IGY Bulletin, Number 8, February 1958 - Satellite telemetry

This article in the Bulletin begins by stating that in order for non-recoverable satellites to be used for direct observations, telemetering systems must be used that record the satellite's observations, encode them, and transmit them to ground stations. Measurements can then be made in space rather than just from the ground, unhampered by the atmosphere.

Telemetry from satellites faced the extra obstacles of cost of the satellite, the need to record for long time periods, and the impossibility of maintenance. The telemetry system had to be of low weight, and have low power consumption. For the IGY program, one type of telemetry was done in real-time as data were collected, and another type used satellite-borne tape recorders. Volunteers equipped to make tape recordings of satellite signals were solicited to help with data retrieval and storage.

One gift for my bar mitzvah in 1963 was my first reel-to-reel tape recorder, as shown here.  I recorded some musical mix tapes from the radio (including My Girl from the Temptations) and exchanged letters-by-tape with a couple of friends in college. Last time I tried, the reels still moved, but the speed was not well controlled, and the playback was of poor quality. This tape recorder was almost IGY-era vintage!

The Bulletin article proceeds to describe details of telemetry systems used by IGY satellites that were collecting data on ultraviolet radiation, micro-meteoric particles, and cosmic rays. Much of the article is a little more technical than we need to go into.

The lead story in Popular Mechanics (1902-today) for the March 1958 issue was "Electronics and the IGY," the full text of which you can read here. I happen to own a copy of that issue. Below are scans of the cover and a photo from the article showing a telemetry recording system.

Scan of the cover of Popular Electronics, March 1958 issue

Scan of image in my copy of Popular Electronics. Caption: Measuring telemetered data from rockets in flight at an installation in Manitoba, Canada. At the far left is a telemetry recorder which takes data from airborne rockets; in the center is the main recorder which puts data on tape; the ballistic camera master control is at the right. 

As an aside, the term "satellite telemetry" has also been applied to a form of tracking of long-distance migrating animals used since the 1980s. After an animal has been captured and a tracking device has been attached, researchers can monitor movements of that individual for extended periods of time without having to recapture it. Satellite telemetry uses attached or implanted devices that communicate via radio signals to orbiting satellites, which give positional fixes on the device, and thus, the animal. This can replace older methods of tracking based on recapturing tagged individuals, or radio-telemetry which requires an observer to physically follow the tagged animal.

Speaking of animal migration, yesterday I made my nearly annual short-distance migration to the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, where tens of thousands of snow geese and tundra swans layover for a couple of weeks at this time every year as part of their incredible migrations back to the far north. For the day/time we were there, the number of birds in the lake were not not that impressive. I'm not sure if they had already left the area, or were just out feeding for the day.

We did see a nice group in chevron flight

The lake was sparsely occupied by tundra swans

I only have a few videos posted on YouTube. Here is maybe my first one, from 13 years ago, pretty low quality, showing some of the snow geese at Middle Creek: