Space 2.0: How satellites are revolutionising our world

The Space Age began sixty years ago with the launch of the first Earth-orbiting satellites, but now we are entering Space 2.0 as the commercialisation of space becomes big business. The global economic turnover associated with space is now reckoned to be more than a trillion dollars per annum, with all manner of benefits accruing to everyday users who are largely unaware of what space is doing for them. Duncan will discuss the different types of Earth-orbiting satellite – from communications relays 35,800 km above the equator through the global positioning system constellations to low-Earth orbit platforms flying only a few hundred km above our heads – and what sorts of services they are making feasible. Duncan Steel has worked in space research for almost forty years, with times spent with NASA, ESA, various universities and observatories, and also running his own company. Duncan is the author of four books, over a hundred research papers, and more than a thousand articles for newspapers and magazines. He has also appeared in hundreds of radio and TV programmes. Minor planet/asteroid (4713) Steel is named for him, as is a lunar-roving robot in one of Arthur C. Clarke's SciFi novels.

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