In school, teachers used flashcards, transparencies, textbooks, and the familiar chalkboards. Visuals aid students in learning. Images still aid scientists in discovery. Scientists utilize remote sensing to understand more about our universe. You are using remote sensing to learn, whenever you record data and information through instruments without any form of touch. Satellites enable this form of discovery, which ensures the safety of man by allowing scientists to employ manmade structures into unknown boundaries instead.

There are two different kinds of visuals satellites portray. Images are recorded through photography or via radar. Photography has always been a conventional way of recording things, because it duplicates the image in a way the human eye would see. Radar, on the other hand, portrays clear images past clouds and foggy atmospheres. It has the capability of penetrating through what we normally see and what photography normally captures. By any means, Satellites help us through agricultural studies, oceanographic studies, weather prediction, crop forecasting, sea ice monitoring, geologic mapping, oil and gas spotting. Remote sensing enables us to spot plant diseases before they are even visible through our eyes.

Some people have the misconception that artificial satellites fly across the sky. Instead, they are powered by solar cells to record data and keep us informed. These ingenious creations orbit not fly. Multistage rockets place them into orbit. Now, they use space shuttles to scatter satellites and collect old ones that need more power. Satellites measure temperature, density, upper atmosphere ionization, micrometeorites, the geomagnetic field, and cosmic radiation. They are constantly collecting data and absorbing information. Satellites are the ideal students every teacher wants in their classroom.

On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first satellite named Sputnik I. Americans watched the blinking light travel above them in fear. Some thought that it was the Soviet Union Spy Camera. It was there to observe everything they did. It was a breakthrough. Sputnik was a baby step into a leap of technology and achievement. The United States launched their first satellite, on January 31, 1953. Explorer 1 soared around and discovered radiation belts. Later more and more discoveries were found by incorporating artificial satellites in observations of the unknown. Communication and discoveries have become easier to achieve through satellites. They are not just technology for exploration, satellites are our learning tools.