and Development. Figuring out how to accomplish something, and then building it in a way that consistently works. Research needs motivation, NASA and the space race provided it. The rest was great work by smart people.
NASA has been fighting for its budget for years, and it gets cut all the time.
My husband worked for NASA for many years under private contractors. I saw all the benefits of the Space Program from the 1960's on. Thus, the benefits we gain from these programs and researches outweigh the costs of them. Science leads to more discovery. We need to fund it.