Communications Satellites: Global Change Agents

Joseph N. Pelton, Robert J. Oslund, Peter Marshall9780805849615, 0-8058-4961-0

Over the past 40 years, satellites have played a key role in creating a global culture, in spreading worldwide entertainment, stimulating technological interchange, and promoting trade around the world. Satellite-distributed news reaches the world “live from space” and allows more than 200 countries to interact in real time. Especially in today’s complex and dangerous international climate the role of satellite communications is more important than ever. Thus, the idea was to write a book with enough breadth to be of interest in several different disciplines, but in sufficient technical depth that it could be used in beginning engineering courses as well. Intended to be the definitive book on satellite communications, the editors and contributors examine satellite communications in terms of not only the technology and the services they provide but also the technology’s socio-political, security, economic, policy, news, entertainment, and cultural impact. They provide an entertaining, thought-provoking, and interesting book that explains how satellites are extremely powerful change agents on a global scale. As such, this book addresses what satellites have been, how they are designed and built, how they will evolve in the future, what they mean to the world today, and what they will mean tomorrow.

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Table of contents :
Team DDU……Page 1
Contents……Page 6
Foreword……Page 10
Preface……Page 14
Dedication……Page 22
1 Satellites as Worldwide Change Agents……Page 26
II. TECHNOLOGY……Page 54
2 Satellite Technology: The Evolution of Satellite Systems and Fixed Satellite Services……Page 56
3 The “New” Satellite Services: Broadcast, Mobile,and Broadband Internet Satellite Systems……Page 78
4 Launch Vehicles and Their Role……Page 106
III. HISTORY AND POLITICS……Page 132
5 The Geopolitics and Institutions of Satellite Communications……Page 134
6 Regulating Communications Satellites on the Way to Globalism……Page 170
7 Dual Use Challenge and Response: Commercial and Military Uses of Space Communications……Page 198
IV. BUSINESS, MEDIA, AND ECONOMICS……Page 220
8 Satellites, Internet, and IP Networking……Page 222
9 Benefits of Satellite Telecommunications……Page 242
10 The World of Satellite TV: News, the Olympics,and Global Entertainment……Page 266
V. IMPACT ON SOCIETY……Page 286
11 New Opportunities and Threats for 21st-century Life……Page 288
12 Satellites and the Promise of Teleeducation and Telehealth……Page 304
13 Satellites and Global Diversity……Page 322
VI. FUTURE TRENDS……Page 338
14 The Future of Satellite Communications Systems……Page 340
VII. SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS……Page 362
15 Trends for the Future: Telepower Opportunities and Teleshock Concerns……Page 364
Glossary……Page 382
Biographies of the Authors……Page 386
Author Index……Page 394
Subject Index……Page 398