It’s World Space Week, the theme of which this year looks at the importance of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and its importance to modern life on Earth.
Imagine a world without navigation satellites to guide planes, ships and cars and not to forget: us with our location based mobile phone applications! And navigation satellites not just accurately pinpoint our position on the planet, it also provides time signals to keep clocks in sync, which is critically important for global trading and many other time critical sectors.
Launched specifically on 4th October by the UN General Assembly to mark the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, in 1957, and the signing of the ‘Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies’ on October 10 1967, World Space Week has been held every year since 1999, and seeks primarily to educate people about the positives of space exploration and encourage better public understanding and support for space programmes.
We hold a large number of books about satellite communications & navigation among our collection, along with a good selection of books about space and space exploration in general. We also have access to the National Geophysical Data Center database, which provides the lastest satellite geophysical data from the Sun to the Earth and Earth’s sea floor and solid earth environment, including Earth observations from space, and the NASA Scientific & Technical Information database, which includes up-to-date information about NASA’s satellite projects.
To find out more about the programme, visit the World Space Week website here: