Educator Onboarding
LEO Art Challenge Workshop
ICE 2019: Satellite Tracking, Orbits, and Modeling
SEEC 2019: Satellite Tracking, Orbits, and Modeling
Workshop:ITEC Trek-a-Sat
Workshop: 2018-01-27 Yerkes
Workshop: 2017-10-28 Carthage-Yerkes Electrostatics in Space
Workshop: 2017-06-29-BTCI-Life in Space!
Workshop: 2017-03-11 Yerkes
Workshop: 2017-02-07 SEEC
Workshop: 2017-01-28 Yerkes
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Documentation
Satellites- Understanding How They Work! MS
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Satellites- Understanding How They Work!
Updated August 2023
Written By: Frances Dellutri, Middle School/Intermediate Level SpacEdge Education Team, April 2016
SpacEdge Topic: Atmosphere, Centripetal Force, Computers, Mathematics, Micro-gravity, Free-fall, Orbital Mechanics, Physics, Satellites, Spacecraft, Weightlessness
Grade (Age) Level: Grades 5-8 (Ages 10-13)
Key Topics Associated with Standards: Collecting, Analyzing and Interpreting Data; Gravitational Interactions; Forces and Motion, Relationship between Energy and Forces
US Standards: NGSS
MS-ESS1-2 http://www.nextgenscience.org/pe/ms-ess1-2-earths-place-universe
MS-ESS1-3 http://www.nextgenscience.org/pe/ms-ess1-3-earths-place-universe
Learn about tracking satellites by using the Trek-A-Sat Activity found in SpacEdge Academy Grades 5-8 Level.
This project will acquaint you with the forces that affect satellites, weightlessness, and the types of satellite orbits. From gravitational pull to scale readings and weight, students will gain an in-depth understanding of many different properties of physics and their application on the satellites orbiting around the Earth.
Index:
1. What do you know about gravity?
2. Introduction to forces and gravitational pull here on Earth!
3. Understanding Centripetal Force
4. What is Weightlessness all about, anyway!
5. Satellites
6. Understanding satellite orbits.
7. Exit slip - Let's find out what you learned.
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What is a satellite?
Satellites are a common occurrence in today's world and are very important for humankind. A satellite is defined as anything that has been captured by the gravity of a larger object, and is in orbit around that object (the moon is a satellite of Earth). A satellite can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as the moon and these would be called natural satellites.
You may be familiar with man-made satellites. These items have been launched into orbit for various purposes which range from providing a living area for astronauts, communications, a study of our oceans/land/atmosphere, and military surveillance/spy satellites.In the previous projects you have explored the forces that contribute to centripetal force which are the forces satellites encounter. Below are some models of important satellites. The NEAR Schoemaker satellite traveled to the NEO (Near Earth Asteroid) Eros to study it, landed on it and is there today. Have fun making a model of the New Horizons satellite which visited Pluto in July, 2015 and is headed out into the Kuiper Belt now! Neither NEAR or New Horizons are not visible to the naked eye. The template and instructions for the model follow. There is also a crossword puzzle about the different types of satellites that can now be found orbiting Earth.