Who Runs the World? – Satellites 

Over 5,000 years ago, the priests of Babylon and Ancient Egypt were recording the movements of the moon and stars for manufacturing calendars, farming, and religious holidays. Today, astronomers have successfully identified roughly 1,700 planets, and over 500 confirmed solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy alone. Nonetheless, humanity challenges weather space travel is necessary. Since the Ancient Egyptians, space exploration has offered society countless benefits and will continue to be beneficial for modern science. We have been granted the tools to see the unimaginable and to venture into the cosmos, it would be foolish not to continue researching such a phenomena. The advantages of space exploration range anywhere from everyday navigation, the use of satellites, and even learning about our own Earth.

There is no question that navigation is necessary to people’s everyday lives. Weather it’s looking up directions to the nearest starbucks or going on a family road trip across the country, navigation is a core importance for daily routines. But do you know that online and cellular navigation systems would cease to be without the satellites that orbit Earth? Currently, there are a grand total of 1,886 artificial satellites orbiting the Earth. Some of which are providing a great deal of GPS needs to people all across America. According to recent studies by the official U.S. government information source for GPS (Global Positioning System), “as of August 10, 2018, there were a total of 31 operational satellites in the GPS constellation, not including the decommissioned, on-orbit spares”(Space Segment). Had we refrained from acting upon the curiosity of the unknown that is the cosmos, we would lack the oh-so widely used satellite navigational networks that we have at our, metaphorical and literal, fingertips today. So if 31 satellites are busy helping Americans get from place to place, what are the other 1,855 of them doing?

Alongside navigational purposes, satellites are widely used for banking and monitoring the environment. In the cover story, “The Other Side of the Sky,” conducted by Genna Buck, one of the astronauts being interviewed states that “many people don’t know that you don’t spend 10 minutes without using a satellite, or that agriculture is managed from space. Banking, too.”… “It’s part of the fabric of the modern world.” Satellites are helpful to everyone in one way or another, to think that space exploration is not useful or beneficial to Earth simply goes to show how naive and blind you are to your surroundings. Ranging from forest fires to oil spills, satellites can be used in a more economical sense. Tracking forest fires can help firefighters calculate the proper means of action to take specifically catered to the individual fire. Though fires are not the only benefits from the economical point of view. Satellites are helpful in tracking storms and hurricanes. A well-known professor from Harvard University expresses his support when saying that, “space technology has also saved countless lives – through weather satellites providing advance warning before storms reach shore”(Whitesides). They can inform the public of potential dangers, and provide a decent amount of time to take precautions and prepare for what is to come. For banking purposes, they are used to reach additional customers in real time. This is helpful for not only the customer, but the banks too. It helps meet the demands of the people, while also allowing a more efficient and productive system for the banks. These floating metal creatures are also becoming increasingly beneficial to your everyday local farmers as well.

In the agricultural sense, satellites are seen as a helping hand in management aspects. They can provide images to characterise a specific farmer’s field in a higher definition of detail. This is common and is often combined with general geographical information systems (GIS) to exceed maximum efficiency, and more intensive cultivation practices. In a recent article published by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), “space-based technology is of value to farmers, agronomists, food manufacturers and agricultural policymakers who wish to simultaneously enhance production and profitability.” Founded in 1962 in Vienna, Austria, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs studies and holds statistical information regarding peaceful space expeditions. Satellites are one of the more widely known advantages or space travel, but a millennia of profits have poured into our knowledge of space and our very own planet.

Space exploration has blown astronomers minds on more than one occasion, including contributing information to what we know about Earth. In an article written by George Whitesides, he expresses his appreciation by saying, “We’ve crossed the final frontier and discovered down–to–earth benefits from space exploration.” Whitesides is a well known researcher, and professor of chemistry at Harvard University. Among other specialties, he is best known for his work in the areas of NMR spectroscopy, molecular self-assembly, microfabrication, and soft lithography. To expand more on the “down–to–earth benefits” made accessible by space exploration; merely traveling from one country to another can help someone to realize the importance of their own home region, this in turn applies to voyaging across the Earth’s atmosphere to discover the importance of our home planet. This is a prime example of the common phrase, “ home is where the heart is,” just drawn out for us on an immensely larger scale. The unknown aspects of the cosmos, so virtually the entire expanse of it, feeds into the natural curiosity and drive of the human mind.

A common term studied in modern psychology is something humans possess known as reciprocal determinism. This is said to be the theory set forth by psychologist Albert Bandura which argues that someone’s particular behavior both influences and is influenced by their own factors and their social environment. In a more simple sense, people effect and are affected by their interactions and surroundings. But how does psychology play into the topic of space exploration? In a recent announcement made by RT News, an astonishing “715 new planets have been discovered outside the Earth’s solar system” … “this discovery boosts the number of known planets in our galaxy to over 1,700.” The mere discovery of planets does not immediately affect every individual on Earth, but the simple knowledge that you are so small can and will affect you.

Think about it, Earth is fairly large, right? 7197.5 miles in diameter to be exact. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system with a diameter of 86,881.4 miles. Significantly larger. Okay, well consider the sun, with its raging heat and energy it’s in at 864,337.3 miles in diameter. Nearly 1.3 million Earths could fit in the whole of it, and 1,000 Jupiters. Is your mind still able to comprehend this? The largest known star today is VY Canis Majoris, which weighs in with a diameter of 1.3 billion miles. Calculated out, a ridiculous 460 billion Earths could be packed into the star with sphere packing. Bringing it back around to reciprocal determinism, this external factor can shape someone’s outlook on the world presented before them. It could lead to encouragement and even provide them with healthy motivation that the world isn’t so bleak. This could also easily impact one’s very own self efficacy.