Satellite power

A world without satellites would be a world without trusty GPS devices telling us where to go and without many of the TV channels we take for granted. The weather forecast would be more unreliable than it already is.

In short, our lives would be a lot less convenient. To make sure that doesn't happen there are more than 1,200 satellites orbiting the Earth. No two of them are alike and they all have very different abilities.

Spectacular beep

Hearing beeps and other tech sounds isn't unusual in today's world. Wherever you go there are smartphones and other electronic devices making noise all the time.

It was completely different 58 years ago. In 1957, the beeps of the world's first satellite shocked the entire Western world. The satellite in question was the Russian Sputnik. It showed that the Soviet Union was ahead in the space race.

No plain beep has ever jumpstarted hectic activism the way Sputnik's greeting did. The Americans gave it their all and 12 years later, they landed a man on the moon, winning that leg of the space race against the Soviets.

Espionage

Everyone who has ever seen a Hollywood thriller knows that American satellites have long been able to do real-time surveillance. But many films exaggerate the resolution of the pictures. Even the best espionage satellites, those from the Keyhole series, can only deliver a resolution of up to 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) per pixel. Contrary to what some movies would have you believe, they cannot recognize license plates.

But not to worry, real spies have found ways around this issue: they turn to drones. These can identify a car's passengers - and the license plates - from 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away. Roughly one in four satellites is used for military and espionage purposes, but many of those are still also open to civilian purposes.

TV and communication

Watching TV via satellite is not a thing of the past. On the contrary: TV and communication satellites are the workaholics of the lot. Together, they make up around one quarter of all satellites.

Satellite TV started in the US 40 years ago and made it across the pond to Europe 10 years later. Monument conservators and architecture fans hate the rooftop dishes. Today, TV satellites also transmit phone calls and provide Internet access.

Navigation

The Global Positioning System (GPS) helps drivers, bicyclists and even pedestrians find their way. Fold-out maps are so yesterday. But the Americans' 20-year-old system is getting competition.

Europeans, Russians and Chinese are all working on their own versions. They're called Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou. Positioning systems are also at work in our smartphones. Incorporated in different apps, they can help us find restaurants, repair shops or maybe even true love, in our neighborhoods. About 5 percent of all satellites are used for these important tasks.

Weather

"It's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future," author Mark Twain rightly said. Apparently, predictions about the weather are extra-difficult - it feels like they are more often wrong than right.

But the weather forecasts of the past were even less exact. Today, there are 14-day forecasts, rain radar and temperature predictions for every hour in the day. And yet, we are still dissatisfied. Being a weather satellite is probably one of the least appreciated jobs in the universe. Fortunately, only few have to take it on: the Europeans have one weather satellite, the Americans two, and Russians, Japanese and Indians each have one as well.

Earth surveillance

Europeans can't spy on Earth in real-time, but with the Copernicus program, they can at least get 20-minute-old pictures with a resolution of just below one meter. It's not exactly a "new era of Earth surveillance," like Germany's national aeronautics and space research center said, but it's definitely an improvement.

Satellites have sent pictures from the earthquake sites in Nepal, for example. This way, aid workers could get an idea of the buried streets and villages and look for places where helicopters could land.

But in our daily lives, we mostly know satellite pictures from Google Maps. They allow us a peek into the secretive neighbor's backyard - but Google's pictures may be up to 10 years old.

Research

This is where satellites can really show off: measuring the Earth's magnetic fields, gravitation or the sea levels is easy for them. Research satellites send us pictures from space, find far-away galaxies or monitor sun eruptions. They make up 10 percent of all satellites.

War

The US and Russia in particular are working hard to equip their satellites with rockets. Both governments deny they're working toward this, but one day, a satellite with an intercontinental rocket will be reality.

To prepare for possible attacks, several states are already working on developing anti-satellite rockets. China is one of them: eight years ago, Beijing successfully shot down a satellite.