Table of Contents
Issue #2 as well as supplement added at the end.
Communication Research Trends:
Satellites for Development, Broadcasting and Information
vol. 4 no. 2 1983
Research Trends in Religious Communication:
Satellite Communications and the Church
vol. 4 no. 2 1983
Abstract
The symbol of the 'global village' is the communications satellite. For over twenty years, ever since the. USSR launched Sputnik in 1957, the USA and the USSR in particular, and other countries too, have been devoting ever more financial and human resources to the building of ever more elaborate satellite systems; Today a host of communication satellites are positioned in geostationary orbit 22,282 miles (35,860 kilometres) above the equator. The globe is encircled by a communications network that links the most distant parts of the earth in a matter of seconds.
A communications satellite system consists of three parts. The transmittor on the ground sends a signal to the satellite in space which receives it, amplifies it, switches it to a different frequency, and retransmits. it back to earth. Each satellite has a number of channels (transponders) which carry voice, radio, data, or television signals. The great benefits offered by satellites are their capacity to carry large amounts of data (users of the RCA Satcom satellite for example can transmit 60 million bits of information per second via one of the satellite's 24 transponders), and their ability to provide communications services (e.g., Telephony) over large distances cheaply.
The idea of satellites for long-range communications was first put forward by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945. He pointed out that three satellites positioned over the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans in geostationary orbit could cover with their beams almost all the inhabited areas of the earth. Today that vision has been realized. Today too, it seems as if a new era of satellite communications is beginning: across the world there is talk of satellites that will be able to beam TV programmes directly into people's homes. The direct broadcast satellite (DBS) has become in its tum a symbol of the programming abundance that new technologies of all kinds (video, cable, videotex, etc.) seem to offer.
This issue of TRENDS looks at the range of political, educational, social and cultural issues raised by satellites, and looks at the way in which satellites have been used in the service of development, broadcasting and information transfer.
Recommended Citation
(1983)
"Satellites for Development, Broadcasting and Information,"
Communication Research Trends: Vol. 4:
No.
2, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/crt/vol4/iss2/1