Communications Satellites: Global Change Agents (Telecommunications Series) (Volume in the Telecommunications Series)

Over the past 40 years, satellites have played a key role in creating a global culture, spreading worldwide entertainment, stimulating technological interchange, and promoting trade around the world. Communications Satellites: Global Change Agents addresses communications satellites not only in terms of the technology and the services they provide, but also with consideration of the technology's impact in socio-political, security, economic, policy, news, entertainment, and cultural spheres. Editors Joseph N. Pelton, Robert J. Oslund, and Peter Marshall bring together contributions that place satellites into a broad context and examine how they influence and define today's world. Written in a non-technical, reader-friendly style, chapters investigate how satellite communications work and explore the role of satellites in such arenas as: \*news and entertainment systems around the world; \*Internet, E-business, and the new global economy; \*global television and radio channels; \*military operations; and \*education, health services, economic development, and electronic immigration. Communications Satellites: Global Change Agents examines what satellites have been and projects how they will evolve in the future, articulating what they mean to the world today and forecasting what they will mean tomorrow. As the definitive source on communications satellites and their role in today's world, this volume serves as a valuable, unique, and timely resource for scholars and students in telecommunications, communication and technology, mass communication and society, and broadcasting. 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 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.

fifteen Interdisciplinary Essays Provide A Broad Overview Of The World Of Satellite Communications. Presented By Pelton (director, Space And Advanced Communication Research Institute, George Washington U.), Oslund (telecommunication, George Washington U.), And Marshall (a Former President Of A Global Satellite Broadcast Services Company) The Essays Cover Technology, History, Politics, Economics, Media Issues, Societal Impacts, And Future Trends. Largely Synoptic In Approach, The Essays Address Such Individual Topics As The Geopolitical Institutions Of Satellite Communications; Recent Developments In Launch Vehicles; Satellites And The Internet; The Relationship Between Commercial And Military Uses Of Space Communications; And Satellites, Tele-education, And Tele-health. Annotation © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, Or

"Communications Satellites: Global Change Agents examines what satellites have been and projects how they will evolve in the future, articulating what they mean to the world today and forecasting what they will mean tomorrow. As a source on communications satellites and their role in today's world, this volume serves as a resource for scholars and students in telecommunications, communication and technology, mass communication and society, and broadcasting."--BOOK JACKET Examines satellite communications - the technology and the services they provide and the socio-political, security, economic, policy, news, entertainment, and cultural impact. The book addresses what satellites have been, how they are designed and built, how they will evolve in the future, what they mean today, and what they will mean tomorrow