How Do Satellites Work? | Neil deGrasse Tyson & Guests Explain...

How do satellites work? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice discuss CubeSats, space lasers, cyber security and the future ecology of low Earth orbit with Vice President of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, Sandy Brown, and associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, Kerri Cahoy. Could someone hack into the JWST?
Learn about commanding and controlling satellites, and how their functionality is more than just the satellite itself. What are the ground systems for JWST like? Can you protect a satellite against an asteroid? Is it better to have many small satellites or a few big ones? We discuss satellite constellations and how they are not actually constellations. Should we be worried about crowding in low Earth orbit? Find out about satellite sensors and steering mechanisms. How do satellites impact our lives everyday?
Next, we speak with Kerri about testing new tech in space, thermodynamics, and the difference between aeronautics and astronautics. Why make a satellite smaller? Find out why satellites are like Boston cream-filled donuts. Could you use the pressure from light to sail in space? What kind of fuel do satellites use? Learn about the MIT STAR Lab and how Kerri helps people communicate using optical lasers.
What if you destroyed your airplane after every flight? We discuss the costs of sending something to space. How does JWST help us characterize exoplanets? We explore the far off solar systems and the planets around them. All that, plus, what are some advancements in satellite tech that would change everything?
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
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0:00 - Part 1 w/ Sandy Brown
1:28 - Digital and Mission Solutions
2:47 - Ground Systems
3:55 - JWST & Raytheon
7:00 - Cybersecurity
8:33 - Satellites in Orbit
13:11 - Public vs Private Use of Space
14:13 - Sandy Brown’s Background
15:17 - Systems Engineering
17:24 - Raytheon’s Hidden Contributions
19:00 - Raytheon Intelligence & Space
20:03 - Part 2 w/ Kerri Cahoy
21:03 - Aeronautics vs Astronautics
21:45 - STAR Lab
24:28 - Why Are Satellites Small?
26:09 - Maneuvering Satellites
28:15 - Hydrazine
29:19 - Satellites & Weather
31:51 - Cost of Putting Things Into Orbit
34:50 - Exoplanets
37:37 - Kerri Cahoy’s Background
39:20 - Advancements in Satellite Technology
41:40 - Industry vs Academia
43:58 - Closing Notes

[@StarTalk]

What's your favorite satellite-induced technology?

[@TheRealSkeletor]

GPS, probably.

[@marcosmedina1113]

GPS, then communication.

[@frogz]

gotta say gps is pretty damn nice, if i had to reinvent it myself without satellites, i would have to geolocate based on the sun and time or some crap, can you imagine a world where you had to set your phone down in a known orientation relative to the sun and wait for it to measure position to give you a reading on gps, it would have large portions of the day there would be no visible sun/moon and you would only be able to have rough triangulation based on how well you can spin your phone to a very specific angle

[@bored9260]

Gps hands down great for caculation of field rotation and precision in location by lat, and long along with seconds and millisecond

[@xxACIDVIRUSxx]

Duh! The Black Night Satellite🤦🏻‍♂️😂

[@sonkamehameha1572]

I am here to attest that Chuck is there to catch the parts that the lay person like me needs to understand. Thanks for the hydrozene catch Chuck. I love learning new words everyday. A passion I gained from Neil.

[@amosbackstrom5366]

I saw the word "hydrozene" and thought "wait is there an unsaturated form of hydrozine used in rocket propellent?" Turns out diimide does exist but isn't used in rocketry. I guess you just meant hydrazine..

[@KotDT]

Never stop doing these please. I love Star Talk!

[@KevinP32270]

agreed.

[@gabbablaster2944]

Me too!

[@sicfxmusic]

Hello gang

[@StarTalk]

We're not going anywhere!

[@ridwanalam3833]

Startalk is the best podcast ever, It feels like home

[@Thinkingaroundthebox]

Neil has a point about the NASA budget. It is dismal considering all that NASA has given us. They invented velcro and that is just an example of the small things that they have created that have improved our lives over the few decades that they have existed My point is just that we really should fund NASA better

[@marshallmeinema3138]

then there wouldn't be enough money for wars (btw, i agree with you, just being sarcastic)

[@finesse49]

George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, invented Velcro. NASA's involvement is yet another easily checked urban myth.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

Raytheon is the Wealthy

[@kevchard5214]

Yes but then they couldn't pump billions of dollars into Raytheon and other corrupt military contractor corporations.

[@StarTalk]

We definitely should!

[@Emptyheaded.]

I want more of Kerri please! She is a delight and just resonated so well with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Lord Nice. I love this podcast.

[@jillstruthers]

My 6 kids and I are all stuck home for the holidays thanks to bring sick with Covid. We have been watching Space Talk non-stop. It's so addicting! Neil is a fantastic teacher and Chuck is hilarious and asks the questions we're all thinking. Love you guys!💜

[@TheGiggleMasterP]

I get so excited whenever I see a new video posted! Please always keep enlightening us, Neil and Chuck!

[@LEDewey_MD]

What an amazing and informative episode! Great to see all these women in space technology! Kudos to Spacetalk! As usual, over-the-top comedy with Chuck!! :D

[@mallori6610]

Only you guys can keep me interested in an hour long discussion of satellites! I really love this channel!! I love Star talk

[@silentracer911]

Another great episode everyone, thanks Neil, Lord Chuck, and the two wonderful guests, Sandy and Kerri

[@ndowroccus4168]

This was awesome! The guests were brilliant! Another home run for startalk!

[@FirebirdPrince]

Glad Chuck is here to sort of pause the convo and make them explain a couple things cause it helps us less space,y folks follow the convo more closely 😂

[@RussShirley1]

Gotta say, you guys make this stuff look good, one of my fave KZbin shows!

[@GlenHunt]

I'm just about to start watching, but I'll bet everything I own that Chuck is going to have too much fun with this one. I have to wonder what the "Nice space laser" would look like and be capable of.

[@Unkl_Bob]

I'll take that bet.

[@StarTalk]

Don't let Chuck get a hold of the space lasers...

[@ashoksafaya5397]

Would like to know more about laser communication in any future talk.

[@Zeuskabob1]

One very exciting development currently in progress that's relevant to this video, particularly with LEO to MEO satellites and space junk is electrodynamic tethers. The capability to attach satellites to each other (without pre-existing docking adapters) and potentially to accelerate or decelerate these satellites through space just using Earth's magnetic field could be a game changer. From what I understand the problem is far from well understood. Similar to ion engines, electrodynamic tethers have a few major challenges to solve theoretically and practically before they make it to space, but I'm hopeful for the technology. From my napkin math, a year's operation of one of these tethers could produce delta-v several orders of magnitude higher than a chemical rocket, and even an order of magnitude greater than an electric propulsion like a hall-effect thruster. If lifetimes can be longer than a year, they could become a workhorse for pulling satellites from LEO up to MEO, effectively saving tons of delta-v for an average payload.

[@brandonjamar]

I hate that I am only just now getting into Star Talk, but I am so happy it exists.

[@Bysisa]

I'm always excited to watch star talk new episode. Thanks Neil.

[@rotaxsryx7038]

Nice video Neil, very informative. Keep it up!

[@scy1038]

This was such an interesting episode! Both of these guests were great at describing their work in a language that those of us who don't do this for a living (sending things into orbit around earth, I mean). Also, great representation of women in stem! Love to see it!

[@parthadebbarma9143]

Always waiting for next episode 🙏🏼

[@ubserrano8180]

This show never disappoints. Very interesting guests and topics.

[@PunkWyrks]

I appreciate how much Neil and Chuck appreciate their guests.

[@aquachunk4207]

I'm early, by far one of the best episodes of startalk

[@celesteschacht8996]

Thanks both you guys, this is amazing💞

[@cuzco08]

Where can I get a print if the black heart behind Chuck? Love it

[@dancooper8551]

Excellent discussions!

[@koreyhelms6857]

As usual excellent show

[@rotaxsryx7038]

Lord Nice…a true comedian😂

[@_TheDeanMachine]

I'd love to learn more about systems engineering.

[@rogerdudra178]

Greetings from the BIG SKY. As a programmer I really support Raytheon being able to use code they'd already written. I was always taught to never re-invent the wheel.

[@shirleenrodriguez3355]

I've heard the term the universe is like fabric it when it folds in on itself but isn't it more like water when it does the rippling effect?

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

Yes! Space Time is fluid! Don't get me started.

[@Denosophem]

Give me a phone call and a job I’m worth we are dieing and it’s like we’re not consious at all about the literal global threat

[@jeanine219]

I love you guys...your brilliance, knowledge, humor, and willingness to share this with all of us.

[@victorrutledge257]

Impulse Engines? Ion Rockets? Using accelerated ions for propulsion is something I've always wondered about. Maybe copper ions since they react so well to magnetic fields.

[@rasheedaajones]

@Startalk can you explain Why your thumbnail shows the laser being over East Africa?

[@joebushnell143]

Great interview! Please bring Dr. Carie back...

[@420acid5]

Love this!!

[@pikeyMcBarkin]

Sandy (sp?) was great this interview.

[@TheFlowshizle]

Sir I have travelled from Calgary Alberta here to New York. Today I went the American Museum of natural history. Amazing yes, but would have been more Amazing to Shake hands with the man has inspired so many people. I’m here for 3 more days. 🍻

[@AkshayKumarX]

42:00 Love you Chuck

[@kirandeepchakraborty7921]

Lovely Conversation

[@morlin101]

How is it that I can tune in to an episode that I started the day it came out and it and then come back to it when I need a relevant piece of information anyway that's not important I hear you miss lady and thank you at first I thought you were kind of being a bully but I see that you are actually answering a lot of questions that I desperately needed answered thank you ✌️✌️✌️✌️ I would love to have a conversation with you I love the way you speak and carry yourself in this podcast

[@lm4122]

I am now wondering how a Nuclear Diamond battery( nano nuclear waste battery) would work as main power supply for those sats because fueling the sat means there is a sat drone that also needs fuels to refuel other sats, that's not efficient, also the less redundant high risk events the more secure it becomes and less prone to error.

[@dmiller7115]

Great episode!

[@davidnemirow5476]

With MIT being an FFRDC, what is the competition vs collaboration percentage mix with industry?

[@ivanhorvat4635]

WOW 🤗 I used to work in TORONTO for an Aerospace Subcontractor ( MAGNA ELECTRONICS ) manufacturing F16 , wait , F15 and CF15 fighter radar jamming (device) chassis ! WOULD I EVER LOVE TO A PART OF THIS DISCUSSION !!!🖐😳😃😊

[@lukeh3201]

Very impressive guest, thanks!

[@Jamalmakesapps]

Best show ever …. All episodes

[@spidersj12]

I still have my commodore 64, data cassette and 1541 disk drives in a box somewhere. Programming sprite graphics was fun back then.

[@gwolf7716]

Dr. NDT;) I think I’ve got a conundrum or a paradox on my hands here or more likely a lack of understanding of time dilation at full speed…. Consider two scientists standing on Earth, one with a good telescope capable of viewing Neptune some five light-hours away and the other climbing into a spaceship capable of very very near light speed travel. Both synchronize their watches and aim the ship where Neptune will be upon intercept. The spaceship is programmed to stop ‘relatively quickly’ in five hours and transmit pics of Neptune then return immediately. Would the round trip for each explorer still take ten hours? I would assume time dilation would slow time for the space traveler but the paradox I see is that the observer of the ship traveling to Neptune and back is fixed at exactly ten hours but the space traveler if truly traveling very near the speed of light would also experience that same ten hours to make the ten light-hour trip. Their watches should still be synchronized it would seem or does the distance have to be on the light year scale to be significant? If so, I’m lost because the distance considered is the same for both people and the speed of light is the same for both people. Please help me understand. Thanks and great show by the way.

[@gwolf7716]

A part of my confusion is the old saying that if a traveler headed out at light speed for a year then returned would return to a new much older world. The observer would have to assume the spaceship isn’t operating at the speed of light.

[@jokerdiamondz8981]

Join their Patreon or watch the light-year movie lol

[@gwolf7716]

@@jokerdiamondz8981 so you don’t understand either.

[@jokerdiamondz8981]

@@gwolf7716 I get it as much as is relevant to my life but I'm not a rocket surgeon.. on the way there the person on earth would probably see the trip taking the 10 hours.. the astronaut would probably be close to not aging most of those 10 hours due to the time dilation where it's a matter of aging a couple seconds per hour (depending on how close to light speed they were traveling) of the near light speed part of the trip also in this case the pictures data could arrive before the astronaut if they were sent at light speed If the astronaut traveled at light speed they would only age for the duration of the trip that the speed was less than the speed of light. The observer would age the 10 hours that the trip took I'm not saying this is the absolute answer it's also likely I didn't read the question carefully or calculate any of my math

[@gwolf7716]

@@jokerdiamondz8981 thanks for the response but what about a light year option? Both can visualize a destination one light year out. A year at light speed takes a year then back another year. The guy observing from Earth witnessed this voyage and welcomes the voyager back in two years.

[@fullonsharp]

Neil, question for you. Never understood this. Big bang, then huge expansion, along the way universe cooled down. Everybody says this. But nobody tells, where did the heat go? Conduction, convection.... Who or what took the heat in empty space ? Thanks you.

[@NebulousMind]

I like this series, and I like listening to Neil talk about space science, but.... I do wish he'd dial back the condescension and interrupting the guests. It gets a little hard to watch sometimes.

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

Neil and Chuck for 2024

[@mkevilempire]

So... when it's a big player in defense industry you don't have to indicate a sponsored video? 😏

[@kenadams5504]

I remember commodore 64 and Atari (space invaders ). And Spielberg's "close encounters of the third kind" .

[@IIISentorIII]

Indiana Jones and that game where you can to fly a taxi trough a 2D mace, every time you did press a button it would fly up and slowly decent if you didn't. And the first Sim City or The settlers, and Star Wars game. I think i did play those games with like 5fps but loves every second of it :D

[@jollyvoqar195]

excellent episode, thanks!

[@ericjohnson6665]

Yeah, Ratheon is also a major defense contractor, so what they're doing with satellites is no doubt more than she'll admit here.

[@enadegheeghaghe6369]

You expected her to disclose classified information? LOL

[@Mehwhatevr]

Haha. That’s every episode we do. Sassy Chuck

[@mananoreboton]

Oh yeeees!!! Chuck is here✨

[@georgeleos8219]

36 sec in on with it. Neil!!!

[@abhishekpandey3244]

Chuck became Bill Burr towards the end, hilarious 🤣🤣

[@harleylady361]

👈🏻👈🏻Can you tell me what kinds are theses please Ty😊

[@georgeleos8219]

7:05. “Broadband!!” Sonar baby!!!

[@aclasscali]

Iron dome missile system from Raytheon is amazing.

[@harshavardhannaik2499]

Hello Dr. Tyson, Hey hey hey Chuck, nice to see you Gary. This is Harshavardhan from India, i will make it easier for you Chuck you can call me Harsh. Dr. Tyson, I couldn't get an answer with my thinking hat on, please help me understand what is the minimum amount of gases that is required to become a stable sphere of gases in space like our gases giant. If we could measure the distance of that sphere from one end to the other end how much would it be?

[@jobieisaac5058]

My dad was hired for Raytheon to work in alert Nunavut the most north base/settlement 3 degrees farther north than Svalbard

[@asan1050]

Thanks Much !

[@legendzero6755]

Having a defense industry ad feels a bit bad...but I get there are bills to pay and some of these companies have a lot of influence in space. Wish their attitude on satellites wasn't "N + 1"

[@morlin101]

Nice to meet u

[@mosab643]

When you hear of Raytheon you actually think of arms industry, government lobbying and war.

[@0MissElizabeth0]

I adore the penguin picture in Chucks background

[@DaBlondDude]

Some fascinating information here but I think it also raises a conundrum. IF obsolete satellites are out-of fuel and thus "space junk" and eventual "space garage removal company" would be a great thing, possibly even minimizing waste through recycling... and yet a lot of this technology is kinda top-secret, can connect with secure systems and therefore could become a threat.

[@lowkeycentauri959]

Would love to see some 5-10min videos be made, containing the most interesting from these interviews!

[@jellyfiredragon]

The first half felt like such a boring corporate self-congratulating marketing spiel.

[@MissMikah420]

This comment felt like it came from someone mentally challenged

[@KMarie0819]

Love you gentlemen

[@fxthe1st]

Does startalk talk about things not on mainstream

[@williamhardes8081]

something needs to be done about expired ones that are already out there. could you use an unmanned craft like a space tug to give them a little nudge in the right part of their orbit to throw them at the sun or at the moon as a collection of recyclable material? make all the owners contribute toward the costs.

[@doug29661]

Thanks!

[@StarTalk]

Thank you!

[@ndowroccus4168]

Even a Comodore64 shoutout! Yes!!

[@tylervogt4554]

I can't believe that no one mentioned the fact that STAR Lab is part of the DC Universe! Kerri works with Superman, Batman and The Flash!

[@coolnconsciousKobby]

I love this ❤️

[@georgeleos8219]

Is anyone space mining?? Example. Dyson roller vacuum in space. Gathering those unseen and collected particles??

[@evandemi989]

.... I think I'm in love with Sandy

[@adventureswithfrodo2721]

Do you know how GPS works? The use of the term constilation has been used for over 20 years when refering ot the GPS satellites. Look on the visible satellite your GPS is using.

[@godseed7984]

I love her! 💕

[@bluntforcetanya]

"I like satellites of any size" got me secondhand geeking for her

[@carl7674]

I had a Commodore C3

[@Sammasambuddha]

Once a year, I comment here with this: As there is required reading in schools, Startalk should be required viewing. Bliss

[@dirkl9652]

Seems Neil upgraded to HD

[@JohnPaul-yf9xd]

Neil, are You and Chuck Life partners? You guys make a beautiful couple.From the heart.

[@gabbablaster2944]

Wow she’s so intelligent with what she does

[@DanRKong]

👍

[@davidt3956]

That first segment was a pure ad, but it was still ok.

[@xeroone2650]

❤️

[@SpaceFrogFromOuterSpace]

Chuck is fire, "I don't see a crab!" LOL

[@darwinlaluna3677]

Ok have a great nyt my friends

[@ridwanalam3833]

Chuck!

[@morlin101]

If I were some rich hiring head of human resources or something I don't know CEO I would most certainly hire you you are very effective

[@nathan4599]

Chucks great